GCE4U in IEC: Global Citizenship Education for UNESCO clubs in the Philippines

Last August 26-27, 2015, Industrial Engineering Council (IEC) was one of the chosen youth organization all over the Philippines to participate Global Citizenship Education for UNESCO Clubs in the Philippines with the theme ?Fostering Citizenship Among UNESCO Clubs Towards a Culture of Peace in the Philippines. It was such a great honor to be part of this Global Citizenship Education. I was just so happy that I?ve learned the things that an individual should have like understanding one?s culture, diversity, social responsibility, global civic engagement, and environmental sustainability. Well, there were at most 30 Industrial Engineering students who join GCE4U in the Philippines in CIT University. We were given tumbler and eco-notebooks.

 Global citizenship education (GCED) is one of the strategic areas of work for UNESCO?s Education Programme (2014-2017) and one of the three priorities of the UN Secretary-General?s Global Education First Initiative (GEFI) launched in September 2012.

It equips learners of all ages with those values, knowledge and skills that are based on and instil respect for human rights, social justice, diversity, gender equality and environmental sustainability and that empower learners to be responsible global citizens. GCED gives learners the competencies and opportunity to realise their rights and obligations to promote a better world and future for all.  (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/global-citizenship-education)

The head of the Center for Transformative Education Philippine Normal University, Mr. Serafin Arviola Jr. said that it is our responsibility to take action. Indeed, I believe that we?re all here learning to live together and make great things for human needs and satisfaction without harming our Mother Earth and one another.

GCE4U was such a great learning experience in my life. THINK, SHARE, ACT. Because of that workshop I?ve understand and learned the values of being a GLOBAL CITIZEN - social responsibility, global citizenship education, global civic engagement and building of networks.

In the workshop, we were given time to reminisce the activities, seminars, and workshops that IEC has done. The main objective why we reminisce those activities in order for us to determine whether the activities that we had were Education for Sustainable Development, Human Rights Education, or Education for International Relations. We had just found out that most of our activities were Education for Sustainable Development. One of it was the Project NOWTBUKS (Now is the Time to Build Up Kids for Sustainability) and Project Aquaria which aims to teach kids how to think, act, and live green.

Thus, Global Citizenship Education should be integrated in every country for it really helps us to understand conflicts, diversity, social responsibility and environmental sustainability.