UNESCO together with the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) as well as the Macedonian Newspaper Association, a WAN member, joined forces in March in Skopje to hold workshops on Media in Education (MIE). The idea is to promote civic education through the use of media in classroom teaching and to promote media literacy among young people in South Eastern Europe.

The lead facilitator, Roxana Morduchowicz of Argentina offered world-class expertise on the use of newspapers in civic education based on her research and teaching in several new democracies.

“The teacher's workshop about newspapers has provided new views and given new horizons on the meaning of the printed media. It directed, educated and informed us and will increase use of newspapers in education”, one of the participating teachers said when evaluating the workshop.

Nearly 30 teachers and staff in the Macedonian Ministry of Education took part in the first workshop and learned about basic strategies for using newspapers in the classroom. “They ended the day just like teachers in every single country where we have seen this done: with considerable enthusiasm” Roxana Morduchowicz said.

The second workshop gathered a number of newspaper managers who heard about different strategies and better use of newspapers in general education, including a sophisticated and low-cost “investigative journalist for a day” project.

UNESCO and WAN will continue efforts to find necessary resources to expand these activities and organize similar workshops and projects in other countries in the region in order to increase awareness and education in media issues from an early age.