Manama, June 11th (BNA) –The National Forum on the role of the educational institution in addressing violence and attacks on schools, continued its works today. The Forum is held at Ministry of Education’s auditorium in Isa Town, and organized by the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) in cooperation with Bahrain National Commission for Education, Science and Culture.

The third session of the conference was held this morning under the title “The Influence of the Media and Modern Means of Communication on the Attitudes of Students and their Behaviors,” where the expert of (ISESCO) Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Joboori presented a lecture. He highlighted that the issue of violence is a moral issue, which requires the participation of all socialization institutions like family, mosque, school and media with all its audio and visual forms to address it. He said that the media possess various technological capabilities that could help in influencing the cognitive, emotional and behavioral fields of individuals.

Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Joboori added that the socialization plays a great role in consolidating the idea of violence in the minds of kids, where it is used as a way of education which forms a starting point for violence, and this is where it is used to deal with others instead of dialogue.

Dr. Abdul Aziz asserted the importance and role of media with all its forms in raising awareness on the violence issue and its negative impacts on individual and community, in addition to achieving its aim in changing the irresponsible behaviours of individuals, in addition to acquiring them a civilized behaviour, through using reason and resorting to dialogue when dealing with others, and solving problems.

The expert of (ISESCO) Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Joboori stressed the importance of building a media strategy, that is capable of developing social values that discard violence, and call for dialogue and have contact with individuals when dealing with each other, particularly if there were coordination and integration between those means.

Dr. Abdul Aziz pointed out that the role of media is elevated to the level of acquiring individuals a civilized behaviour, namely respecting others and using dialogue that is considered a benchmark to the civilization of the community. He said that in this phase, the individual can move from the unconscious state to the state of awareness of the dangers of violence and the ways and methods that must be followed to confront it.

Dr. Abdul Aziz said that in this way, the individual is capable of participating in reducing the violence, and bearing responsibility, for it is impossible to live in a spiral of violence, or achieve the aims of development, or develop society, in addition to the psychological problems suffered by the victims of violence, therefore there is a necessity to develop a media strategy with clear and specific goals to change behaviour.

Dr. Al-Joboori concluded his lecture with presenting a number of recommendations to address the phenomenon of violence through using all media means with all its forms in accordance with the desired aim to be achieved, and the nature of the targeted people through social programmes, animation, dialogues, investigations, and the serials that address the issue of violence and highlight its drawbacks, especially on victims.

Dr. Al Joboori highlighted that it is necessary not only to enact laws to reduce the incidents of violence or reduce them to achieve security and stability in society to achieve growth and development, but also to benefit from the technological capabilities of media to spread its messages that discard violence and reinforce social values through various press and television channels.

Dr. Al Joboori said that instead of broadcasting movies and serials which include violent scenes, we should broadcast scenes that support dialogue and good treatment between children and parents, as well as between spouses. Animations can be also displayed aiming at deepening humanitarian values and developing life experience for children, as values of cooperation, work and learning.

Dr. Al-Joboori also asserted the importance of continuous addressing of the issue of violence by the media in case an incident occurred and affected an important sector like school, university or courts, where promoting influence requires the continuous addressing of the issue, which develops a public opinion against violence.

The fourth and fifth sessions of the National Forum were held as dialogic discussions, where one of them addressed “obstacles and challenges faced by the educational institution,” the school, in confronting violence and assaults,” and the other addressed “the role of educational leaders, family and civil society in promoting the culture of dialogue and peace among young people.”

It is worth mentioning that the forum is often held with the participation of 300 experts and people concerned with the educational issue. It aims at shedding light on the role of the educational institution, and its work mechanisms to reduce violence and address assaults to develop a coordination and an integration framework between educational officials, and civil community institutions, as well as media people on the exerted efforts in this regard.

The forum also aims at developing educational, cultural and media project which contribute in providing protection requirements, and confront assaults and violence against schools.

On the other hand, organizing the National Forum at the present time, attains a great importance in the light of the recurrent attacks witnessed by Kingdom of Bahrain’s Schools, which reached about 192 attacks, according to Ministry of Education.

MR

BNA 1630 GMT 2013/06/11