The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and the Ministry of Education and Science announced the first all-Ukrainian lesson on media literacy

Filter national media literacy project of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine together with the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine announced the first all-Ukrainian media literacy lesson on February 17 and 18 in all general secondary educational institutions of Ukraine.

This initiative is part of the urgent measures for the consolidation of Ukrainian society, which were approved by the Presidential Decree and the Government Resolution, issued on the occasion of the Day of Unity on February 14.

“Conducting such a lesson is a historic event for our country. The lesson is not just symbolic. Information attacks from the Russian Federation take place every day, and media literacy is a protective shield and one of the most important skills to prevent the spread of such manipulations and fakes,” Oleksandr Tkachenko, Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine, noted.

The lesson on media literacy is designed to draw the attention of the younger generation to the development of critical thinking. During the lesson, teachers and schoolchildren will have an opportunity to talk about various ways of recognizing fakes, and types of manipulation in the network and take a look at the processes of creating news.

“For the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, this is a landmark event that is now starting a new tradition. In times of open access to information, media literacy is not only a skill of orientation in the media space. Its goal is to educate a child in critical thinking so that he or she can learn on his own and, if necessary, sometimes instruct his parents on how to use information,” Yevhen Bazhenkov, director of the Institute for Educational Content Modernization, explained.

During the press conference, the participants shared useful resources for conducting the lesson, reflected on the basic approaches to working with children, and also discussed how to teach media literacy to children so that it isas useful and interesting as possible.

All schools were invited to use educational materials on media literacy, published on the online platform of Filter national media literacy project.

“On this platform Filter has collected the best educational materials for teachers, pupils, students, and journalists. These are both literature and games, vlogs and exercises. In the Media Education block, for example, educational materials on media literacy from IREX, the Academy of Ukrainian Press and other project partners are collected. And the section “Media education. For teachers and students” contains specially translated and adapted lessons on media literacy from the Swedish Institute”, Valeria Kovtun, head of Filter national project on media literacy, underlined. 

Alyona Romanyuk, a media trainer and founder of the “NotaYenota” project, reflected on the influence of media culture and effective and creative approaches to working with children.

“Media literacy is not some imaginary definition, it is the skill that helps us survive and protect ourselves and our loved ones from informational attacks. Therefore, it is important that the tasks we give children to learn critical thinking skills and the basics of media literacy are interesting and relevant for them. For example, children prefer various games, puzzles, tournaments, and quizzes much better, because these formats include a competitive part”.