Letters

I enjoyed reading about counsellor Christine Mannion’s role at St Christopher’s School on the cover of last week’s GulfWeekly and the concerns she raised about social media.

It should be noted that in recent weeks schools have been urged to teach young people about how to identify ‘fake news’ by a top educationist who was one of the main speakers at a leading conference in the Gulf.

Andreas Schleicher, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s education director, wants teenagers to look beyond the social media ‘echo chamber’, where they might hear only views like their own.

“Distinguishing what is true from what is not true is a critical judgement,” Mr Schleicher, who had been addressing the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF) in Dubai, told the BBC.

“Exposing fake news, being aware that there is something like fake news, that there is something that is not necessarily true, that you have to question, think critically - that’s a very  important task.”

The OECD aims to develop global policies focused on improving economic and social well-being and Mr Schleicher is planning to include questions about such ‘global competencies’ in the next round of the influential international Programme for International Student  Assessment (PISA) tests.

He says schools need to equip young people with the skills needed to navigate the digital world, with unreliable claims on social media and falsified news. “In the past, when you needed information, you went to an encyclopaedia and you could trust that the information would be true,” added Mr Schleicher.

But now he says young people go to Facebook or news websites and need to be able to evaluate what is reliable.

It will be interesting to see how schools in Bahrain tackle the subject.

J. Simpson, Saar.

The Bahrain Writers’ Circle Monthly Meeting will take place on Monday, April 10, at 7.30 pm at Umami restaurant, Block 338 area, Adliya and the Bahrain Writers’ Poetry Circle Meeting two days later at the same time and venue.

Please note that throughout April every Wednesday rehearsal meetings will be staged for the Colour of Life Poetry Festival.

The Bahrain Writers’ Creative Workshop will also take place on Monday, April 17.

Claudia Hardt,

Bahrain Writers’ Circle.

https://bahrainwriterscircle.net/

Editor’s note: The Colours of Life Poetry Festival will be staged on Saturday,

April 29 at 7.30 pm at JJ’s.