This question was posed by Yvonne Goudie who is a member of the Practitioners' Network. To view her profile, please click the "Members of the Practitioners' Network" link to the left of the Workspace page.

Do you know of any innovative approaches to teaching electoral education to school aged children?

Yvonne Goudie

Summary of responses:

Posted on 23 May, 2007

Low and/or declining voter participation is a problem faced by most countries in the world and the low participation of young people seems to be an especially salient problem in many places. In addition to this being a problem simply because it under represents the young population and risks leaving them feeling disengaged in politics and the democratic process, it has also been suggested by David Butler, Donald Stokes and Mark Franklin, that most people establish their pattern of electoral participation (or not) by roughly the third election after they reach voting age and that this pattern then is hardly susceptible to change – meaning that the low participation of young voters is likely to have negative consequences on turnout for a long time to come. It is therefore extra important to catch the potential voters while they are still young. Electoral education for children is in many parts of the world seen as a useful tool to increase participation in the democratic and electoral process.

The aim of electoral education for children and youth is usually twofold:

1. Socializing the children into becoming engaged and informed citizens and voters when they reach voting age.
2. Trickle-up effects in parents’ and families’ voter turnout as they talk to and watch the children participating in electoral education programmes.

There are many examples of electoral education initiatives and they can be found in most parts of the world. Even though initiatives are still modest in the Arab World, several examples can be found also here (read more about these below). Some of the most common initiators of electoral education programmes for children worldwide have been government bodies, EMBs, political parties and NGOs.

One of the most popular types of initiatives are been school or mock elections, exposing children to the electoral process by engaging them in elections that are to a large extent similar to the real elections in the country. This is done by organising parallel elections to the national ones, voting for school councils or voting for issues relevant to the children themselves (see example from Gothenburg, Sweden below). The purpose of these elections is – in addition to raising an interest in and understanding of the political process – to introduce the children to the actual act of voting and making it fun and easy rather than difficult. These elections are often (but not always) held just before or parallel to the national elections.

Read for example about:

• “The Global Vote” organizing a global vote for the World’s Children’s Prize for the Rights of the Child (WCPRC) based on the UN Child Convention.
• Student Council Elections in Peru mimicking to a large extent the national elections, including training for the “EMB”, supplies of indelible ink, stamps and ballot boxes, and election observation and monitoring. See Acción por los Niños and Oficina Nacional de Procesos Electorales  and read more about these initiatives on pages 37 and 38 in Engaging the Electorate.
• Voting by close to 40 000 children between the ages of 5 and 12 in the city of Gothenburg deciding the design of railway cars and library cards (more information can be obtained by contacting Staffan Darnolf or the ACE facilitators on [email protected]).

Other initiatives have included plays and shows – including Rock the Vote http://www.rockthevote.com/ an electoral awareness initiative directed mostly at young voters rather than children.

It is difficult to ascertain causal effects of electoral education programmes on voter turnout and many initiatives have therefore been largely unevaluated. To be able to further develop effective electoral education initiatives this is an area which needs more attention.

Replies were received, with thanks, from:

• Roger Hällhag

• Staffan Darnolf

• Antonio Spinelli

• Debashis Sen

• Ali Sawi

Links to related resources:

• Civic and Voter Education in ACE
• National Parent/Student Mock Election (US)
• The Y Vote Mock Elections by the Hansard Society (UK)

• Acción por los niños Peru

• Student Vote in Canada

• Brazil: Informing Young People of the Need for Conscientious Voting: Eleitor do Futuro (Voter of the Future) in Brazil. Read more in Engaging the Electorate, pages 52, 53.

• International IDEA publication - Youth Voter Participation: Involving Today's Young in Tomorrow's Democracy

• International IDEA publication – Engaging the Electorate: Initiatives to Promote Voter Turnout From Around the World 

•  Kids Voting USA

Quote from the ACE Encyclopaedia on electoral education for children:

"That there is a need to educate people to take part in elections is not at issue. Whether these people are children or adults, there are many educational needs that relate to the conduct of elections. But there are also the needs related to active participation in competitive politics. One educational activity involves the use of mock or parallel elections."

Individual responses in full below:

You can see a most impressive example at www.childrensworld.org

More than 5 million school children in 83 countries take part in a Global Vote to appoint a winning candidate for The World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child. In addition to practicing electoral logic and procedures, the voters (and millions more) learn about the their rights, life in other societies and positive examples of progress through solidarity.

Highly recommended!

Roger Hällhag

In the 2006 general election in Sweden, the city of Goteborg allowed five year olds to actually vote on a couple of specific issues. They ran a special project on this, including voter information, special screens etc. I have the contact details to the person in-charge, but would be hesitant to put it on a public site. Anyone who would be interested can just drop me an email.

Staffan Darnolf

If you wish to contact Staffan Darnolf and do not have his contact details, please e-mail the ACE facilitators on [email protected].

Hi Yvonne!

Among various initiatives to teach electoral education to school-aged children, I personally regard “mock elections” as one of the most effective and innovatory approaches to “involve today's young in tomorrow's democracy” (I am quoting the title of an IDEA publication on youth voter participation).

With the lack of basic understanding about the workings of politics as one of the main obstacles to youth voter participation, the actual “innovation” of mock elections consists in encouraging young people to learn about and be exposed first hand to somehow complex and unattractive political/electoral mechanisms in a simple, direct, active, enjoyable and engaging exercise.

In the United States and the United Kingdom mock election initiatives are a very popular tool to raise youth’s awareness of civic engagement and of the benefits of active democratic participation. Particularly when they are conducted in the proximity of a “real” election, these educational initiatives have proved effective to engage young people’s interest and commitment in the workings of politics. Mock elections, provide students with the opportunity to develop their own understanding of how a democratic process works and why democracy matters by experiencing in first person the excitement, the mechanisms, the sense of civic engagement and competition of a real election process, standing up as a candidates, acting as election observers, voters or poll workers, in all phases of an electoral process (and also beyond it), from running an election campaign to the declaration of the final election results.

There are a number of mock election initiatives and a wealth of resource materials available to teachers. Below, I have listed some:

• The National Parent/Student Mock Election (US);
• The Y Vote Mock Elections by the Hansard Society (UK);

• Resource materials from LT Scotland Online Service;

  The Children's Parliament (UK);
• Educational resources from the British Columbia’s Citizens' Assembly website (Canada);
• The Liverpool City Council Schools Parliaments (UK);

Finally, aside from mock elections, Rock the Vote needs also to be highlighted as an innovative electoral awareness initiative targeting young voters. This programme has been widely implemented in the United States, but also in some other countries (Georgia and Slovakia, if I am not wrong) by US aid organisations, such as the International Republican Institute (IRI).

All major points, including holding mock youth polls have been covered. I agree that "role play" is a very effective way to help educate children. I have a couple of additional suggestions:-

1. One may develop, through workshops, children's plays and magic shows with pertinent messages.

2. Make them pose questions to real-life MPs, Ministers, Speaker etc.

Although modest and still emerging, some associations have initiated parliament models in Arab states. These initiatives have come mostly from governmental institutions (e.g. Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Jordan) or from political parties (like in Morocco). In addition, some universities (e.g. Cairo University) have initiated similar simulation models.

Still activities geared towards children's political awareness are quite under-articulated.

Youth parliament initiatives conducted by governments, and/or ruling parties are not well assessed, but I believe they have not generally been very successful. On the contrary, some opposition/informal groupings, e.g. religious groups, have proved more effective! They focus on actual involving of children into politics and less on teaching and training activities.

I have special admiration for the experiences of parallel voting, open for youth and some times for children (e.g. Kuwait, Egypt, Lebanon).

Ali Sawi