In May 2013 Association Sunce began with the implementation of the two-year project, “Take part in sustainable development.” The project will be implemented in partnership with German institution Deutsche Gesellschaft für Umwelterziehung (DGU), and funded by the German Foundation Deutschen Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU).
In the school year 2013/2014 project is co-financed by the Ministry of Science, Education and Sports with 50,000.00 kn. Part of the activities of this project is related to the promotion of participatory learning methods and active citizenship in the town of Knin. These activities started in the second half of the school year 2013/2014 and they are implemented in partnership with the Environmental Association “Krka” Knin. For the mentioned activities Ministry allocated 15,000.00 kn.
Project planned activities are aimed at educating elementary and high school teachers and students, with the goal of achieving their active participation in society, inducing environmentally more responsible behavior and ultimately contributing to sustainable development.
Specific project objectives are:
- To increase knowledge of participatory methods of learning and active citizenship as a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development.
- Encourage and enhance the participation of teachers and students to protect the environment and nature.
- To educate and empower young people to actively participate and mobilize them to volunteer in the field of environmental and nature protection.
The project will focus on “Sustainable City” as main subject area of sustainable development. This issue offers a lot of connecting points with education for sustainable education (ESD). As “The city” is a location where pupils are living this issue offers a lot of themes which are connected to their living environment like natural resources (e.g. waste management), sustainable mobility (e.g. going by bike) and sustainable economy (e.g. Fair trade, social entrepreneurship).
Besides stated issues, “Sustainable City” offers a lot of possibilities to connect with methods of ESD as participation, civic education, Service-Learning and sustainable student companies.