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Development information
Global learning in school
Which school subject teaches children in Germany that the fabric to make their jeans has travelled tens of thousands of miles – from African cotton plantations via Indian textile mills to the clothes shop in their city? By looking at concrete examples from their everyday lives, children learn about how the work of people in Africa and Asia is linked to prices in German shops. This encourages them to campaign for fairer working conditions and sustainable development here in Germany and in the faraway southern parts of the world.
In order to embed global learning into school curricula, the Development Ministry, in cooperation with the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder, has developed "guidelines for learning about global development". These guidelines are intended to support schools in informing pupils about global economic, political, social and ecological interdependencies across subjects and disciplines. Non-governmental organisations are important non-school partners in this context.
Moreover, the BMZ also offers schools suggestions for implementing the guidelines. These include, for example, the German President’s development-related school competition "All for One World – One World for All", which the BMZ organises jointly with the implementing organisation GIZ. Pupils from primary and secondary schools can participate in the competition by working on projects dealing with development-related issues.
Through its programme for development-related school exchanges (ENSA), the BMZ supports school twinning arrangements with countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and South Eastern Europe. Through the "Chat der Welten" (Chat of the Worlds), schools can organise virtual encounters with their partners in the South. Under the programme "education meets development", which is being carried out in cooperation with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), former development workers are put in contact with schools all over Germany, where they talk about their assignments, giving pupils a vivid and tangible impression of their work. The European Academy North Rhine-Westphalia can arrange for other development experts to visit schools for all kinds of events upon request.
More information on the education programmes carried out by GIZ on behalf of the BMZ can be found here
Extensive teaching materials
There is a wealth of helpful materials available for the learning field of "global development" in schools. In order to give all stakeholders better access to these offers and forge networks between the many different players, the BMZ supports the "global learning" internet portal. The "Eine Welt in der Schule" (One World in school) project offers teaching materials and lesson plans for global learning that are specifically designed for primary schools. For the upper secondary level, the BMZ offers the schoolbook "Welt im Wandel" (world in transition). The BMZ can also provide various interactive media that are very well suited for teaching in schools, for example a DVD on the International Year of the Potato.
The educational offer for schools and private event organisers also includes a wide variety of films on development topics, for which the BMZ has acquired non-commercial rights of use. These films are available for rental via the public film services in each of the Länder.
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