The International Center La Strada in partnership with the Ministry of Education and Research held the conference “Online Child Safety and School-Family Partnership”. The event brought together (offline and online) over 100 teachers from primary and secondary schools from all over the country.
Teachers with extensive experience spoke about the role of the school–student–parent/tutor partnership. Each of them came up with their own vision of how children and adolescents can use online resources in a safe, useful and creative way.
“We have reached the stage where we can develop not only the competences and abilities of the child, but also those of the parents, as the latter play the key role in education about online safety. This conference is an opportunity to learn about the experiences of our colleagues, to get inspired to learn new models, approaches and perspectives to streamline the school-family partnership,” said Elena BOTEZATU, Executive Director of the International Center La Strada.
“Child safety online and offline is one of the priorities of the Ministry of Education and Research, a fact reinforced by the approval and piloting of Standards for the online protection and safety of children, students. Following discussions with pilot institutions to implement these standards, we came to the conclusion that it is necessary to ensure an exchange of best practices on school-family partnership, and this conference is the right opportunity,” said Angela PRISĂCARU, Senior Consultant of the General Education Directorate of the Ministry of Education and Research.
The specialists of La Strada spoke to the teachers about the perspective of child-friendly school, about how parents can get involved in online risk management and about the impact of the reactions of people from the child’s circle of trust to accounts of abuse. The topics of online child safety were proposed for discussion by Victoria GRIBINEȚ, online safety specialist; Cristina DELIU, manager of educational activity; and Olesea CIUCIU, psychologist.
In turn, teachers who actively promote online safety shared the experience they had in the institutions in which they work. Natalia CONSTANTINOV-POSTOLACHI, online safety coordinator at the theoretical lyceum of Dorotcaia village, Dubasari district, and Cristina SAVCA, teacher at the gymnasium of Carnatenii Noi village, Causeni district, came with good practices in their collaboration with parents. One of the initiatives mentioned by teachers was the “parents’ school” on the topic of online safety at the theoretical lyceum in Dorotcaia.
This year’s edition united, through passion for teaching children, teachers from both banks of the Prut River. Claudia OPRESCU, manager of the online safety program Save the Children Romania, spoke about the activities carried out within the project Internet Lesson („Ora de net”) – a unique European program in Romania, which promotes the use of the internet by children and adolescents in a way that supports their harmonious development.
The conference concluded with a panel of interactive discussions and the promise that all that is most important and valuable to be shared in the “online safe zone” is yet to come.