REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTH ANNUAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION CONFERENCE
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT McALEESE AT THE OPENING OF THE SIXTH ANNUAL CITIZENSHIP EDUCATION CONFERENCE, FITZPATRICK’S CASTLE HOTEL
Is mór an onóir dom a bheith anseo i gCill Iníon Léinín agus páirt a ghlacadh san oscailt oifigiúil den chomhdháil idirnáisiúnta seo faoin Oideachas Saoránacht.
Thank you for that warm welcome and a special word of thanks to Sandra Gowran for inviting me to open the Sixth Annual Citizenship Education Conference in England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, or Five Countries conference as it is now generally known. Some of you will already know that one of my main concerns in my second term in office is to nurture and celebrate commitment to community and responsible citizenship. It is a particular pleasure for me, in this European Year of Citizenship through Education, to have the opportunity now to reinforce that message at the outset of this conference - a conference that is all about the co-operation of five education systems on the two islands in the pursuit of common goals in citizenship education.
The work done by this series of conferences in promoting citizenship through education deserves the highest praise and encouragement. I would like to pay a special tribute to all those organisations, both public and private, in Britain and Ireland, which have supported this conference and have worked relentlessly to support and develop good practice initiatives that will stand as a legacy of this important year.
The sub-themes of this conference are particularly important - promoting participation, encouraging voice, valuing difference - what more concise summary of the needs of modern society could we have? In a time of significant change with increasing pressures of work, increasing demands on our time and a growing emphasis on status and individualism, it can be tempting to forego participation in the social and civic life of our communities, to remain silent when we should not, and to distrust or despise difference. Yet we know that the quality of our lives is tremendously enriched by whole-hearted participation in our communities; that active citizenship is a far cry from indifferent self-indulgent individualism.
There are those within our society without the capacity to participate, without the resources to have their voices heard and very often as a result of their difference, not being valued. I welcome the Council of Europe’s work to bridge the gap between policy and practice, strengthening the commitment of member states to make Education for Democratic Citizenship and Human Rights Education a priority objective.
Both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child lay firm emphasis on the right of young people to a voice, a consultative influence in matters which affect them. I am delighted with the work being done in Britain and Ireland to ensure that, for young people, it is not just a matter of citizenship through education but also citizenship in education, whether in national fora or in individual schools. Today’s children will be seen and heard.
I am very pleased to be associated with a special initiative here in Ireland in conjunction with the designated European Year. The Young Citizen Award is designed specifically to recognise active citizenship amongst young people on the island of Ireland, to value their contribution and participation in the civic and social life of their communities, both locally and globally. It seeks to encourage young people to participate actively in shaping their own lives and world, with an ever-deepening understanding of citizenship. As Foróige, one of our foremost youth organisations has put it, 'Citizenship is about creating what ought to be rather than adapting to what is…the essential task of citizenship is not to predict the future, it is to create it.'
Citizenship through education is a life-long learning goal offered equally to our adult learners. I am well aware of the tremendous focus which citizenship studies have been afforded in the area of life-long learning. Our adult learners too have taken their responsibilities as citizens seriously and give us great cause for hope. It is these citizens, confident, animated, engaged in the big and small issues of their communities, countries and the wider world who will peacefully shape our future.
Nearly sixty years ago, the great Indian statesman Jawaharlal Nehru stood at the dawn of his new nation and declared:
‘The future beckons to us. Whither do we go and what shall be our endeavour? To bring freedom and opportunity to the common man … to fight and end poverty and ignorance and disease; to build up a prosperous, democratic and progressive nation, and to create social, economic and political institutions which will ensure justice and fullness of life to every man and woman.’
Today, we are all part of a global nation. The goals of Nehru for India in 1947 are the goals of all of us for our shared planet. We have seen much recent focus on international issues of debt, poverty and fair trade. We want action taken to make the world a better place. In this UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development, we find people embracing the concept of stewardship, developing a sense of ownership, a recognition that we are all stakeholders in our planet and in the well-being of the human person wherever life’s circumstances place him or her.
It is perhaps appropriate that this conference is happening during One World Week, which is celebrating and promoting Young People Making a Difference. Along with 188 other countries, Ireland has signed up and recently restated its commitment to achieving the eight United Nations Millennium Development Goals by 2015, designed to eliminate poverty through improving the lives of many millions of the world’s population. The achievement of these Goals is not just a matter for world leaders who can deliver aid, cancel debt and ensure fair trade. It is a matter for the active citizenship of ordinary people who, by their generous support to aid agencies over the years, have shown that they want to make the world a better place for all of us, who refuse to accept that distance and difference should make disinterested strangers of the peoples of the world.
In many, many ways, education is the difference between success and failure, between making breakthroughs and erecting barriers. For citizenship to impact on the minds and hearts of all, educational breakthrough will continue to be vital. We need champions to keep pushing and you are foremost among those champions. I hope this conference reenergizes and refuels you and helps give freshened focus to this great human vocation. Without it what are we to each other but a bunch of random strangers. With your work, we are transformed into friends, neighbours, family, community rising and falling on life’s tides but not alone, facing the frailties and possibilities of life with the affirmation that comes from being valued and included and the strength that comes from harnessing the kaleidoscope of talents and gifts, wisdom and experience, of the caring people around us. It is with tremendous pleasure and optimism that I now declare this Sixth Annual Five Countries conference formally open.
Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.