JTI CIVIC Education Centre

The mission on the Jaan Tõnisson Institute is to promote forming and strenghthening civil society in Estonia. Since the beginning of our activities we have considered education to be one of the key issues in that process. For introducing and teaching at school the ideas of democracy, in 1993 in the Institute the was created an independent Civics Programme.

The main goal of the Programme was to support the compulsory schools' teachers in teaching about the basics of Democracy in the classrooms. The importance of teaching Civics in the transition society as Estonia was, was fully recognised by the State in 1996, when Civics was incorporated into Estonian National Curriculum as an independent and compulsory school subject.

In 1996 the Civics Programme was developed into independent substructure of the Jaan Tõnisson Institute - Civic Education Centre (CEC). During the years we have broadened dealing with Democracy Education also into the spheres in the society other than education. We have establihed partnership relations with plenty of partners in Estonia and abroad.

There are various fields related to Civics mainstream where Civic Education Centre is active including Human Rights Education, Law Education, Consumer Education, Curriculum Development, Multiculturalism of the society, active teaching methods etc.

The activities of the Centre are diverse including research, in-service training, developing educational teaching materials, publishing, consulting, providing expertise etc.

In 1999 UNESCO Secretary General Mr Frederico Mayor and Estonian Minister of Culture Ms Signe Kivi signed a declaration about establishing UNESCO Chair in Civic Education and Multicultural Studies at the Civic Education Centre. The UNESCO Chair functioned until 2016.

Since the first decade of this century the main focus of Civic Education Centre has turned to expertise on our traditional fields of activity and to providing know-how. We are non-partisan organisation and open to cooperation for all organisations and individuals intersted in fruitful partnership. Our goal is, that all the projects we implement, will conclude with the practical outcomes and the work done by us will be variable.

Contact

Sulev Valdmaa
Executive
sulev@jti.ee
+372 55 514 332