With People in Need for Better Media Literacy for Children

Digital technologies permeate people's lives, with much of our everyday activities taking place only in cyberspace. Media literacy is thus becoming a key competence of our time. Yet its development has not been given sufficient attention or space in schools for a long time. Therefore, a non-governmental organization, People in Need, and the Bakala Foundation have partnered to support media education for children at the second level of primary schools. The 3-year cooperation will create new audiovisual teaching materials and target working with media literacy teachers. "Media literacy is one of the essential skills of our time. Thanks to the support of the Bakala Foundation, new teaching materials will be created for pupils aged 11-14. They will learn how to assess the factual accuracy and credibility of information obtained online, learn about the phenomenon of fake-news and develop their critical thinking skills," explains Karel Strachota, director of People in Need's education program.

Zdeněk Bakala considers misinformation to be one of the most pressing problems facing the world today. "The pandemic has shown us the tremendous power of misinformation, its massive impact on the fragmentation of opinions, and consequently on the division of society," he noted in connection with the partnership announcement.  That is why he believes that young people need education first and foremost. Therefore, the Bakala Family Foundation has contributed 3 CZK Million to create new audiovisual teaching materials, organize thematic seminars for teachers, and create e-learning materials for home-educated pupils. The Bakala Foundation is partnering with People in Need shortly after announcing its support for the digitalization of education in cooperation with the Česko.Digital volunteer community. "Czech education needs to be modernized to be able to respond to the needs of the 21st century. The digitalization process and the field of media education are connected vessels, one without the other does not make sense," said Václav Pecha, director of the Bakala Foundation.