The purpose of the study trip was to present examples of three German cities – members of UNESCO Global Network and to share international experience in building effective and inclusive lifelong learning policies and systems.
The study trip had the purpose of supporting mayors of the selected Georgian cities to develop educational strategies for their municipalities involving all the education sectors including preschool, school, vocational, higher, and adult education, and ensure clear links between these sectors.
The study trip was aimed at facilitating discussions with German colleagues and helping to plan further steps in developing their strategies.
Meetings and presentations organized by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) were targeted to inspire heads of Georgian municipalities and provide them with counseling on policy development and the creation of educational eco-systems in line with Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 4 (‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’) and SDG 11 (‘Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable’).
Representatives of 6 municipalities, mayors, deputy mayors, and ALE center representatives participated in the study trip. The following municipalities were represented in the activity:
- Ambrolauri,
- Akhaltsikhe
- Kaspi
- Khoni’
- Senaki
- Tsalenjikha.
The study trip took place in three German Cities: Hamburg, Gelsenkirchen, and Bonn.
The meeting at the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL). Topic: Building a Learning ecosystem that works across life: strategy, approaches, values, and benefits. Learning cities and SDG 4 and SDG 11 was very informative and the participants actively engaged in the discussion. The same refers to the very interactive meeting that took place at the United Nations Innovation Technology Accelerator for Cities (UNITAC).
It should be underlined that all participants of the study trip were highly motivated and eager to make their municipalities members of the network. So, from the very first meeting, all of the participants showed high interest in the process.
The dynamic of the process started to fade away, when participants were presented with some activities, like a Meeting of the municipality of the City of Gelsenkirchen, where for some time, the hosting municipality was identifying the person who had to lead the presentation contrary to the agenda, or when the meeting took place at the central library of the City of Bonn, where no decision maker or responsible person was present to deliver the presentation, but the head of IT department (if not mistaken) conducted the presentation and was not able to deliver answers to some of the questions after the presentation.
Worth noting that the very last meeting at the headquarters of DVV International with Mr. Uwe Gartenschläger and Dr. Ingrid Schöll summoned up the study trip effectively – especially activities like Hamburger Klimaschutzstiftung auf Gut Karlshöhe and a field trip to an outdoor former coal mine in Gelsenkirchen.
The participants, coming from small towns in Georgia, and rural settlements, were questioning visits to the locations indicated, where they were introduced to beekeeping, taking care of cattle, and goats, planting, and gardening.
Dr. Schöll effectively and insightfully clarified the reasoning behind the inclusion of these places in the study trip. As she has explained, the culture and the knowledge of this type of activities died out in German cities and suburbs with “grandparents” and now there is a big demand in the population, to learn and acquire skills that have been lost among the younger generation, or generations that followed.
This is what Georgian municipalities should address their attention to, not to copy the German experience gained during the study trip blindly, but to identify the educational needs of various generations and address them in their strategy and application to UNESCO.
All in all, the study trip reached its goal as it sparked discussions among the participants, occasionally critical, but in the end, effective decisions are usually made as a result of sometimes heated debates.
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