STREET LAW PROGRAM

Program introduction:
The Street Law Program is a civic education program on law, human rights and youth participation in democracy. Through its philosophy and activities, the program empowers young people to transform democratic ideals into citizen action. Through the establishment of productive basic legal educational practice at Mongolian secondary schools, which promotes active participation and practical knowledge and skills on law, human rights and democracy, the program is able to transform classrooms into places where the students are allowed to practice fundamental principles of democracy through trained teachers, all of which are key priorities of the program.

Reforming secondary law-related education curricula and textbooks and teaching methodology of civic teachers were the main tools used to implement the program's goal. For the three years of the program's implementation, it established a team of national experts on legal education curriculum and 29 Street Law Centers, schools established in each province and run by local teams to disseminate Street Law concepts and to assist local civic teachers in the teaching of law. Nearly 520 teachers were enrolled in the training schemes conducted in the 1998-2001 academic years. Furthermore, the framework for fifteen Street Law texts for primary and secondary schools have been drafted and tested, and the textbooks for first through fifth, sixth, and eighth grades were published by MOSTEC for mass use in all schools throughout the country.

Program developments and achievements:
New values, knowledge and skills to be applied to the younger Mongolian generation through new Street Law textbooks have been successfully incorporated into the national standards for general education along with the accomplishment of the textbooks for sixth and seventh grades. In 2002, the textbook for sixth grade was submitted to MOSTEC, printed out for mass use at secondary schools, and has been disseminated to schools. The textbook for seventh grade is in the list of textbooks announced in the tender among publishers while the textbook for ninth and tenth grade is in the stages of piloting and refining.

The new content of the Street Law textbooks requires appropriate reform of pre-service teacher education. Therefore, the Street Law Clinical project was implemented at the State Pedagogical University. As a result, a three-credit hour Street Law course and a one-credit hour Public Interest Law practicum were incorporated into the curriculum of the School of Social Sciences and History. In this way interactive teaching methods will be incorporated into the teaching strategy, and the students will be exposed to the public interest law concept and methodology.

The National Street Law Training Module was developed, and experimental training was conducted to improve the training modules. It is expected to incorporate the module into the in-service training curriculum of the State Pedagogical University to provide a nationwide, systematized and institutionalized teacher training strategy in civic- and law-related education.

The Street Law Program, for the first time in Mongolia, launched a well designed social drama and broadcasted it throughout the country. The drama empowers and encourages young people in the creative use of law and the application of problem solving skills.

Using the established local Street Law teams, which involve different representatives from the social and educational communities in aimags, pilot teachers re-organized their activities at the clubs at 29 secondary schools so that school-community partnership activities can be broadly encouraged and supported. For the reporting period, more than 224 lawyers, local governors, police officers, and more than 320 primary school teachers have been trained on the Street Law concept.