Global Action Schools

Global Action Schools

© Photo: Veronika Endrštová

You wake up in the morning in a bed made in Slovakia by a Swedish company, pull on jeans that travelled a journey of thousands of kilometres lasting weeks, maybe all the way from Cambodia just to get to you. On the way from work you stop in a multi-national chain supermarket for tomatoes that were grown in Spain, wrapped in plastic that one day will complete its journey somewhere on the shores of the South China Sea. How far is such a scene from the truth? And is there any point in our thinking about it? We all live together on one planet, sharing a world where one event influences another. We are introducing a way of understanding how our world is interconnected.

Global Action Schools is a long-term programme where we cooperation with school that encourage their teachers to include global topics in tuition and in other school and extra-curricular activities. All nursery, primary and secondary schools in the Czech Republic may join the programme. Under the Global Action Schools programme, we offer schools methodological support for inclusion of global development education topics (such as the interconnection and interdependence of the Earth, human rights, the environment, poverty and inequality, peace and resolving conflicts, etc.) in tuition. We help teachers guide pupils towards active interest in their surroundings, attempting to understand it and subsequent involvement in public affairs and resolution of local problems and challenges with global impact. The programme rests on the principles of active citizenship and guides pupils towards setting up their own community projects.

The underlying philosophy of Global Action Schools supports education and preparation of school children for real life in a globalised world and involves three simple steps: study – find out – act. The separate steps are described in greater detail in the Global Action Schools Project Guide. The foundation of Global Action Schools is formed by active pupils supported by teachers – under the guidance of their teacher, school children learn to identify with the place where they live, and with problems and challenges with far-reaching impacts on the world around them. Then they attempt to do something to solve the problem. To achieve this, the Global Action Schools programme applies the project-based learning method.

Criteria for obtaining a Global Action School certificate:

1. Global development education topics form a natural component of tuition and school life.

2. The school presents its activities in the area of global development education to the public.

3. The school monitors local problems and challenges that have global impact.

4. The school is actively involved in solving selected local problems and challenges with global impact.

5. The school organises local (public) events that bring positive change.

Schools may join the programme in September and fulfil the above criteria in the course of the school year. Having obtained the Global Action School certificate, the school team continues in reinforcing the processes of project-based tuition in the school and, with our assistance, blends GDE more effectively into the life of the school. In cooperation with other organisations (ADRA, ARPOK, Multicultural Centre Prague), the People in Need Varianty educational programme has been awarding the Global Action School title to schools around the Czech Republic since 2006. Now 84 nursery, primary and secondary schools nationwide can boast this title.

What does a school gain by joining the Global Action School programme?

  • The school makes a clear statement that they guide their pupils towards active understanding of the world around them
  • Active involvement in public life and the chance to contribute towards solving local challenges with global impact
  • Systematic methodological support in inclusion of cross-cutting topics in tuition
  • Accredited seminars and methodological materials free of charge
  • A prestigious award backed by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic 


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