BBC gives school pupils platform to debate
By Sharon Tibenda
7th May 2012:
The BBC World Service will, tomorrow, May 2, invite young people from schools around the world to discuss, debate and share their views on what really matters to them. In several special editions of World Schools Have Your Say, and with news round-ups on air throughout the day, young people from countries around the world will link up to discuss the burning issues and news stories that have got them talking.
World Schools Have Your Say in partnership with BBC World Class – a project which helps UK schools to twin with schools around the globe as part of its educational legacy for the 2012 Olympics – have organised for the hundreds of schools around the world to keep in touch and hold their own ‘news assemblies’, discussing stories and events that matter to the pupils.
They will be feeding in comments, highlights, pictures and videos to a live page that will be running for 24 hours at bbc.com/worldclass and will be liaising with the team in London to react to what pupils from other schools are posting online.
Mark Sandell, Editor of World Have Your Say said: “…The key to World Have Your Say is getting the audience to decide what news is important to them – we regularly hear the views of young people around the world but when the BBC’s World Class asked us to partner them on such a big project, it was impossible to turn down. I’m really looking forward to hearing the agenda set by the pupils of schools all around the world“.
World Schools Have Your Say will start the day in China, hearing from a high school in Yangon, before moving on to the world’s biggest school in Lucknow, India. During the day, listeners will also hear from pupils in Cairo, Egypt; Accra, Ghana; the Dadaab refugee camps in Kenya; Islamabad, Pakistan; Conakry, Guinea; Usain Bolt’s high school in Falmouth, Jamaica; Langdon Park Sports Centre in London; and Washington DC.
Young people throughout the world will share the stories that matter to them with listeners and with other people of similar ages that they would not normally meet, and will have a robust discussion about the issues raised by the news stories they choose to discuss. What would a pupil in Cairo have to say to a pupil in Lucknow? And what would a pupil in China have to share with a young person in Burma?
World Schools Have Your Say is also happening on the BBC’s language services, including BBC Somali, BBC Urdu, BBC Hindi, BBC Arabic, BBC Bangla, BBC Burmese as well as on the BBC’s English-language programming for the African continent, BBC Africa. END. Please login to www.ugandacorrespondent.com every Monday to read our top stories and anytime mid-week for our news updates.
