UNESCO’s Model Journalism Curricula was Discussed in a Workshop in Tehran

• © UNESCO/Arya Gunawan Usis
• Group picture of participants of UNESCO’s workshop on journalism curricula in Tehran

UNESCO’s Model Journalism Curricula was Discussed in a Workshop in Tehran

Competencies required by journalists to carry out their duty properly should be considered as one of the most important elements in designing curricula for journalism education. Failing this could lead to unsatisfactory performance by graduates of journalism schools when they start their professional career as journalists.


That is one of the main conclusions agreed upon by more than 20 Iranian lecturers in the field of communication and journalism who were participating in a one-day discussion of UNESCO’s book “Model Curricula for Journalism Education”, organised by UNESCO Tehran Cluster Office (UTCO) in partnerships with Islamic Republic of News Agency (IRNA) and IRNA’s School of Media Studies. The event that took place earlier in October 2011 was facilitated by Mr. Zulkarimein Nasution, a senior lecturer at the University of Indonesia in Jakarta.

“Every step to review or re-design curricula should start from defining the competencies as clear as possible,” Mr. Nasution, who has been conducting similar discussion in some other countries, including the very recent one in Kabul, Afghanistan in late September. He gave an example, that if one of the competencies defined is to enable students in writing news fast but engagingly, the curricula should consist of lessons that will guide the students towards that goal.

Some other conclusions produced by the workshop include the need to prepare teaching materials that are in line with the Iranian context, as well as list of references that are produced by Iranian journalism experts. The participants also expressed their interest to get involved in future activities as the follow-up of the workshop, including exploring real application of the UNESCO’s Model Curricula in Iranian journalism schools and journalism training institutes.

The workshop is considered as an important highlight of UNESCO’s programmes in the field of Communication and Information in Iran, as it opens further opportunity to engage more scholars, academics and lecturers from many more Iranian universities as well as journalism training institutes in taking a closer look into the current curricula applied in journalism education in the country. The Farsi version of the UNESCO’s Model Curricula has also been published, with its CD format, several days prior to the workshop. The book in Farsi and the CD were given to the participants.

Contact: Mr. Arya Gunawan Usis, Advisor for Communication and Information, UTCO (a.gunawan@unesco.org).

• Source:UNESCO Tehran
• 31-10-2011

• © UNESCO/Arya Gunawan Usis - Participants of UNESCO’s workshop on journalism curricula in Tehran during the group discussion