The Graduate School of Education (GSE) at the American University in Cairo (AUC) hosted a presentation titled “Promoting Global Citizenship” on Monday, Nov. 6th, 2017. The presentation was organized by Dr. Nagwa Megahed and Dr. Barbara Brown as part of the Civic and Peace Education initiative. The presentation was led by Mr. Gabriel Elkhilli, UNESCO Program Specialist.

He also said that “There is a shift in how education starts to be seen mainly in post 20th century discussion” which is why UNESCO created a handbook whereby policymakers and educators can make use of. The needs of this century are changing and so are the needs of education where the authority is in the hands of the student as well. The application of education is also challenging especially when mentioning that ministries are recently suggesting that certain subjects be removed from the curriculum as they are not adaptive to today’s needs and he used the Arabic Language and Philosophy classes as an example. He mentioned that the problem with this way of thinking is that it tries to eliminate things rather than change the method of education to engage the students and make use of those subjects.

“Education should be transformative” were the words Mr. Elkhilli used to begin the second part of the lecture whereby he described the on-ground application of UNESCO’s frame of Education on post-conflict Tunisia. The UNESCO created another handbook for Tunisian Youth on Democracy and Political Reform following the revolution. The handbook gained widespread influence on all of Tunisia and was accompanied by the start of more than 19 citizenship clubs for youth. They were keen on engaging youth both in classrooms and in the extracurricular clubs created which are now part of the Tunisian youth culture.