Respecting children’s rights is nowadays an extremely important field, to which society is
paying increasing attention. One of the fundamental rights of the child is the right to
participation. In the master’s thesis, I find that not every participation is already a true
participation. If it is possible for children only to participate, but their participation does not
affect the decision making, such participation is only apparent and misleading. It is crucial that
adults listen to the opinion of children and provide feedback and make it possible that their
opinion affects the final decisions. An analysis of the answers of children in focus groups has
shown that primary school pupils in Slovenia get acquainted with children’s rights during class.
Pupils in school are allowed to express their opinion as a reaction to events in the school, while
they are rarely included into planning of the learning process. In some fields, where children
provide their opinion, like in the case of surveys, pupils do mostly not receive feedback about
the results of the survey.
|