Teaching and learning A variety of factors must be considered in ensuring quality teaching and learning: ■■ Teaching and learning practices and methodologies which are coherent with human rights principles; ■■ Appropriate teaching and learning material, including textbooks; ■■ Support for teaching and learning, including networking, exchanges, informationsharing and the use of new technologies; and ■■ Assessment methodologies for human rights education. National human rights institutions can play a particularly useful role through their subregional, regional and international contacts with other institutions: they can support the collection and sharing of human rights education material and good practices in human rights education. If the NHRI has a documentation centre, it can offer material and services to teachers and other personnel involved in formal or informal education. They may help to review textbooks in the light of the substantive expertise they have in human rights principles. This same expertise may be used to support the development and/or review of other human rights education material, such as teaching guides, manuals or comic strips. They may use their websites to offer interactive educational opportunities for teachers and pupils. Again, all of these principles and ideas apply to varying degrees to education in the informal sector. Education and professional development Teachers play a vital role: to be effective in human rights education, they must have the requisite human rights knowledge and demonstrate a true commitment to the principles and values they espouse; their teaching methodologies need to reflect human rights principles. The education and professional development of teachers (as well as of other school personnel, such as head teachers and inspectors), which is a responsibility shared by many, including ministries of education, universities, teacher-training centres, NHRIs and unions, must support this. The plan of action referred to above describes in some detail what is required with regard to curricula on human rights education; developing and using appropriate training methodologies; developing and disseminating appropriate resources and material; effective networking and cooperation; promoting and participating in international education; and training and evaluating training activities. In the medium to long term, organizations with responsibility for training and certifying teachers should develop programmes to ensure that teachers have both the knowledge and personal qualities required to become effective in human rights education. National human rights institutions can support efforts by ensuring that teacher-training institutions have the mandate and capacity to develop competencies in this area. At the same time, teachers must be trained if they are to be successful in human rights education. In this regard, see also the discussion on “professional training” below. 2. Human rights education at the tertiary level Some NHRIs develop programmes to help colleges and universities introduce specific courses on human rights or incorporate human rights elements in existing programmes. They can also support students engaged in research, as well as educators interested in developing courses or providing information materials to their students. National human rights institutions can also give guest lectures in human rights to university students either generally or with regard to key areas of study, such as law, political science and social work, to name a few. 63