On June 28, 2019, a meeting of international and Kazakhstani experts on media and information literacy
(MIL) was held in Almaty.
In the morning, Pavel Bannikov, editor-in-chief of FactCheck.kz, the author of the course FactCheck
Academy, told colleagues about modern information verification tools and actualized an importance of
media literacy for Kazakhstani school students.
Onwards, experts discussed in a round table format the main topics of the future textbook on media
literacy for schools in Kazakhstan.
During active discussion, participants shared their experiences in promoting MIL issues. It was
interesting to hear about experience of colleagues from Kyrgyzstan on how they began to promote MIL
for the first time in Central Asia among school students. Aichurek Usupbayeva, an expert at the Kyrgyz
Media Support Center, said that their organization is promoting teaching materials and an online MIL
course through trainings for teachers, including teachers from regions. They also organize Media Camp
for school students of Kyrgyzstan. The main problem faced by colleagues is low interest among the
teaching community.

Dainius Radjevicius, chairman of the Lithuanian Journalists Union, media expert, drew the attention of
the meeting participants to the textbook content, which is important to adapt for modern
schoolchildren. He also urged to take into account the information bubble in which most consumers of
information are located. A good way to "reach out" to teenagers can be cinema, computer games and
sports.
A teacher of the highest category, Yurchenko Tatiana, also suggested create exercises that begin in the
format of a game and then smoothly proceed to the theory.
However, today many well-reasoned opinions were voiced, due to which, by the end of the day, the
editor had a ready list of chapters and authors. Among the authors of the future textbook:
Oleksandr Gorokhovsky, the founder of the project “BezBrehni.ua”, a certified trainer and author of the
book on media literacy and fact checking;
Dainius Radževičius, professor of the Lithuanian State University, chairman of the Lithuanian Journalists
Union, media expert;
Tasha Sokolova, editor, media trainer, founder of the Monitor Media project;
Aichurek Usupbayeva, expert of the Kyrgyz Media Support Center;
Dmitry Shishkin, journalist, media trainer.
A preliminary version of the textbook on media and information literacy for high school students in
Kazakhstan is planned to be completed by the beginning of the school year.
The project is implemented by MediaNet, an international journalism center supported by USAID and
InterNews in Kazakhstan.