Cultural Exchange Through Super Schools

By: Melani Manasieva, Jana Zdravkova and Elena Sandeva

Throughout this school year students from our school participated in a SupersSchools exchange program that happened between High School, “Ljupco Santov” in Kocani and the Public Institution Third Gymnasium in Sarajevo, where 30 students participated. This project is of great importance because it focuses on improving critical thinking, teamwork, and awareness of social responsibility. The aim is to promote tolerance, inclusion, and active citizenship.

The program consists of a Council of the EU simulation, in which students debated and negotiated proposed policies to combat hate speech and hate crime, specifically whether to extend the list of crimes in the TFEU to include hate speech and hate crimes. The activity consisted of a role-play simulation of a Council of the European Union meeting, focusing on negotiations to combat hate speech and hate crime. Students assumed the roles of national ministers, representatives of the European Commission, and the European Parliament, engaging in a simulated legislative process concerning proposed amendments to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. The methodology was based on simulation and role-play learning, structured in multiple phases, including formal debates, preliminary voting, lobbying and negotiation, and a final decision-making process. Students were required to formulate national positions, engage in diplomatic negotiation, and attempt to reach a consensus on extending the list of EU crimes under Article 83(1) TFEU to include hate speech and hate crime.”

We interviewed some of the students who participated in the event. During this interview one of the students stated, ''differences are not our weakness, but the driving force of a healthy, inclusive society.” Learning about a different culture is what brings us together and opens our mind to a whole new world. We also asked them to describe the experience with one word, they said phenomenal.

The program is important because it created new opportunities and possibilities for young people between the ages of 17-18 from both cities. Through workshops about hate speech and peace building, they learned how to turn diversity into an advantage.This experience helped students enhance their mutual understandings and collaboration amongst themselves and promoted tolerance, inclusion, and active citizenship. It also helped improve the students critical thinking skills , teamwork, and awareness of social responsibility.

Events like these allow people to learn about different cultures while also sharing their own , along with meeting new people and experiencing new things.

We hope that in the future more opportunities like these will present themselves therefore allowing more students to learn through these experiences.