Participatiory Democracy Capacity-Building (EE0053)

Develop attitudes towards and skills in participatory democracy
Commitment Start and End Date
January 2016 – December 2019 (following the previous action plan)
Lead implementing agency/actor The Ministry of Education and Research
Other Actors Involved State actors involved Foundation Innove
CSOs, private sector,multilaterals, working groups Non-governmental organisations concerned, Tallinn University, University of Tartu, Estonian History and Civics Teachers Association, Society of Human Studies, regional subject sections, Estonian School Student Councils’ Union, publishing houses, etc.
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address? Open and inclusive policy presumes development of the citizens’ attitudes towards and skills in democracy. This does not merely mean acquiring knowledge in lessons but also developing more comprehensive attitudes in schools.
What is the commitment? When updating the national curricula of basic schools and upper secondary schools and preparing the education and research strategy in 2018–2019, the Ministry of Education and Research consults with appropriate stakeholders, including youth organisations, to ensure the inclusion of skills necessary for participatory democracy in the strategy and curricula.

The interested parties (including non-governmental organisations) present their proposals to update the learning objectives and learning outcomes pursuant to the principles of the new concept of learning . .
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem? By knowing methods of participatory democracy, including possibilities of ICT, the citizens will have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to pursue open government and participate in it.
Which OGP values is this commitment relevant to? Civic participation
Additional information The activity was started in the previous action plan; the concept of integrated curricula of social sciences was completed. The development of the curricula began in 2018 and the process of developing the curricula is ongoing. The curriculum has been developed in an inclusive manner and various stakeholders have been consulted in the process.
Milestone Activity Start Date: End Date:
The working group of the field of study prepares and presents primary proposals for the updated learning outcomes. July 2018 December 2018
Consultations with stakeholders January 2019 December 2019

6. Develop attitudes towards and skills in participatory democracy

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan [73]:

“When updating the national curricula of basic schools and upper secondary schools and preparing the education and research strategy in 2018–2019, the Ministry of Education and Research consults with appropriate stakeholders, including youth organisations, to ensure the inclusion of skills necessary for participatory democracy in the strategy and curricula.

The interested parties (including non-governmental organisations) present their proposals to update the learning objectives and learning outcomes pursuant to the principles of the new concept of learning [74].”

Milestones:

6.1 The working group of the field of study prepares and presents primary proposals for the updated learning outcomes

6.2 Consultations with stakeholders

Start Date: January 2016 (carried over from the previous OGP action plan)

End Date: December 2019

Context and Objectives

This commitment aims to develop citizens’ skills of democratic participation and fostering attitudes that favor participatory democracy in school curricula. This commitment continues the previous action plan’s process of strengthening the component of participatory democracy in the syllabi of social science subjects. According to the initial timeline, drafting the new syllabi (in particular formulating new learning outcomes) should have finished by June 2018. However, since the government decided to develop a completely new national curriculum based on a new learning approach, the ministry integrated the process of updating the syllabi with the broader curriculum reform process. Therefore, some planned milestones were not achieved on time and the commitment was extended into the new action plan with a slightly changed scope.

Studies indicate a need for this activity: Estonians tend to be slightly less interested in democratic processes than their counterparts in other European countries, [75] and young Estonians exhibit only lukewarm interest in voting, while their participation in voluntary work and CSOs has stalled. [76] The Ministry of Education and Research aims to address these gaps by integrating participatory democratic skills and knowledge into the new curriculum and the new research and education strategy. The ministry also plans to carry out stakeholder consultations in the process. The planned objectives and activities contribute to solving the problem, although their effects will only manifest in the long term due to the inevitable lag of translating the new curriculum into actual teaching practice and young people’s new skills into actual government practice. It is, however, relevant to the OGP value of civic participation inasmuch as the curriculum is developed through a participatory process involving experts and stakeholders.

The commitment sets generally verifiable milestones but does not specify by which process stakeholders would be engaged. The lack of specificity on this aspect was raised in Section 9 of the previous IRM progress report [77] but has remained unaddressed in the new action plan. Based on the IRM researcher’s interview with Pille Liblik and Kaisa Musting (Ministry of Education and Research), [78] the ministry has a well-developed plan for conducting stakeholder consultations. First, the core principles of the curriculum development would be discussed in seminars with a range of stakeholders, including youth organizations, schools, teachers, parents, local municipalities, and so on. The resulting concept of learning outcomes would be emailed to additional interest groups for consultations. Feedback would be accepted by email and online via Foundation Innove’s (the ministry’s executive agency) curriculum portal. As the next step, Innove would involve schools and teachers through seminars dedicated to specific subject areas, including social sciences. The draft syllabi would then be edited based on stakeholder input, negotiated with the respective stakeholders in case of conflicting proposals, and the end result would be a draft legal act, which would go through a public consultation before final adoption.

The commitment also mentions fostering participatory democracy through a new research and education strategy but does not provide any milestones to address that issue. Based on information from Elo Tuppits (Ministry of Education and Research), the strategy process has started from experts (including youth organizations) developing three vision documents on the topics of values and responsibility, welfare and cohesion, and competitiveness. [79] The first two also involve developing youth’s civic participation skills. According to Tuppits, the next steps have not yet been decided but the development will likely continue in working groups.

Due to this commitment’s focus on the education system, its future impact on fostering participatory democratic values among youth may well be major. In the long-term, changes to Estonia’s education system could lead to a more informed citizenry and to a more participatory democracy. However, its potential impact on changing government practices in the near future is only indirect and will likely not manifest within the timeframe of one or even several action plans. That said, the collaborative model of designing the curriculum reform may turn out to be a valuable result on its own and could set an example for future reforms within and outside the education policy domain.

Next steps

Because of this commitment’s lack of immediate change to government practices, the IRM researcher recommends excluding this activity from the next OGP action plan. Although the education system may play an important role in strengthening democratic participation in the long term, the two-year timeframe of OGP action plans favors focusing on activities that can elicit faster changes in government practices. Nevertheless, the commitment’s effects on government practices could be increased by:

• Implementing the ministry’s plan of broad-based stakeholder consultations in the curriculum development process, while remaining adaptable to stakeholders’ suggestions on involvement methods that would work best for them. Particular attention should be paid to using formats that allow people with disabilities to participate.
• Promoting and sharing the good practice of stakeholder involvement more broadly among other ministries that implement large-scale reforms in their areas. Allocating sufficient time for the policy development process and the engagement of a range of experts and interest groups through diverse methods and channels all serve as good examples to follow. The Ministry of Education and Research could collaborate with the Government Office in disseminating best practices. The ministry’s engagement coordinator could also share this experience in the network of ministries’ engagement coordinators as part of the activities under Commitment 2.
• Planning adequate resources for supporting the actual implementation of the curriculum. Kersti Kivirüüt (Foundation Innove; former representative of the Estonian History and Civic Teachers’ Association) notes that the new learning approach formulates learning outcomes in a very general way, which gives teachers freedom to decide on the teaching methods but also requires high professional skills from them. [80] According to Kivirüüt, having a new curriculum alone is not sufficient for developing the knowledge, skills and attitudes for participatory democracy – it is much more important to provide long-term support for the implementation of the curriculum at school.

6. Develop attitudes towards and skills in participatory democracy

Completion: Complete:

In 2018, the Ministry of Education and Research formed an expert working group to formulate the learning objectives and learning outcomes for teaching civic participation skills in social science subjects in the new basic and secondary school curricula. The working group presented their proposals to the Foundation Innove (the ministry’s executive agency) in January 2019. At the same time, parallel expert groups developed vision documents as input to new strategies in the education field (including education strategy and youth strategy). [59]

The ministry used input from the working groups as a basis for consultations with various stakeholders (e.g., teachers, youth, students, parents, school principals, education innovators, local municipalities) in the development of the new education strategy for 2021–2035 [60] and the new school curricula.

The government approved the education strategy in October 2020. As of November 2020, the strategy is pending discussions in the Parliament before final adoption. [61] The Ministry of Education and Research aims to start transitioning to the new curricula from 2022–2023. [62]