Unesco holds media training in Hanoi

HANOI, Vietnam – The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Bangkok, in collaboration with UNESCO Hanoi, is holding a three-day regional training workshop for media in this city starting today.

The workshop at the Hotel Nikko Hanoi aims to create awareness and understanding among journalists in several countries on the importance of education in human development.

Media participants from print, radio, television and the e-media come from several countries including the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Laos and Myanmar.

The STAR is among the three participating news agencies expected to take part in the event.

The workshop is timely for the annual Education For All (EFA) Global Action Week celebrated from April 23 to 29, and participants are encouraged to cover national activities on these dates.

The workshop also aims to enhance skills of journalists in analyzing key education data used in governments, the United Nations, non-government organizations and civil society, organizers said.

They added that as the lead coordinating agency for the "education for all" program, UNESCO has the mandate to promote awareness and educate the media and the public on the importance of this initiative.

They said greater media awareness on EFA would draw more attention to education issues and how close countries are to achieving the EFA goals. This would hopefully urge or even compel governments to deliver on their commitments of providing quality education for all, they said.

On the other hand, strengthening the EFA advocacy is part of the mandate of UNESCO Bangkok, being the Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education.

The workshop also aims to build the capacity of the media and UN communication officers to analyze and present core education statistics and education issues.

The training is expected to help newspaper companies and media outlets publish or broadcast nationally specific media reports on education issues.

Journalist participants, with the approval of their organizations, will share with UNESCO Bangkok their stories from participating in the workshop that will be compiled and uploaded on the UNESCO website with links to the media organizations, as necessary.

Another aim of the event is to foster better understanding of EFA issues and global/regional initiatives and their impact on countries in the region, as well as cultivate sensitivity to specific educational areas, in particular to issues of disparities and inequalities in the education system.

Likewise, the workshop hopes to enhance journalists and communication officers’ research skills and access to a wider range of information and statistics related to EFA.

It also targets inputs for the Journalists’ Handbook on Education for All, which will include suggested story ideas and follow-up questions related to EFA. UNESCO Bangkok has prepared a draft of the handbook to be presented during the workshop and disseminated widely after the event.

Dissemination points

During the workshop, a network of trained journalists and communication officers, primarily through an e-group, will be created to serve as dissemination points for future education news releases, further training and capacity building, and resources in training of trainers’ initiatives.

There would also be a drafting of recommendations for UNESCO offices, UN agencies, national commissions, ministries of education and other development partners on getting better media coverage and undertaking an effective advocacy/information campaign on EFA.

Other activities that would be held in the workshop will be interactive sessions, presentations, and panel discussions that will be made on specific EFA goals and related issues.

This would be followed by group exercises aimed at developing storylines related to the issues. A number of published features will also be discussed and dissected as exercises.

During the workshop, participants will be divided into two groups for a field visit to a primary school and a Community Learning Centre (CLC) to highlight education issues and good practices in education.

A teleconference is also scheduled to be held with Sheldon Shaeffer, director of the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education.

The "Education Makes News" media training resource kit and media relations handbook prepared by UNESCO headquarters, as well as the annual EFA Global Monitoring Report, will be used during the workshop.

The workshop was organized in cooperation with UNESCO Hanoi and facilitated by UNESCO Bangkok’s public information services/Information Knowledge and Management (IKM) Unit, and the Assessment, Information Systems, Monitoring and Statistics (AIMS) Unit, which is the Regional Office of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The training is made possible through funding from UNESCO’s external relations and cooperation sector.

Resource persons for the workshop and the development of training materials was drawn from the UNESCO Bangkok’s Asia-Pacific Programme of Education for All (APPEAL); the AIMS Unit; IKM Unit; and Communication and Information Units.

Inputs of ideas will also be asked from partners such as the Regional UN Girls Education Initiative (UNGEI) group; ILO; UNICEF; and the Global Monitoring Report (GMR) Team in Paris.

Organizers will also seek the support and collaboration of the UNESCO headquarters, particularly from the EFA division, communications and information, and the bureau of public information.