| 4. In which ways is the initiative creative and innovative?
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In the process of achieving the outcomes in the course, the following issues are being considered for the successful implementation of the Course:
1.Implementation of the course aim not only to convey knowledge, but also contribute to skills of students who are curious, questioning, inquiring, thinking critically and creatively, discussing, and problem solving persons to serve their future expectations. In general terms, the course is expected to foster awareness of law and justice at early ages.
2.Care is taken in the teaching process of this course to associate the topics with daily life and deal with daily life examples in solving problems, pursuing rights and pursuing legal processes.
3.Students are reminded that a sanction may be imposed when rules of law are not complied with, and such a sanction may affect the ordinary course of life and future.
4.During the implementation of the course, methods and activities are employed such as dramatization, case study, visits to institutions in the justice system, conversations with justice employees, inviting guest speakers.
5.Where activities are to be organized in the form of courthouse visits on the functioning of the judicial system and roles of employees in such system, courthouse visits may be organized if the court officials provide a visit environment which will not cause pedagogical problems for the students.
6.For the implementation of the course, activities are organized to develop the skills of students for conflict resolution, interpretation, establishing causality, establishing empathy, agreeing to reasonable solutions and decision making in order to develop students’ skills and attitudes.
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| 5. Who implemented the initiative and what is the size of the population affected by this initiative?
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“Legal Awareness Fostering Commission”, which was composed of experts designated by the General Directorate of Basic Education of the Ministry of National Education and judicial professionals designated by the Ministry of Justice, was established in early 2013. A wide range of stakeholders including the judicial practitioners, justice institutions (high courts, Union of Bar Association, Union of Notaries, Justice Academy, etc), law faculties as well as civil society organisations were consulted through working meetings and semi-structured feedback forms. In total, 69 faculties of law, 72 faculties of education, 120 teachers and 760 students contributed to the design of the curriculum as they shared their expectation from such a course through written feedbacks.
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| 6. How was the strategy implemented and what resources were mobilized?
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The initiative started as a joint effort of UNDP and Ministry of Justice in the scope of the “Project for Preventive Justice Programs for Legally Empowered Citizens and Increased Access To Justice for All in Turkey”. The project was implemented with the resources of UNDP (USD 100,000) and of Government of Turkey (USD 375,000). In addition, Ministry of National Education supported the Project by providing required human resource for the development of the curriculum as well as publishing the text book developed under the Project. Other than the Project budget, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of National Education also contributed through their core funds for the organisation of the regional workshops, printing and dissemination of course text book.
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| 7. Who were the stakeholders involved in the design of the initiative and in its implementation?
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The curriculum and textbook of the Law and Justice Course were developed in one year and the publicity activities were limited only to the development of promotional materials such as posters. Despite this, 333,000 students at only 6th Grades selected the course in 2013-2014 fall semester around Turkey. Due to the prioritization of other selective courses and impossibility to open the course under a certain number of students, the number of students who are actively taking the course is now 22,000. In 2014, this number will automatically be doubled with the students select the course also at 7th grades. In addition, with the acceleration and expansion of publicity and visibility activities such as the broadcast of Law and Justice Website and production of TV Spot, this number is expected to reach over 100,000 around Turkey in 2014.
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| 8. What were the most successful outputs and why was the initiative effective?
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1.The course is included among the selective courses in the “Primary Education Institutions (Elementary and Middle Schools) Weekly Course Schedule” in the annex to the Resolution No. 69 of 25 June 2012 of the Board of Education and Training. Accordingly, the course is being taught two hours a week, 72 hours in a year. Students’ achievement of the course outcomes is closely continuously monitored. To this end, the basis is a assessment process that integrates the learning-teaching process, and a diversity of assessment instruments as well as self-appraisal and individual differences are being considered.
Students in the course are being actively involved in the assessment system as well as the teaching activities. Assessment is not based only on the end semester products. For example, when activities are conducted which depict the relation of social rules with rules of law, the learning outcomes are reviewed and reinforced by various methods.
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| 9. What were the main obstacles encountered and how were they overcome?
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The low level of legal awareness among the public at large and particularly parents of the students is a challenge for the implementation of the course. To overcome this, an awareness raising campaign has been launched by Ministry of Justice. Initially, 50,000 posters were copied and disseminated widely at courthouses, bar associations and other relevant institutions of justice. In addition, a TV-Spot production and website development processes have been started and expected to be completed in early 2014. This would raise the ownership of the parents and teachers and increase the number of students benefitting from the course.
In parallel to the awareness raising programs targeting the public, a series of regional meetings are also planned to be held in early 2014 with the participation of the teachers as well as the judicial actors in order to increase the awareness about the content and implementation of the course.
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