DIYWIn 2022, students from a highschool in Warsaw participated in a School of Democracy project. One of the tasks in this project was to create a School Participatory Budget.
The high school‘s management has allocated 5,000 polish zloty (approximately €1,000) towards this goal. A team of students active in the Student Council organised the entire process - from the creation of the regulations to the implementation of the winning project.
How does it work?
- Students from the Student Council (organisers) initiated the process and asked the school‘s management to allocate part of the school‘s budget in this initiative.
- The Student Council planned the whole process and created regulations.
- Organisers promoted the idea of PB in their school - hung posters, posted on social media and made an announcement on the school radio station.
- Each student could make a proposal for the project (including cost estimation) and give it to organisers.
- All the projects were promoted on posters, social media and in the school’s radio.
- The Student Council gathered votes from every school community member and counted them.
- The winning project was announced to the school community.
- The school’s management paid for the winning project.
- The video about participatory budget in school
- A device on which to watch the video (TV/laptop/projector) with internet connection
- Post-its
- Flipchart/blackboard
- Printed handouts
Main objective:
- Students learn about Participatory Budget and discover advantages and possible difficulties of the process.
Detailed objectives:
- Students know what is a Participatory Budget.
- Students know that PB can work on different levels - schools, neighbourhoods, cities, etc.
- Students understand the advantages of the PB process as well as its difficulties.
1. Introduction (10 minutes)
Tell your students what will be the topic of the lesson. Ask them questions:
- Have they ever heard about PB?
- Have they participated in PB in any way?
- What are their initial thoughts when they hear about PB?
Comment on their answers: If the topic is fairly new to the group, tell them that there will be a lot of exciting information to learn. If they have some knowledge on Participatory Budget, you can appreciate it and tell them that they will learn more about how Participatory Budgets are created.
2. Video and working in groups (15 minutes)
- Tell the group that you will watch a video about PB in schools.
- Divide students into groups of 3-4 people. Give each group a hand-out [Appendix]. Ask them to read the questions before watching the video.
- Watch the video about Participatory Budget in school with the group.
- Ask the students to discuss the questions in their groups and write down their answers together as a group.
3. Discussion in the class (20 minutes)
Start the discussion by reminding students the definition of Participatory Budget given in the video. Participatory budgeting is a form of citizen participation in which citizens or a community from a specific group are involved in the process of deciding how public money is spent. It strengthens civil society by giving individuals an opportunity to impact their community. Refer to the association map they have created at the beginning. Which points on the map were close to the definition? Which ones were different from the definition?
- Ask the students how they understand the definition - how would they paraphrase the definition in their own words.
- Ask groups questions 2 and 3 from the hand-out and summarise their answers on the blackboard/flipchart.
- Talk to students about their ideas in point 4 from the flipchart. If students seem interested in the idea, you can suggest a separate meeting on this topic.
- Invite the group to do their own research after class. They can either:
- Research Participatory Budgets in their community - maybe there is one in their town, neighbourhood?
- Research interesting Participatory Budgets ideas in the world - is there a place where PB is a core way to decide on how money is spent?