Several teachers and students shared the results obtained after one year of teaching the optional subject “Harmonious relationships in the family” in schools. They gathered within a national pedagogical conference, organized in Chisinau by the International Center ”La Strada”.
The event was attended by more than 70 teachers and students from 21 high-schools of the Republic of Moldova, where during the study year 2016-2017 the subject “Harmonious relationships in the family” was implemented.
The Ministry of Education was represented by Mrs. Corina Lungu, Senior Consultant at the Department of pre-university education. She appreciated the initiative and qualified it as very actual and extremely useful. The participants in the conference identified possibilities to improve particular aspects of the optional subject.
Students and teachers recommended the Ministry of Education to introduce the subject in the mandatory curriculum starting with the ninth grade. ”This is a requirement of our time, mostly caused by the migration of parents and lack of some good family models. (…) Most teenagers make mistakes before reaching high-school. At high-school it is already too late”, mentioned a student participating in the event.
As part of the teaching plan of the course, the teachers have audiovisual materials and various study cases, but in future they intend to involve parents in some classes of the course. In addition, they showed their openness to get continuous training, in order to be able to talk to students about how to manage their feelings, how to communicate in a couple and also, how to recognize and avoid cases of violence.
The subject „Harmonious relationships in the family” was piloted in the Professional School no. 1 from Cahul. ”Preventing cases of violence was the most sensitive topic, that provoked increased interest among the students I have worked with. Many girls told me they noticed cases of psychological or verbal violence, but had never imagined that these could lead to such serious consequences. As a result of an exercise, we identified cases of violence in their own school group, which they considered to be just harmless jokes before”, stated during the conference Mr. Maxim Papana, teacher at the Professional School no.1 from Cahul.
The course "Harmonious relationships in the family" was developed by the International Center "La Strada" and approved by the National Council for School Curricula of the Ministry of Education. For the study year 2016-2017 it was introduced in the curriculum as an optional subject in high-schools, and will be taught in schools, at demand, also in the study year 2017-2018.
You can see the photos from the event HERE.