Freedom – commonplace or privilege? Life without freedom – different places, different people, different periods Erasmus Project

Project Title

Freedom – commonplace or privilege? Life without freedom – different places, different people, different periods

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : School Exchange Partnerships

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2018

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Civic engagement / responsible citizenship

Project Summary

The main aim of the project was to make pupils aware of the importance of freedom, that freedom is not a matter of course and what its limitation may lead to. The theme of freedom is increasingly topical, with various expressions of intolerance, hatred and violence often encountered in the world. Ignoring these manifestations can go as far as restricting the fundamental human rights and freedom of certain groups of people. Through the planned activities, the pupils got to know different places, different fates and different forms of human freedom restrictions. The title of the whole FREEDOM project was based on this idea – COMMONPLACE OR PRIVILEGE? LIFE WITHOUT FREEDOM – DIFFERENT PLACES, DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFERENT PERIODS. Pupils gained new knowledge about the history of their country and neighbouring EU countries. Learning about other cultures and other environments within the project helped pupils understand other customs, traditions,, opinions, religions and ideologies. Four partner schools were involved in the project (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Germany). The project was aimed at students in both courses of study and apprenticeships aged 16-20 and teachers in participating schools. Within the project, there were two Short-term staff training events for 29 teachers. There were also four Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils, involving a total of 89 pupils and 8 teachers. Mobility took place each time in a different country, so each school tried out the role of host during the project. Each exchange was focused on a specific historical period, a historical event. During the inter-mobility period, pupils gained new knowledge while working in home schools, working with prepared worksheets, actively seeking out available information on topics, communicating with pupils from participating schools. During the Short-term exchanges of groups of pupils, pupils gained further information on the subjects through excursions, workshops, professional interpretations, lectures, interviews and competitions. All the activities were focused on personal experience, evoking emotions, processing your own feelings. Pupils processed their experiences in a creative way into partial outputs presented at the end of each mobility. Activities had been planned to form a whole together and to lead towards the expected results, outputs and objectives of the project. Participation in project activities has achieved the additional objective of enhancing the skills and key competences of pupils. By participating in the project, pupils have strengthened their self-confidence, been driven to self-reliance, experienced a sense of achievement, been motivated to self-education. Thanks to the active use of the English language, they got rid of the language barrier, they improved at using English. The pupils have made new international friendships during the project, which will certainly continue after the project is finished. Short-term joint staff trainings were aimed at increasing the ICT competence of teachers. During these activities, teachers applied their professional and linguistic knowledge. They used the acquired knowledge from the seminars not only in the implementation of individual project activities, but also in future teaching at home schools. The professional and personality skills of the teachers involved have been increased. The project has increased the knowledge and language skills of both pupils and teachers and strengthened the awareness of European togetherness. The implementation of the project was in accordance with the long-term objectives of the schools involved, it is an appropriate tool for developing the creativity of the pupil, motivating the pupil to self-development and critical thinking.

The Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 made it impossible to implement the last mobility that was supposed to take place in Slovakia. The project involved schools from four countries, each school followed epidemic regulations in force in its own country. The implementation of the project was extended by 12 months, at this time the project teams of each school implemented the planned sub-activities. Mobility in Slovakia has not been achieved exactly as planned with all partners for the reasons mentioned above. However, it was managed to carry out this activity with two schools at least, which we consider a great success given the situation. Unfortunately, pupils from Hungarian and German schools were not able to participate physically in the mobility, so they met others virtually at least. We selected project partners based on previous positive experience. The unusual epidemiological situation has complicated the implementation of the project for all schools involved. Even at this difficult time, the project was successfully completed, including the achievement of the expected goals and outputs. We have further deepened our partnership and therefore expect further cooperation in the future.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 84888 Eur

Project Coordinator

Stredni odborna skola stavebni a Stredni odborne uciliste stavebni, Kolin II, Prazska 112 & Country: CZ

Project Partners

• Georg-Mendheim-Oberstufenzentrum
• Stredna odborna skola Jána Antonína Batu, Namestie SNP 5, Partizanske
• Eötvös József Református Oktatási Központ