More than 500 students participated in the Forum of Youth Democracy! The Forum discussed the results of the simulation game “We are lawmakers”, in which more than half a thousand students from 43 Ukrainian schools modeled the work of committees of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and developed their own bills.
“The draft law “We are lawmakers” was a great experience for me to understand how the parliament was built and how it works. Therefore, I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the project,” said Nazariy Kolos, a tenth-grader of the Bucha Lyceum.
The students have prepared 39 draft laws. During the Forum, they were evaluated and given advice by Ukrainian MPs and their assistants. People's choice Natalia Pipa, in particular, invited some teams to personally meet and discuss their promising proposals.
The Forum was organized by the Educational Policy Development Agency within the framework of the USAID RADA: Next generation Program. Program's Director Igor Kogut said: “Our task is to help shape generations of Ukrainians who know and understand democracy and parliamentarism. The fact that each of you had the opportunity to involve in the development of bills, their discussion, the filing of petitions, is very important for your formation as conscious citizens. The participation of young people in political life is a way to strengthen our country and democracy.”
The importance of such educational initiatives was emphasized by the first Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniyenko: “We will rebuild the country, win the war, join the EU, where we have additional prospects. You will live in the EU more than we do, so you have to get used to being Europeans: To know what democracy is, and to be able to do it and know how the government works, and to understand how to control it. Therefore, such educational projects need to be scaled up. The Verkhovna Rada will appeal to partners to spread this experience of democracy in the form of play and interaction, because it is best suited for training young people.”
The imitation game “We are lawmakers” helps Ukrainian youth to learn in practice how the parliament works, what its role in shaping state policy and what tools of influence on politics have the citizens of Ukraine.
See in our videos how the meetings of imaginary committees and what the young “parliamentarians” learned.
The “We are lawmakers” game was developed and tested by the Educational Policy Development Agency within the USAID RADA: Next generation Program. The development of parliamentary civic education is one of the key areas of the Programme’s work.
At first, we conducted a survey of more than 3600 schoolchildren to determine which issues most concern young Ukrainians. According to its results, we decided that we would model the work of parliamentary committees on issues:
In March, the teachers-coordinators organized training sessions to prepare for the game, and the children began to prepare an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada. During April, the students voted for these petitions, and then they were considered them during the meetings of the imaginary parliamentary committee, where heated debates and decisions were made.