Civic Education in Mongolia:
school curriculum and
in-country experiences
Open Society Forum
Ulaanbaatar, May 2011
Institutionalization of Civic Education
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Implementation of a new Civic Education curriculum :
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Started in primary Grade 1 and 2 this year
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Grade 3 content and textbook development completed this summer
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Content and textbook development for all other Grades continues
Legislations:
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Ministerial approval of Civic Education curriculum (2007)
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a stand-alone, compulsory subject in K-12 curriculum
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one hour per week for each grade 1 through 12 (28 -35 hours annually)
Ministerial approval of Civic Education content for Grades 1-3 (2011)
President of Mongolia ruled that Traditional culture content is included
in the Civic Education formal curriculum
What kind of Civic Education?
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Different concepts of Civic Education:
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Democracy education, Education for Democracy, voter
education, citizenship education, civic education, political
education, justice-oriented education, etc
Mongolia:
Knowledge, skills and dispositions to help become:
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Citizens who respect Mongolian traditions and cultural
values, are able to practice them in their daily life and
pass them on to their children, with well-developed sense
of national pride and identity
Responsible, active, justice-oriented citizens with
knowledge and skills of practicing civil rights and
responsibilities
Conceptualization of Civic Education
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Explicit reference to shared values
 Will diversity, respect for minority rights be addressed?
 Are values (and identity) public or private trait? Family/ parental realm
or school arena?
No explicit mentioning of HRE, learning about Government
Explicit reference to
 participation (does it include learning about Government?)
 social justice (is HRE included?)
 rights and responsibilities of a citizen (Is this the same as HRE?)
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The answer: we do not know (yet).
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Curricular approach
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3 different approaches: separate subject, integrated or
cross-curricular
Mongolia: mixed
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Separate subject with allotted time, separate context
framework and textbook
But MECS is working “to integrate content of patriotism,
humanitarianism and justice into curriculum of history, social
studies and civic education” (MECS Progress report from
2010)
Regarding mixed curricular, literature recommends
integration at primary grades and separate subject in
secondary grades. Mongolia seems to prefer separate
subject in Grade 1 and 2 and integration in Grades 3
onwards.
Content framework: categories
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Two main categories: traditional values and
democratic citizenship
Traditional values
Moral education
Traditional lifestyle
National cultural heritage
and national pride

Democratic citizenship
Personal dispositions and
skills of a citizen
Relationship between the
state and citizen
Responsibilities of a citizen
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Content: allocation of teaching hours
Education level
Grade
Primary
Hours allotted (annual)
Total
Traditional Democracy
values
education
1
19
9
28
2
22
10
32
3-6
23
11
34 each grade
Lower secondary 7-9
18
17
35 each grade
Upper secondary 10-12
10
25
35 each grade
Total
92
72
16
Traditional content : democracy education
Primary 70% : 30 %. Lower secondary 50 %: 50 %. Upper secondary 30% : 70 %
Traditional values content : discourses
Character/ moral education:
 Learning about oneself
 Love and care for parents
 Traditional respectful ways of
communicating with other people
 Traditional respect of teachers,
knowledge and books
 Good and bad deed: body, language
and mind
 Kinship and family, respect for home
 Respect of nature, and sustainable
lifestyle
Traditional lifestyle
 Traditions related to five kinds of
domestic cattle and herding
Traditions related to home and ger
 Traditional related to adequate
consumption of food and drinks
 Traditional related to national clothes
Cultural heritage and national pride
 Traditional games
 Traditional celebrations
 Symbols
 State symbols
 National tangible and intangible
heritage, cultural values
 Traditional way of thinking
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Democracy Education content: discourses
Personal dispositions and skills a citizen
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Norms and practices of behaving in
group and social setting
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Respect for others, collaboration
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Avoiding smoking, drinking and drugs
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Personal safety
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Road safety
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Reading food labels for personal safety
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Protecting oneself and others during
possible natural disaster and avoiding
household accidents
Relationship between the state and citizen
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Obeying rules and regulations,
participating in their formulation

Understanding rights, responsibilities
and obligations
Understanding justice and avoiding
corruption
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Paying taxes
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Participation in election, practicing
one's right to elect and be elected
Responsibilities of a citizen
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Accessing state services (police,
legal defense, social protection)
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Addressing administrative
organization with inquiry and
complaints
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Accessing banking and other
financial services
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Participating in real estate, property,
share-holding securities market
activities
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Participating in labor market
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Delivery of civic education
School-based civic education curriculum review, 2010
Systemic issues:
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Delivered by untrained teachers; mostly lectures
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Lack of critical thinking, analysis and discussion exercises
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No extra-curricular and community service programs
School-level issues:
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Whole-school culture is not supportive to student participation
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School Boards exist, but dominated by school administration
With new curriculum in place, teacher training is expected to follow
Civil society as a source of expertise
Internationals and NGOs have been actively engaged in Education for
Democracy since 1990s
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Civic Education Center: Project Citizen (since 1992)
Danish Bilateral Agency: community decision making project, teacher training (1993- early 2000)
Mongolian Foundation for Open Society: Street Law (1999-2003)
Democracy Education Center: informal trainings and NGO capacity building
Academy of Political Education NGO
Voter education center
More recent initiatives:
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Open Society Forum: capacity building and grants for public policy analysis (since 2003), monitoring of
government service delivery (since 2005); youth engagement (just started); training of paralegals
ADB: best models of fully-functioning school boards
World Bank: social responsibility grants
Mongolian Education Alliance: teacher training, training of school principals in democratic school
governance
World service: students as volunteers, community service
Zorig Foundation: young leaders grants (includes community service component)
MONFEMNET: Hands up for your Rights youth movement
UNICEF and VSO: youth volunteers and youth councils
What can be done:
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Develop a concept of Civic Education, to help refine the content
framework and discourses
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Consistently apply the concept in content selection, textbook development
and teacher training
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Streamline Civic Education content along ‘know your rights – exercise
your responsibilities’ line
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Enhance focus on Human Rights Education and democracy Education
integrate consumer education, road safety, survival skills, public health,
and maybe some traditions and value content into reading, language,
social sciences subjects)
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Introduce extra-curricular activities (community service projects, debate,
critical thinking, new media, civil journalism, youth council, etc)
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Create enabling environment in schools (functioning school board, student
committees)