Private Practices: Exploring the Privatization of Education

Transitions, a Prague-based media training organization, is looking for motivated journalists to participate in an intensive, one-month online program, scheduled to take place from mid-March to mid-April. This course is designed to provide participants with all the skills they need to know to write effectively on one of the most important challenges facing the education sector: privatization.

This free-of-charge course is open to citizens of Central & Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Eurasia.

What do we understand by the term “privatization in education”? Private schools? Private tutorials? Use of public space for private education? Is privatization a help or a barrier to education?

There are different understandings of the term and various usages of it around the world. For example, in the Western Balkans, privatization in education is an ambiguous term – new, underrepresented, and hardly reported in the media.

This online course will give an overview of privatization in education as a whole and its aspects in Europe and the Western Balkans and provides tips for journalists for how to present a sometimes complicated issue in a compelling and interesting way for their audiences.

The lead instructor will be Edlira Gjoni, an education expert and former journalist who works in the Western Balkans as a Regional Advisor for Swisscontact, the Swiss Agency for Technical Cooperation. Previously, she was engaged on many projects aimed at supporting educational reforms and enhancing human rights in Albanian society. Ms. Gjoni holds PhD and MSc degrees in Communication and Social Change from the Department of Communication and Cultural Studies of Malmo University in Sweden.

Several online guest lectures by experts in the field will also take place.

There is no fee for this program.

Requirements:

  • A passion for reporting on education (we prefer journalists already covering education, but will be open to applicants from individuals interested in starting to report in the field with strong experience in covering social issues);
  • A commitment to attend the regular online sessions (which will likely take place one evening a week, plus several guest lectures);
  • A commitment to complete written exercises and reading assignments in between the lectures;
  • A commitment to write one sample article related to privatization in education before the end of the course;
  • The ability to speak and read fluently in English.

Expected weekly time commitment is approximately 3-4 hours over the course of one month, including the writing of one article.

Interested individuals should click on this link to apply, and then will be prompted to submit a CV and motivation letter. The deadline is 21 March. Please send any questions to training@tol.org.

This project is supported by the Open Society Foundations (OSF) and part of a TOL multi-year initiative designed to train journalists to write on education topics with the aim of raising public awareness on education issues around the world.

 
 

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