Summary
Education should enable young people to acquire the skills
required to build a pluralistic society based on solidarity, democratic
values and human rights. Competences such as the multiperspectivity
with regard to the assessment of current and past events, critical
thinking and the capacity to seek co-operation rather than confrontation
can only be acquired through quality education in democratic citizenship,
human rights and intercultural dialogue. However, many European
countries lack both benchmarks and a process that enables learning
and teaching outcomes, and teaching approaches and methods, to be
properly assessed. The initiative to develop a European framework
of competences for a culture of democracy and intercultural dialogue
is therefore to be commended.
This framework should provide a common ground for building
more cohesive societies, where all people are respectful of the
human dignity of others and where European shared values are nurtured.
It should guide policy makers in the Council of Europe member States
in reviewing their education policies and should assist the teaching
community in the development of new instruments for setting learning
goals, for improving teaching methods and for assessing progress
in learning.
