In september the city of Bologna organised together with all educational partners a conference. In this conference several topics were discussed such as education for democracy, education on cultural heritage and educating to languages and creativity. It was the start of Bologna Educating City. The department of education of Utrecht was invited to talk about the European context in Education. For Utrecht this was an excellent opportunity to learn about Education in Bologna and to explore the mutual interest of both cities. We were welcomed by the mayor of Bologna, mr. Cofferati and the deputy mayors mrs. Patullo and mrs. Virgilio. During the conference we were inspired by the cooperation of the Faculty of Law and the educational partners.
Every new citizen receives a copy of the civil rights. At schools children talks about the civil rights during their lessons. These lessons are prepared with the help of the faculty of Law. Even the library helps teachers to prepare their lessons. Bologna, a city with a rich cultural heritage has a wide variety of cultural activities to offer to schools. We were very much impressed by the educational approach of all these cultural activities. Bologna is in many aspects a similar city to Utrecht, even from an educational point of view. With about 7% ethnic minorities in education Bologna can learn from the experiences of Utrecht in dealing with about 30% ethnic minorities in education. We exchanged experiences on this issue with Miriam Pepe, senior executive of the municipality of Bologna, department of education.
Shared problems are the attendance of young children (2-5 year olds) of early childhood education. In Utrecht and in Bologna not nearly enough children participate in this kind of education. Another major problem in both cities is the afterschool care. In both cities there is simply more demand than what is offered. All in all we had a good trip and would like to prepare a return visit by the colleagues of Bologna.
Louke Vissers and Heleen van Dijk, Department Education, City of Utrecht
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten