In order for children and young people to experience high quality education, it is essential to create a safe environment in schools that encourages learning, for example through mutual respect, support and communication. With that in mind, the Goethe-Institut Cairo and the Egyptian Ministry of Education are working together to promote and establish non-violent educational methods in the Egyptian school system.
Within the framework of the project "Schools without Violence (Egypt)", the Goethe-Institut Cairo and the Egyptian Ministry of Education are developing joint new approaches, methods and didactics for teachers, headmasters, school psychologists as well as social workers to overcome the challenges of everyday school life.
In cooperation with the ‘German Sport University Cologne’ and the ‘Bremen Institute of Education and Psychology’ numerous trainings and workshops are offered to help the participants develop and master various strategies for non-violent conflict resolution, and learn how to structure and conduct classes in a non-violent way. Finally, it is crucial for teachers and school staff to interact with pupils in an appropriate way in order to create a positive classroom atmosphere and promote high quality learning.
Even with the global challenges emerging from the current corona crisis, Egyptian teachers and students have to face numerous (educational) obstacles in their everyday school life. Accordingly, our trainings shall support teachers and school staff in dealing with students who, for example, are showing behavioural issues that could have resulted, for instance, from increased domestic violence or social isolation. Moreover our workshops shall discuss different options for developing and creating modern school lessons, such as through increased digital teaching.
Sports is not only perceived as an important area in the field of violence-prevention, but is also used as a tool to convey key-values to young people, such as team spirit, fairness, responsibility and respect. As a result, the children’s self-confidence can already be strengthened at a young age and their behaviour positively influenced. The Goethe-Institut Cairo therefore offers various workshops in the field of 'non-violent education' for sports teachers in order to establish sustainable and value-based physical education classes in Egypt.
In our social media campaign with Egyptian Olympian swimmer Farida Osman, we raise awareness about bullying and school violence. Have a look at our video to see how Farida promotes “Schools Without Violence”.
The Goethe-Institut Cairo has been conducting various social trainings for Egyptian school psychologists and social workers for several years. In those ‘Fit for Life’ trainings, our experts focus on teaching new ways and mechanisms for dealing with students who suffer from behavioural difficulties. Also, various modern methods and didactics are being presented, for example violent-free instruments in the formal and informal education sector, as well as innovative skills for conflict- and classroom-management. Based on the ‘Fit for Life’ concept, further workshops have been developed, such as the ‘Master Class’, the ‘Children’s Programme’ and the ‘Parents-Programme’. It is therefore possible to expand the target group and sustainably manifest the workshops content within different parts of society.
In addition, the participants are trained to become multipliers so that they can pass on these social trainings independently to other actors within the Egyptian school system, thus successively spreading innovative non-violent educational methods in all Egyptian governorates.
A project of the Goethe-Institut, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.
Do you like our work, and would you like to know more?
Send us an email at Marie-Christine.Sacher@goethe.de