For young people and adults we use the term ‘education’ in its broadest sense; as a life-long process that enables the global and continuous development of a person’s capacities both as an individual and as a member of society.

Each National Scout Organization is responsible for:

• developing a Youth Programme, based on the fundamental principles of Scouting, that is attractive to and meets the needs of young people in their country
• training volunteers to deliver the Youth Programme and manage the association.

The Educational Methods Committee (EMC), a Sub Committee of the World Scout Committee, is responsible for supporting the development and delivery of Scouting in NSOs; through networking, sharing good practices, supporting innovations and developing partnerships.

The Educational Methods Committee is chaired by John May and a plan for 2008-2011 has been developed.

As an educational movement for young people, Scouting’s purpose is to contribute to the development of young people in achieving their full physical, intellectual, emotional, social and spiritual potentials as individuals, as responsible citizens and as members of their local, national and international communities.

• It includes all four pillars of education: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together and learning to be, the last two requiring a particular emphasis.
• It belongs to the category of non-formal education since, while it takes place outside the formal educational system, it is an organized institution with an educational aim and is addressed to a specific clientele.

In addition, Scouting’s educational approach is characterized by the following:

1. it adopts a holistic approach to a young person’s education;
2. it seeks to achieve its educational purpose on the basis of an educational proposal;
3. as a non-formal educational agent, it plays a complementary role to that of other educational agents;
4. it recognizes that it can only make a contribution to the education of young people.

More information on Scouting’s approach to education is available in The Essential Characteristics of Scouting

source: http://scout.org/en/about_scouting/educational_methods (20.04.2011, 10:52 am)