Schoolchildren of the capital's school No. 21 took part in the discussions "Education in the name of justice"
Ashgabat Specialized School No. 21 has today become a venue for educational lectures in the "open lesson" format, dedicated to topical issues of children's safety in the virtual world and crime prevention.
The guests of the school session were international experts from the USAID representative office in Turkmenistan, the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan, and the Ish Nokady company. Employees of international organizations from the regional offices of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan participated remotely.
The organizers of the open lessons – experts of UNODC in Turkmenistan, specialists of the UN International Regional Center for Preventive Diplomacy for Central Asia, together with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) project "Safe Migration in Central Asia", implemented by Winrock International, conducted a training session for teachers of the 21st city School in January this year. Today, teachers share their knowledge with their students.
Students of the 4th and 9th grades attended the thematic classes "Education in the name of Justice" and each age category has its own lecture topic.
The teacher Oganesyan Romella Ivanovna talked to the students of the lower grades about the "Safe Internet". Using examples of cartoon characters, she told the children the basic rules for safe and reasonable use of the World Wide Web. Every potentially dangerous situation for them and the moments that the children may encounter in the virtual network were played out as an intellectual and role-playing game, where the child took the tasks and answers seriously.
The teacher arranged the cognitive lesson in the form of a dialogue – the teacher's reasoned and interesting explanations alternated with children's arguments on a given topic and it was clear that the children began to think about safe behavior in the online space.
On visual video materials, schoolchildren learned critical thinking skills for the competent formulation of basic safety rules that must be followed while online.
Romella Oganesyan's presentation of the topic was extremely delicate, because the audience of young listeners also required a subtle approach. The exercises and tasks performed by the students were not aimed at identifying negative experiences associated with the Internet in children. Everything was done carefully so as not to cause fear, shame or embarrassment among elementary school students because of some things they saw or heard while online.
By the end of the lesson, the children determined the basic principles of safe use of the Internet, understandable to them, and which they will be able to share with their friends and peers by "trial and error". They drew conclusions and rules on the topic in the form of a color poster and drawings and hung them on the wall as a "memo".
At the end of the lesson, the director of the company "Ish Nokady" Jamila Karimova presented the children with gift certificates for attending the Minecraft programming course, which helps to develop logic, thinking and imagination.
In turn, Nino Nadiradze, the representative of USAID in Turkmenistan, donated beautiful books by foreign authors published in the Turkmen language to the school library.
– These works of modern writers, translated into the Turkmen language, will help children to understand the good and bad phenomena in their lives. I would like to wish young people to be vigilant and armed with the right knowledge to protect themselves in our troubled world and in the virtual space as well," Nino Nadiradze said in her speech addressed to students.
High school students took part in the discussion of another important topic – "Human trafficking". The teacher Suray Sahytovna Charyeva conducted an open lesson in English using multimedia equipment and educational videos.
The teacher told the children that everyone needs to know about this global problem. She explained the scheme by which offenders work: it is about recruiting, moving or harboring people for the purpose of exploitation – for example, forced labor, slavery or organ removal.
The students discussed with the teacher how people can become victims of such trafficking. The discussions also touched upon the measures used in the form of threats, force, fraudulent schemes, deception and abuse of power. It was noted that this dirty "business" can be carried out both within one country and on a cross-border basis.
The teacher stressed that the illegal importation of migrants also applies to this problem, and this phenomenon affects people in different ways.
The lecture turned into a lively conversation and discussion – schoolchildren asked questions, the teacher gave life examples and explained possible scenarios on video materials. The guys also discussed the legal side of the issue with interest, finding out who is right and who is to blame.
At the end of the lesson, the ninth graders received certificates from the Ish Nokady company for completing the Speaking club course and wishes to always be educated and successful.
All the listeners of the "open lesson" received personal certificates of participation in the thematic lesson and took memorable photos.
– We will transfer the educational materials on modules and topics used in the "open lesson" to the Ministry of Education of Turkmenistan so that the Turkmen government can implement the developed program at the national level in school and university educational systems, – said Shemshat Mukhametkuliyeva, coordinator of the program "Safe Migration in Central Asia" in Turkmenistan.
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