The Ministry of National Education and Literacy opened the first Week of School Education for Citizenship on 24 October 2016 with the support of UNESCO Dakar. This date was also the United Nations Day, marking the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. This year's UN Day was used to highlight concrete actions that people could take to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and Burkina Faso initiated the action with teacher training for citizenship, a concept that guides individual behavior and collective action in citizenship education at school levels.
The ceremony of the Week was opened by traditional dance troupes of talented youth and children, and the students’ resolution on their view and their awareness on citizenship was read to the hundreds of audience gathered for the ceremony. Theater group of UNESCO club members also demonstrated how citizenship education is understood and practiced in a daily life of young people in Burkina Faso.
The mayor of Ouagadougou welcomed the participants and the holding of the week in the city of Ouagadougou. He recalled the importance of citizenship in the behavior of all citizens. Education could be a solution.
The representative of Parrain Mogho Naaba Baongo talked about respectful human relations, such as the importance of saying simply words of appreciation or apologies.
UNESCO Dakar was represented by Akemi Yonemura, Programme Specialist, who commended this initiative, highlighting its contribution to Sustainable Development Goals – Goal 4 on education and Goal 16 on peace. “Global Citizenship Education (GCED) is one of the UNESCO’s priorities, which encourages respect for all, fosters a sense of belongingness to a common humanity and helps learners to become responsible and active global citizen,” she explained. It is in this context that UNESCO has made available to the countries of tools that will help rethink and reorient to develop new models of living together in peace and prosperity, including ECOWAS reference manual on citizenship education and culture of peace; and a teacher’s guide on prevention of violent extremism that offers practical advice to teachers facing the rise of extremism.
Mr. Jean Martin COULIBALY, Minister of National Education and Literacy of Burkina Faso, reiterated the government's willingness to form a new type of citizen through education. This week is very important in the school calendar, which will be continued in the coming years. Finally he thanked UNESCO for its technical and financial support before he launched officially the activities of the week.
Programme Officer of UNESCO Dakar, Mr. Saip Sy conducted training session for trainers for the teacher training during this week. Following this, training of 200 teachers took place at Koudougou, the third largest city in Burkina Faso, 100 km from Ouagadougou. The topics included in the training were GCED, culture of peace, prevention of violent extremism.
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