Czech Republic
Brno City Municipality
Since 2020
16th.
Brno school pupils benefit from participatory budgeting process in schools
The Participatory budget for schools is the project focused on increasing interest in participation among young people, particularly pupils of the primary schools. The main objective is to improve public policy through the active participation of the public by teaching the young that they can decide about their surroundings and later on about their city and the country. Now at a young age, they are learning the main principles of democracy which is really important for them and for the future of our city. Through this implementation we would like to raise active citizens of our city.
Out of the total number of 65 primary schools administrated by the city, 27 primary schools applied for the first school year, the second year it was already 32 schools and now the third year is being prepared, in which 40 primary schools confirmed their participation.
Text from Brno City Council team
The City of Brno is the second largest city in the Czech Republic and has nearly 400 thousand citizens. Because of the significant number of schools and universities, Brno is also called "the city of students". Concerning the primary schools, in 2022 there are 65 schools administered by the city.
Based on our previous experience with the city-wide participatory budget, which has been taking place for 6 years, we know that a small number of young people are participating. We wanted to change this fact and involve more young people in decision-making about their surroundings and later on about their city and the country. Our main goal was to teach young people the basic principles of democracy. The Participatory budget for schools seemed to us to be the most suitable tool. This participatory budget was launched in 2020 and the holding of the 3rd year of the Participatory budget for schools is confirmed.
Out of the total number of 65 primary schools administrated by the city, 27 primary schools applied for the first school year, the second year it was already 32 schools and now the third year is being prepared, in which 40 primary schools confirmed their participation.
Thanks to this growing trend of registered schools and feedback from schools from the previous years, we can see that there is great interest in participatory budgeting and pupils want to decide about their nearest surroundings.
The main innovation in this project was the creation of a web-based online platform in which school coordinators, pupils and our Participation Department have access and where everything is at one place. This platform is easily transferable with minimal adjustments to schools in other cities and it is also the basis for participatory budgeting for secondary schools.
As a result, we expect greater involvement of young people in the city-wide participatory budget, as well as increasing interest about their surroundings and greater participation in elections, both municipal and national.
Methodology
Every school year we write to all principals of the schools administered by the city. They send us a statement whether they are interested in this project or not. If they are interested, they determine one school coordinator, who is responsible for the whole process. Afterwards, we organize a training course for the school coordinators.
The whole content of the participatory budget for primary schools is on the website https://skoly.damenavas.cz. There you can find public information and there is also a platform for both school coordinators and pupils.
The first step on the platform, where only school coordinators have access, is the preparation. Here they set the dates of all the phases of the process and can download all necessary documents.
The next step called Class submission of the projects is where pupils are informed about the main principles of the participatory budget and after they submit their projects in the classes.
After this step there is determined one representative from every class to present their projects to other representatives and this is called School submission of the projects. They vote about the projects and the result of this phase is several suitable projects.
These projects are then approved by the school management.
The next step, promotion, consists in promoting projects by the pupils who try to persuade other schoolmates to vote for their projects.
According to the date set by the school coordinator, every pupil has a code for voting through the platform and then they vote.
Depending on the value of the project, there may be one or more winning projects. The pupils of the winning projects are awarded.
The end of the whole process is that school management buys the items of the winning projects, the school accountant charges invoices and the school coordinator writes a summary of the whole project.
More information
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