Citizenship and civic education
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Estonia is home to more than 1.3 million people, 85.1% of whom are Estonian citizens. Not everyone who lives in the country holds Estonian citizenship. Some people don’t want it; others consider acquiring it to be very important. In order to help those who want to get Estonian citizenship to apply for it, the 'Our People' Integration and Migration Foundation (MISA) works with its partners to organise preparatory courses for the Estonian Constitution and Citizenship Exam. These courses are being funded until 2020 from the resources of the ‘Activities supporting integration in Estonian society’ project of the European Social Fund.

MISA also supports the implementation of activities that foster the civic education of the population. One facet of civic education is to direct citizens, irrespective of their nationality, towards a better understanding of one another’s culture, traditions and everyday standards of behaviour. But more importantly, people who have a civic education are better able to manage their lives, influence social life and contribute to important decisions. As such, it is vital to turn attention to civic education from very early on.

Since 2003, MISA has been organising the Citizen’s Day Quiz for students in Grades 7-12 at general education schools and for students at vocational schools. The quiz has also been run for students in Grades 5 & 6 at general education schools since 2013. The quiz materials are prepared each year in cooperation with students and social studies teachers. In addition to putting their knowledge to the test in the quiz, the materials can be used to diversify social studies lessons in schools with both Estonian and Russian as their language of instruction.

MISA has also been working with the Ministry of Education and Research to conduct the Citizen’s Day Essay Competition since 2011, the best entries in which are published in an annual compendium.

In order to boost civic awareness among young people, MISA has been carrying out a project competition since 2005 which supports activities related to civic awareness and tolerance that are designed for students between the ages of 7 and 26 from general and vocational education schools. The young people are able to contribute to the planning of the project, to the implementation of its activities and to the later summarising of events.