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Walterstown National School > 6th Green Flag – Global Citizenship

Our pupils in Walterstown have links with people in all of these countries around the world. Each class is learning about lots of different countries around the world.

The 6th Green Flag is for Global Citizenship.

Global Citizenship is very much a cross cutting theme and has implications in the areas of waste, water, energy, travel and biodiversity. Furthermore, since Green-Schools is an international environmental education the theme and spirit of Global Citizenship is very much a central ethos to the international programme.

What is a Citizen?

We all have some idea about what citizenship means but the term can be described in a few different contexts.

  • The first, and most widely accepted, definition is in a political and legal context where ‘citizenship’ is used to explain that someone is a member of a political community or state whereby the citizen has certain rights and responsibilities that are defined in the laws of this community or state. For example, most of us are citizens of Ireland and, among many other things this means that we have the right to vote and the right to free speech. However, we also have the responsibilities that come with being a citizen, such as the responsibility to pay our taxes and to obey the criminal laws enacted by the government. We are also European and Global citizens.
  • Citizenship does not only refer to our rights and responsibilities that are laid down in law but it is also refers to our social and moral behaviour. As a citizen of a community or state, you are expected to exercise your rights and respect the rights of others and you are encouraged to participate in the improvement of the quality of both political and civic life in your community and/or state. This is often referred to as active citizenship, where direct democratic participation and feelings of responsibility for own community is encouraged.

Global Citizenship Facts and Figures

  • There were 419,733 non-Irish nationals living in Ireland in April 2006, there are probably more now!
  • 52,500 of these were children under the age of 14.
  • 75,687 of these were children and young adults aged between 15 and 24
  • 283,471 of these are EU citizens, representing 25 countries in the EU15
  • 20% of the global population own 80% of the global wealth
  • Climate Change seems to affect the less developed parts of the world first
  • The developed world is mainly responsible for the change in climate

Learn more about our Global Citizenship themes