Building a Coalition for Student Self-Government in Ukraine

Over three months, starting in February 2020, Fundacja Civis Polonus, NGO “Unique Country” and the Lviv Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education implemented a joint project aimed at developing democratic student self-government in Ukraine.

One of the key results of the project was the “Charter of Democratic Student Self-Government in Ukraine” — a document that summarizes a shared vision of the principles, values and approaches to developing student participation in schools.

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The Charter as a result of joint work

The Charter became the result of an exchange of experience among many practising educators, as well as broad consultations with students, teachers, school principals and methodologists from different regions of Ukraine.

Nearly 1,600 stakeholders took part in the consultations. This scale of discussion was important, because student self-government cannot develop through formal documents alone. It requires genuine dialogue among students, teachers, school administrations, parents and educational institutions.

That is why the Charter became not only the final document of the project, but also an attempt to create a shared framework for those who want to see student self-government as a real instrument of participation, responsibility and learning democracy.

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Five years of consistent cooperation

Joint work aimed at developing student self-government in Ukraine has been ongoing for five years. This project continued a series of Polish-Ukrainian partnership initiatives that gradually built a foundation for developing democratic culture in schools.

In particular, it built on the results of previous projects:

• “Academy of Young Leaders” — 2016;
• “Student Council as an Experience of Civic Activity” — 2017;
• “Student Self-Government — Learning Democracy” — 2018;
• “Better Student Self-Government in Lviv, Lviv Region, Zhmerynka, Dnipro and Dnipropetrovsk Region” — 2019.

For NGO “Unique Country”, this continuity is especially valuable. It shows that the development of student self-government requires not one-off events, but long-term cooperation, learning, support for teachers and the gradual formation of a community of practitioners.

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Why this matters

Democratic student self-government helps school students not only participate in school life, but also learn responsibility, representation of interests, dialogue, teamwork and joint decision-making.

When student self-government works meaningfully, it becomes a space where children and teenagers can practise civic participation, feel that their voice matters and see that their ideas can influence the school environment.

These are the practices that build democratic culture from an early age — through experience, interaction and everyday decisions at school.

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Project materials

All materials developed within the project can be downloaded from the Fundacja Civis Polonus website.

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Project support

The project “We Are Building a Community for the Development of Student Self-Government in Ukraine” is co-financed by the Education for Democracy Foundation within the framework of the RITA — “Changes in the Region” programme, funded by the Polish-American Freedom Foundation.