Participating in school newspapers elevates students’ sense of responsibility and critical thinking skills. It deepens their understanding of freedom of expression, as students in Azerbaijan recently discovered when their teacher initiated a school newspaper program where there was none before.
In honor of World Press Freedom Day [9], IREX celebrates Halima Fatullayeva, an English teacher from the Ganja region of Azerbaijan, in her effort to develop a culture of student journalism in her region. For Fatullayeva’s students, the newspaper has brought them awareness of their community and a way to express their ideas freely.
“This will eventually help them understand what is going on in the country as they get older, and they will become active, involved citizens,” Fatullayeva says. She worked with 22 students from three local high schools to develop monthly student newspapers in their schools. These students developed their journalistic writing and interviewing skills through training and quickly took ownership over the project, deciding on their own content.
The first edition of the newspaper, created in collaboration with a local printing house, was welcomed with a celebration that included local media and professional journalists. “Through this project,” Fatullayeva says, “the students learned how to take responsibility and how to overcome challenges they faced. They discovered themselves and found new abilities that they had never seen or just never used.”
These newfound abilities stand to go a long way in their community. “Azerbaijan is a developing country and, as such, is anxious to adopt positive practices of developed countries,” Fatullayeva says. “The opportunity for students to publish a newspaper will bring some of those practices to Ganja, such as community collaboration, recognition of youth abilities and talents, and fostering creativity and critical thinking skills. It will provide young men and women the opportunity to work alongside adults to enrich their community.”
Fatullayeva has developed partnerships with volunteers, the Ganja Media Center, and a local television station to sustain the Ganja student newspapers into the future. Funding for the initial project was provided through the TEA Alumni Small Grants Program [10].
The T [11]eaching Excellence and Achievement Program [11] is a program of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs [12] of the U.S. Department of State, and implemented by IREX.