By Lodu William Odiya
At least 30 Students from different schools have been trained on media information literacy as a test for a pilot MIL curriculum that was developed by the UNESCO.
The two-days training for High-school students brought together four different schools within Juba which includes Juba Day, Juba commercial, Supiri and Juba technical secondary schools.
Speaking to the media, Dhieu William, the project coordinator for Media Mentors Network said the event meant to test for a pilot of media and information literacy curriculum that was developed by the UNESCO.
“We are rolling out the MIL curriculum and we are testing it with these four schools” he said.
“When we are done with these four schools, we will roll it to the countrywide. So, we have just selected 30 students from these four secondary schools” he added.
William highlighted that they were teaching them about how to message, looking at the role of the media, and also how to spot misinformation and disinformation for ethical sharing online.
“They are able to also verify what is false, what is correct online. So basically, this is the thing that we are going to see” he stated.
William underlined it was the first of its kind in this year, since the curriculum was developed by UNESCO.
“We have done it with the journalists, students, working journalists and content creators that we have in South Sudan. And this exercise is continuing now. We are doing the second one this month” he said.
He emphasized that next month, they are going to enrol the community leaders and even religious leaders.
“What we are trying to do is that the world is becoming media-circulated. So, we are seeing that the media, we live in the world of media” he stated.
He further underscored the impact of the training to the country would be great as it is preparing to go for an election.
“This is also going to help them in participating in a democratic process that is going to come. As everybody is well informed, they will be able to make informed decisions” he said.
According to Morris Nyarji, a facilitator and also the Assistant regional spokesman for the Jehovah witness emphasized the importance of Media information literacy to the students because most of them are using social media handles.
“They need to use this media outlet responsibly so that they can be able to share information easily, accurate and also meet the standards including the ethical aspects” he said.
Nyarji highlighted that the students had been learning computer skills for the last three months and now, they decided to give the two days media training.
“We have given them 2 days training on media. This time, how do they use media because these are media students club from different schools” he said.
Nyarji underlined the students were from Juba Day, Juba technical, Juba Commercial and Supiri secondary school respectively.
He stated that when the students acquire the knowledge, it would enable them to use media devices and platforms in a responsible manner.
“We want to ensure that they have the news which does not cause harm to others, and also use pictures that does not cause copy right issues” he expressed during the interview.
He commended media Mentor Network and UNESCO for organizing the training and further called for extension to other schools.
In an interview with this outlet, Unzima Michael Alfred, 18 years old student of Juba Day secondary school emphasized that the training has given her the knowledge to analyse and evaluate information before expressing to the public.
“Now, I know how to use information and how to analyse it and how to express it into the public” she said.
She underscored nowadays; people mislead through fake information on social media handles like Facebook and WhatsApp.
Michael appealed to organizations and development partners to continue with such a training to high school students.
“We need more training for young people in order to know how to develop the skill of a journalist” she said.
On is part, Alex David Juma, a student of Juba Technical secondary school told this outlet that the Media Information training would help him fulfil his dreams of becoming a journalist.
“My dream is to become a journalist and, I would really like to assist my country through disseminating good information” he said.
David underscored many young people sends out misleading information which continues to affect the rest of the communities.
Meanwhile, Iman Joseph January, who is also a student at Juba Day secondary school said through the training, they had learned and gained a lot of knowledge concerning mis/disinformation.
“There are lots of misinformation that has been spread. Especially for us young students. But today in the training we have really known how it is affecting our people negatively and mentally” Joseph stated.