Peace through Partnership: Homeroom Teachers Forum Presented Russia’s International Educational Initiatives
On October 4, the 4th All-Russian Homeroom Teachers Forum hosted the Peace through Partnership: Russia’s International Educational Initiatives discussion. The session was moderated by Acting Director of the Center for International Cooperation of the Ministry of Enlightenment of the Russian Federation Sergey Malyshev.
The discussion featured Advisor on International Affairs to the Head of Rosmolodezh, Director General of the World Youth Festival Directorate Daniil Bisslinger. He spoke about schoolchildren contributing to strengthening international youth dialogue.
“Thanks to the World Youth Festival, we saw how many friends Russia has in the world and that the overwhelming majority of countries and peoples share the same values as we do. Russia has got great potential for exporting Russian educational products and teaching Russian to foreign young people, and, more importantly, all this is in great demand among foreign youth. This is exactly why we are looking to engage not only young people but also teenagers in international youth cooperation. After all, children are the youth of tomorrow who will be building a common just multipolar world,” said Daniil Bisslinger.
The session participants learned about the WYF Directorate projects aimed at developing interaction between Russian and foreign schoolchildren aged 14–17. For the first time in the history of the festival movement, a children’s track was introduced – 1,000 teenagers from 80 countries including Russia took part in the WYF-2024. The teenagers’ programme of the Festival resulted in creating a platform for developing international friendship among schoolchildren across the world. This included the International Association of Children’s Organizations which hosted it’s first Gathering as part of the Movement of the First International Festival on May 31–June 2 and brought together 124 teenagers from more than 40 countries. The Gathering allowed them to learn more about the opportunities of the Russian educational system for foreign youth, educational programmes of leading universities, as well as discuss projects for building friendly relations among children across the world.
Daniil Bisslinger also invited the guests of the Homeroom Teachers Forum and schoolchildren to join the International Friendship Clubs, which are to be opened in every Russia’s region and the Sirius Federal Territory by the end of October. He pointed out that members of the Clubs will be building up international cooperation and creating projects together with young teachers and teenagers from other countries.
The discussion also featured representatives of the field of education and children’s organizations. Director of the Lomonosov Lyceum in the Republic of Korea Natalya Gulina talked about the importance of Russian education abroad in terms of enlightening the younger generation and preserving historical truth. Director of the Development Vector Institute of Continuing Professional Education of the M. Akmulla Bashkir State Pedagogical University Guzel Kalimullina presented best practices of Russian school education and pointed out the specifics of their implementation in Kyrgyzstan.
The session also featured the participants of the Russian Teacher Abroad project. A teacher of Russian as a foreign language in Uzbekistan Ekaterina Megis noted that foreign schoolchildren are highly interested in Russia, and a chemistry and biology teacher Liliya Yarullina presented school educational practices used in Tajikistan. Director of the World of Knowledge Russian school in Egypt Kristina Babayeva spoke about patriotic education of schoolchildren, studying in foreign countries. In turn, Director of the Artek Children’s Center Konstantin Fedorenko outlined the opportunities for cooperation among teenagers from different countries and great potential of modern schoolchildren.
Overview:
The World Youth Festival took place on March 1–7, 2024 in Sirius, according to the Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin on the development of international youth cooperation. The WYF-2024 brought together 20,000 young leaders from 190 countries.
In the future, the World Youth Festival will become a platform for the development of a permanent international youth movement aimed at creating a just multipolar world. On the instructions of the President of the Russian Federation, the WYF will be held in Russia on a regular basis – once in six years. Also, every six years 10,000 young people from all over the world will get together at the International Youth Festival, and international themed gatherings and events will be held under the auspices of the WYF. All festival formats include a children’s track for schoolchildren aged 14–17.
The World Youth Festival is organized by the Federal Agency for Youth Affairs (Rosmolodezh). The WYF-2024 was operated by the World Youth Festival Directorate.
On the instruction of the President of the Russian Federation No Pr-794 as of May 9, 2020 the All-Russian Homeroom Teachers Forum is held annually. Over the years, the Forum has demonstrated its significance for the teachers of our country. Following the 1st Forum, the professional Community of homeroom teachers and secondary vocational education group supervisors of the country was created on VK https://vk.com/vfkr_ru, which has over 200,000 active users from 89 Russia’s regions.