What kind of society will our children live in tomorrow? An important part of the answer to that question lies in the education we give them today. Education plays an essential role in building the future and reflects the type of world we want to prepare for the generations to come.
Democracy is one of the three pillars of the Council of Europe and there should be no hesitation among its member states that it should remain a key foundation for our future societies. Although our institutions may be solid they will only function in a truly democratic manner if our citizens are fully aware not only of their voting rights, but also of the values our institutions embody. Our education systems and schools need to prepare young people to become active, participative and responsible individuals: the complex, multicultural and rapidly evolving societies we live in cannot do with less. And at the dawn of quantum computing and artificial intelligence it is all the more important that our children should be equipped with the values, attitudes, skills, knowledge and critical understanding that will enable them to make responsible decisions about their future.
The starting point for the development of the Council of Europe’s Reference Framework of Competences for Democratic Culture was the belief that education systems, schools and universities should make preparation for democratic citizenship one of its key missions. This involves ensuring that students should know and understand the challenges they are faced with and the consequences of their decisions, what they are able to do and what they should refrain from doing. In order to do all this they need not only to have knowledge, but also the relevant  competences – and the aim of the Framework is to define what those competences are.

The Reference Framework can be downloaded from here.