Diversity, an extra chance
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The Contest ?Diversity - An extra chance for the future?, organised by the Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation in partnership with the PER Regional Centre for Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe and ?Divers? Association will take place during April 15th ? December 18th 2009.
The county phase of this contest took place in June at ?Unirea? High School in Brasov, to which pupils from Sacele, Ormenis and Budila participated. The pupils were grouped by teams and each team had to be made up of girls and boys and it had to contain members of at least two ethnic groups. The teams were accompanied by instructors and assessed by a jury made of representatives of the County Board of Education leaded by Ms. Vasilica Diaconu, Deputy General Education Inspector.
Elimination of prejudices
The goal of this contest was to eliminate prejudices regarding race, religion, political opinions, physical features, age or culture and discrimination. The topics of this set of questions were selected such as to determine the pupils to answer consciously that all human beings are born free and equal in their dignity and rights. The pupils had to prove that they knew most of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Romanian Constitution and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Other questions were related to the culture of Hungarian, German and Romani ethnic groups and to their symbols. The teams grouped around a table and answered to grid type questions.
Creative testing
Besides the theoretical examination, the pupils had to pass a creative-artistic test. The main condition was for the artistic product to reflect the interaction between cultures and not just separate elements from each culture. The program also compulsorily included one language minimum, other than Romanian, which had to be the language of a minority group in Romania. Dance, singing and originality tests were also included.
At the creativity part the children went beyond their limits and offered surprising moments. They presented folk costumes belonging to all ethnic groups and danced together dances specific to each ethnic group.
Originality
At the end of the contest, the pupils from Sacele were awarded the first place, for the topic of the multiculturalism by wearing Romani and Romanian folk costumes. The children danced ?Brasoveanca? to which other ethnic groups joined as well. The second place was awarded to the All-Round School of Budila for the Hungarian folk dance with the bottle on the head, and the third place went to the All-Round School of Ormenis for interactive games.
Sponsors: Romani Party, RomArt, Dahor Studios and the County Board of Education of Braşov.
