Media literacy: 153 Armenian schools take up “the art of resilience”
- Published
- Place
- Yerevan, Armenia
- Event date
- Upcoming event —
Summary
Spotting fake news can be learned at school. From 14 to 21 November, Armenia holds its 9th Media Literacy Week under the theme “The Art of Resilience”. It is run by the Media Initiatives Center, a civil-society organisation, together with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports. The ministry has sent a circular to every school in the country inviting them to take part. The week opens on 14 November at the National Center of Aesthetics in Yerevan with the exhibition “The Art of Free Speech”. It shows 25 works by pupils aged 14 to 18, chosen from entries by 153 schools in the capital and the regions. Then come workshops on artificial intelligence, a teachers’ forum, debates and newsroom visits in the regions.
A poster, a video, a poem or a drawing: for the national contest “The Art of Free Speech”, pupils chose their own format. The subject was set: freedom of expression, independent media and democratic values.
According to the specialist site Media.am, 153 schools from Yerevan and the regions sent in work. The jury selected 25, on show from 14 November at the National Center of Aesthetics, 6 Sayat-Nova Avenue. Five authors will receive prizes.
Artificial intelligence on the programme
Right after the opening, two guest experts from Italy and Croatia will lead two workshops. The first is on AI literacy. The second is titled “Media, Art and Education: Preparing Children for the Real World”. Registration is required for the opening evening, the state news agency Armenpress says.
For a week, schools, libraries, universities and cultural centres are invited to hold lessons and meetings. The programme includes a teachers’ forum, panels with Armenian and international experts, youth activities and visits by teams of journalists to regional communities. The week will close with a concert, “Out of Frame”, featuring journalists on stage.
A week held every year since 2017
The Media Initiatives Center and the ministry have organised the event every year since 2017, following UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy Week. The 2026 edition is funded by the European Union under the “Democracy in the Eastern Partnership” programme.
Analysis
The topic is timely. On 10 November, at the Paris Peace Forum, Nikol Pashinyan listed media literacy and fact-checking among Armenia’s tools against disinformation. The authorities talk about hybrid threats. Schools work on the ground: 153 schools is no small number in a country of around three million people. The theme, “The Art of Resilience”, sums up the ambition: teaching pupils to question without rejecting everything. One limit remains: a single week does not make a curriculum.
Possible consequences
The week opens on Saturday 14 November in Yerevan and ends on 21 November. According to the organisers, schools, kindergartens, universities and libraries are invited to join.
