On Tuesday, 6th of October 2020, the Minister of Education, Culture and Research, Igor Sarov, approved the “Methodological Indicators regarding the online security and safety in the remote educational process of primary school, gymnasium and lyceum students, for the 2020-2021 academic year”.
This is the first methodological indicator document elaborated by the ministry in regards to child online safety. The document establishes ways of involving teachers and management staff into the organization of a remote educational process that is safe for students. Specialists of the Issues Affecting Children Program from the IC La Strada Moldova also took part in the elaboration of the document.
As mentioned in the preliminary indicators, online safety of students should be one of the main priorities of teachers in the remote educational process. In these conditions, any of the learning models selected by the educational institution for the academic year 2020-2021 involves a high level of responsibility for the safety of children online. According to the provisions of the new methodological indicators, online safety will be ensured by:
- Training responsible attitudes and habits in the online environment;
- Providing children with information, measures and tools to report cases of online violence committed by their peers or adults;
- Securing the access of children to online platforms and tools used in the remote educational process.
The full document can be found at: https://cutt.ly/cgtZIsB
This is a first, but very important step, towards a comprehensive approach to online safety in schools. In partnership with the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, La Strada Moldova will carry out a series of information and training activities for teachers, management staff and school counsellors, in order to ensure the efficient implementation of these indicators.