The quickest way to learn about Newspapers In Education is from your colleagues around the world. A collection of their suggestions is provided here under these categories:
   How it works
   General Advice
   Initial strategies
   Options
   Hiring a coordinator
   Training teachers
   Creating NIE instructional resources
   Newspaper activities
   Strengthening NIE
   For further information

How it works

In its most elementary form, an NIE program is one in which newspapers are distributed to schools or other institutions that conduct educational programs. At this basic level, an NIE program may involve nothing more than the weekday delivery of newspapers to a school. The next step could be to deliver together with the newspapers a description of an exercise that can be done using the newspaper. This allows the teacher to control the use of newspapers and the students to have a guideline.

At the most active level, an NIE program engages several newspaper staff members; a well-defined package of products and services, including extensive teacher training; and activities all year long. A well-developed program often includes literacy efforts and other programs that earn a reputation for the newspaper as an active and well-respected player in the community’s educational process. Back to the top of the page

General Advice

It is necessary to keep the newspaper management informed and involved in the work all the time and not only to focus on teachers and schools.

Regional models provide a cheaper way than individual newspaper based NIE.

NIE succeeds only if a close relationship develops between the schools and the newspaper.

At schools, principals, teachers and curriculum supervisors should participate in the NIE program.

At the newspaper, managers, marketers, news and editorial staff, delivery personnel and NIE representatives must become involved.

On a national level the involvement should include the Newspaper Publishers Association and preferably the Ministry of Education. In some countries NIE is only possible in agreement with the Ministry of Education. On a regional level teacher training schools and the universities as well as the district school-inspectors can be important promoters of NIE. Back to the top of the page

Initial Strategies

Establishing a partnership for literacy. The choice, going it alone or seeking partners against illiteracy, has been answered in many countries by nationwide programs in which the newspaper business is working closely together with book and magazine people as well as the public libraries and all kinds of organisations with special concerns for groups of people who can be considered non-readers or poor readers. The NIE Committee came to the conclusion that working together promotes reading abilities and pleasures in general and is therefore good for newspapers. By all means do contact the national or international reading society and other organisations in your country with a commitment to reading by young people.

Finding support ideally. The Ministry of Education is needed to lend support to the important effort to facilitate the use of print media in the teaching and learning process at all levels of education and across all parts of your country. So, explain that the NIE initiative has the capacity to:
  Promote the development of reading skills and a love of reading among people of all ages.
  Make available affordable, relevant and effective learning resources to teachers and learners, particularly those from educationally-disadvantaged backgrounds.
  Empower teachers by providing training in resource-based, learner-centred, communicative approaches.
  Assist educators in meeting the divergent needs of students from different cultural, linguistic and educational backgrounds.
  Develop media literacy skills, including critical thinking, critical reading and critical viewing abilities to evaluate media messages.
  Tell the minister that the success of the NIE initiative will contribute to raising the morale of the teaching profession and instilling a culture of learning through the education system as is the experience in many countries all over the world.

Otherwise, be sure to tell more influential people about the NIE initiative. It is not difficult for leaders in government, education, and the newspaper industry to recognise the potential of the print media in education program to provide educational resources necessary for overcoming illiteracy and the cycle of poverty, but doing something about it in many cases is something else. Back to the top of the page

Options

Points to consider and problems to solve before starting NIE:
  PRICE: Are copies provided free of charge or at a special price? The question is: to sell newspapers and give teaching materials as a bonus or give away the newspapers and ask the printing costs of teaching materials; or to give it all for free.
  FREQUENCY: One specific day, on a fixed day every week, during one or two weeks or months, or at some other interval? In most countries NIE is a year-round activity, but some activities can be planned in a certain period.
  COPIES: One per student, or per two or more students? A fixed number per classroom or school?
  NEW/OLD; Some countries offer great numbers of old newspapers for free and old newspapers are certainly better than no newspapers.
  TITLES: Just one newspaper or several, different titles? The latter requires coordination on a regional or national level.

The NIE Committee recommends three promotional techniques -- hiring teachers as NIE program representatives, sponsoring credit-granting seminars and workshops and publishing instructional curriculum resources - as the most important. Back to the top of the page

Hiring an NIE Representative / Coordinator

Anyone who is enthusiastic and a good communicator could be a suitable NIE representative or co-ordinator.
  Most of them are professional educators. That quality is missing in a newspaper and is therefore hired, assuming that these specialists speak the same language as the target group. However, many renowned NIE people have other backgrounds such as public relations or journalism.
  The job itself is akin to a teacher-in-residency assignment with the responsibility of planning and conducting the local educational services the newspaper made available to schools, universities and other educational programs located within its circulation area.
  A newly appointed NIE person often works alone and should, therefore, be encouraged to make contact with NIE organisations nationally and internationally and to attend national and international seminars. Back to the top of the page

Training Teachers

One of the best things the newspaper’s NIE representative can undertake is work with college or university professors of teacher education to plan and conduct accredited workshops and seminars on the use of newspapers in the teaching and learning process.

In fact, the sponsorship of credit-granting NIE workshops and seminars for teachers has been identified as a key ’credibility element’ in the acceptance of NIE among professional educators in countries where schools for teachers can and want to co-operate in this. In countries that have a creditation program for teachers through summer school, NIE courses are a much-favoured choice.

In some countries accreditation is not feasible, but workshops are welcomed everywhere. In some countries, courses for parents are a successful tool to promote (newspaper) reading and fight illiteracy. Seminars can be especially useful where institutions allow their teachers and other employees to travel and invest time in study. They can also be suitable for bringing together decision makers in government and education.

Teacher training is ideally done with the Ministry of Education. However, the newspaper can stimulate such training at a lower level by approaching teachers’ colleges or even by hiring teachers from another country. In Norway, for instance, groups of newspapers hire one teacher who organises teacher training meetings and courses for these newspapers. Back to the top of the page

Creating NIE instructional resources

On the assumption that for many youngsters the newspaper is a relatively new medium that they are not automatically keen on, many NIE people accept as a fact that teaching materials have to accompany the newspapers that are delivered to the schools. There are two types of such publications: the ones that are linked to the curriculum and the ones that solely facilitate the reading of newspapers. In countries where schools in general welcome inspiring teaching material, NIE often takes advantage of the situation by either printing the material in the newspaper or producing separate publications. Many of these publications address specific subject areas such as language arts, social studies, science or mathematics. Some are tightly focused on a particular topic such as presidential elections, celebrations of national holidays and anniversaries, the space program, the environment, health issues and human rights. Where there is no shortage of teaching materials, the newspaper may think it wisest to concentrate on literacy enhancement and offer didactic tools for that very purpose along with newspapers, regardless of curriculum. Different types of instructional resources can be found the world round: teachers’ guides, student supplements, classroom posters, activity card sets, workbooks, quizzes, games, competitions. Back to the top of the page

Newspaper activities

Tour programs - Allow students to visit the newspaper to see firsthand how newspapers are made.

Speakers bureaus - Make available journalists and other newspaper staffers to visit schools to talk about their careers.

Journalism education conferences - Offer training events for school newspaper groups and their faculty advisers.

Mentoring programs - Provide opportunities for student journalists to work with professionals who volunteer to assist youngsters for a specified time frame in a one-to-one training program.

Essay and art competitions - Sponsor competitions through which winning entries are published in special sections of the newspaper.

Materials packets - Produce collections of sample page layout mechanicals, original wire services photos and other materials from the production process. These production materials are especially popular in places where lead is still used.

Lending libraries - Loan teachers such resources as videos or filmstrips addressing current events topics or demonstrating the news gathering process, and how newspapers, slide presentations, photo exhibits, books.

Teacher recognition programs - Celebrate the work of teachers with published appreciations, banquets and scholarships.

Independent judging - Have newspaper professionals serve as judges for student competitions, such as those in writing, photography, art, news quiz and others.

Community service projects - Organize and financially support volunteer initiatives. These ideas should be well-organised, of high quality and not an end in themselves, but clearly linked to the newspapers in the classroom instructional program. Back to the top of the page

Strengthening NIE

Cross-representation of membership from the newspaper industry and education in the standing organisational structures such as boards of directors and national and regional advisory committees can provide a mechanism to insure inter-group involvement and communications.

The counting as paid circulation of newspaper copies delivered to schools. Copies paid for by school district funds, copies sponsored by third parties and copies given away free of charge should all be counted as paid circulation if possible. This raises the revenues from advertisements and helps create a financial source for NIE. Whether this is possible depends on circulation audit rules that differ from country to country.

Finding creative ways to deliver newspapers to schools and learning centres located in remote regions not accessible by regular circulation and delivery routes.

An annual conference that can provide opportunities for newspaper personnel and educators to gain professional development training and to network with colleagues from both the print media industry and education. Back to the top of the page

For further information

If you are looking for possibilities to exchange views, ideas, experiences you can best seek help from either the WAN secretariat in Paris or any NIE Committee member or from other colleagues in your region of the world. A listing is in NIE Contacts & Committee Back to the top of the page