2022 Award "Best Practice in Citizen Participation"
16th Edition
The project of school mayor has been developed by the General Department of Citizenship Education of Tehran Municipality in order to raise the level of students' awareness on various urban issues. Among the general goals of this project are to strengthen the sense of responsibility in adolescents, to practice collective participation by taking on specific participatory tasks and to become familiar with the concept of citizenship rights, responsibilities and duties. This project is a full-fledged project in terms of content and is based on scientific and research findings.
For a better implementation, Tehran Municipality and Ministry of Education have a joint cooperation and the municipalities of each district sign an agreement with the respective schools. At the beginning of the school year, a number of students volunteer to participate in order to be nominated for the school council with the written consent of their parents. Candidates must undertake a major propaganda effort to explain their abilities and programs to other students, and finally in the elections those candidates with the highest votes of the students, are selected as “School Mayors”. The school mayor elects eight deputies among the members of the school council or a combination of council members and other students to assist in the implementation of their policies. The eight deputy mayors of the school will assist with the following titles: academic affairs, cultural and sports, safety and health, planning and support, social and welfare services, civil and traffic services, public participation, and school and environmental services. The decree of the school mayors is signed by the head of General Department of Citizenship Education of Tehran Municipality, the mayor of the district and the director of Education Department. The monthly duties and activities of school mayors are specified according to the instructions. The school mayor, accompanied by the district municipality, monitors the school up to a radius of 500 meters, identifies problems and cooperates in removing obstacles. The school mayors also participate in two annual meetings with the district mayor and a series of meetings with municipal experts in order to be trained and obtain expert opinions.
We believe that the only possible solution for sustainable development and solving the increasing urban problems is the participation of the young people in urban management and many studies have been conducted on the school mayor's program in order to weigh up the results of it. An increase in the willingness to participate, an increase in the amount of familiarity of students with their city and local bodies, a wide-scale shift in the view of students towards participation in society, a rising level of worry for city issues, familiarity with personal and citizen rights, the social development of the youth, a rise in the level of social responsibility, a rise in self-confidence, a boost in feelings of usefulness in the youth, development of skills in argumentation, a rise in level of commitment towards school and a rise in willingness to co-operate in the solving of school issues have been notable effects of this program among those who participated.
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