Media literacy needs to be included in the educational process from the earliest age. In that purpose the most appropriate model that will allow effective and easy integration into the education needs to be identified. This is the conclusion from the public discussion "Introduction of media literacy in the education” which was organized by the Government of Republic of North Macedonia and the Macedonian Institute for Media, in the frames of UNESCO’s Media Literacy Days. The purpose of the discussion was to allow the authorities to hear the opinions and the thoughts of the teachers, professors and students regarding introduction of media literacy in education.
Stating that the citizens are “not sufficiently informed or cannot precisely evaluate what is correct and quality information, and what is a lie, untrue information and speculations”, the minister of communications, accountability and transparency, Robert Popovski, expressed his concerns that the country is on the last place in Europe considering the skills of its citizens for evaluation of truthfulness of information.
“The information are not sufficiently checked, there is no interest or willingness for that, the arguments, facts and everything that “bombards” us every day are not well recognized, which is why we must find a way to help the citizens to detect and to better recognize this occurrences”, said Popovski, emphasizing the importance of media literacy in this context.
The Minister of education and science Arber Ademi recommended that a best model for integration of media literacy in the national educational curricula should be identified, through inclusive debate, consulting the media and the experts, the analysis on national level and the experience from abroad.
It is important to teach the children from earliest age to make distinction between fake and true information, since this approach affects the attitudes and thoughts of every single person for a certain question”, Ademi adds.
Media literacy should become part of the educational system and the EU supports all activities of the Government in this direction, said Ferruccio Bogo, political adviser from the EU Delegation. “These activities should contribute for active youth, who can critically consume information, instead of just being consumers. In order to have better results, this process also asks for an appropriate training of the teachers”, Bogo said.
The teachers and the professors consider that it is very important to identify the most appropriate model for introduction of media literacy in education that on one side will not overburden the education process additionally, but on the other, will help the students to effectively develop skills for critical thinking and solving problems. They stressed that training of teachers is very important, and the new Law for teachers which foresees professional development will support them in this complex process. According to the teachers there is a need of good educational policies which will result with an educational system that will function effectively in the practice. The students appealed for more space for expressing and thinking, instead of just memorizing content, as well as for high quality text books and well designed classes that will contribute to more effective and interesting studying process.
The event was cofinanced by the European Union in the frames of the regional project “Media for citizens - Citizens for media”.
The photo gallery from the event is available here.
