Experts of the International Center “La Strada” recommends the Ministry of Education to make the course “Harmonious family relations” compulsory in schools and to increase the number of classes within this course from 35 to 70.
The recommendation was made after a thematic study commissioned by the Center showed that the students who attended the optional course changed their attitude to violence in a couple and to the roles of partners in a relationship after attending this.
“La Strada” programs director Daniela Misail-Nichitin, in a news conference at IPN, said the discipline was authorized by the Ministry of Education in 2014 and a piloting year followed. The 2016-2017 school year is the first year of implementation based on the teaching experiment and on student and teacher feedback.
“The Ministry of Education is open and we hope that next year we will have at least 20 more education institutions involved. If more education institutions are engaged, we will be able to see more significant changes and hope that the stereotypes related to gender equality will lose ground, at least among young people,” stated Daniela Misail-Nichitin.
The Ministry is recommended to hold public discussions to determine the opportuneness of making the course compulsory and to introduce this from the ninth grade given that students who attended the course said most of the teens make mistakes before they reach the lyceum, while at the lyceum it is too late.
The study authors recommend the managers of education institutions to promote the discipline at the institution and among parents and by activities staged at community level.
“Given the perspective of the recommendations for teachers, it would be opportune to involve parents when particular sensitive subjects are discussed so that parents and children address these at common meetings centering on family values, roles of the women and men in the family, especially from the perspective of the traditional family versus the modern one,” stated Daniela Misail-Nichitin.
The International Center “La Strada” is coordinating the activities with the Ministry of Education so that the project could be extended and the course is taught to students in the 2017-2018 school year as well.
