Time for Civics and Citizenship education in our schools

“The very low voter turnout for the local body elections this year points to the urgent need for Civics and Citizenship education in our schools.

This has been a serous gap in New Zealand’s education system for a long time and the recent election turnout should be the spur to a public debate on the introduction of such a programme across New Zealand schools.

“The electoral side of our democracy is particularly fragile when only 40% of citizens across the country bother to vote”, says QPEC National Chairperson, Bill Courtney.

“Our aim should be for an active participatory democracy where critically aware citizens engage in the political process at all levels. Civics and Citizenship education (CCE) in schools can provide a sound basis for democracy”.

New Zealand could take a leaf out of Australia’s book where CCE has been incorporated into the curriculum at years three, five, seven and nine. Their CCE is based on their “National Goals for Schooling in the 21st Century (1999)” which state that when students leave school they should:

• Be active and informed citizens with an understanding and appreciation of Australia’s system of government and civic life
• Have the capacity to exercise judgement and responsibility in matters of morality, ethics, social justice and the capacity to make sense of their world, to think about how things got to be the way they are, to make rational and informed decisions about their own lives and to accept responsibility for their own actions.

These are admirable goals and, along with voting being compulsory, are a significant reason for Australia’s consistently higher voter turnouts.”

Civics is generally understood as the study of the formal systems of government and law of the country. It explores the institutions, principles and values underpinning representative democracy, including the key features of the constitution, the role of democracy in building a socially cohesive and civil society; ways in which individuals, groups and governments make decisions; how governments and parliament are elected and formed; levels and roles of government, concepts of power, leadership and community service; the purpose of laws and the ways in which the legal system contributes to democratic peoples’ rights and freedoms.

Citizenship is all about the personal rights and responsibilities of citizens in a democratic society. It explores the civic knowledge, skills and values required to participate as informed and active citizens in local, state, national, regional and global contexts; New Zealand’s cultural diversity and place in the Asia-Pacific region and in the world. Issues of environmental sustainability are examined as well as opportunities to learn to make decisions that build a capacity for futures-oriented thinking. The ways in which the media and information and communication technologies (ICT) are used by individuals and governments to exert influence and the influence that media and ICT have on civic debate and citizen engagement are examined. Opportunities to practice democratic values and processes in classrooms, schools and communities are included.

ENDS

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