October 27, 2015, the meeting of Igor Barinov, the head of the Federal Agency for Nationalities, and Alexander Boroda, the Director General of the Federal Research Guidance Center in the field of psychology and tolerance pedagogics, was held at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. As part of the meeting the parties signed a long-term relationship agreement of development of educational, research and development programs in the field of interethnic communication and their realization at the federal, regional and local levels.
The Federal Agency for Nationalities of Russia and Tolerance Center consolidate their efforts to solve the tasks of uniting the multi-ethnic nation of the Russian Federation, to secure interethnic concord and ethnocultural development, to prevent any attempts of stirring racial, national and religious discord.
Development and distribution of the guidance papers explaining how to give the Tolerance Lesson at the educational institutions of Russia will be the first step within this cooperation; the lesson will be occasioned with the International Tolerance Day which is celebrated on November 16.
The Tolerance Center specialists have developed special programs for pupils of junior (1-4 classes), secondary (5-8 classes) and senior schools (9-11 classes).
The goal of the Lesson is to mould pupils’ positive civil identity, active social attitude, principles of tolerance and culture of peace.
During the Tolerance Lesson pupils will be able to get acquainted with the cultural heritage of different nations, to realize the similarity of the main systems of values and notions of different nations and cultures, and to start to more knowingly and positively take the variety of the world around us.
The Tolerance Lesson at the senior school aims, first of all, at moulding of intercultural competence and understanding of common factors of holding an intercultural dialogue. Pupils will study in more detail the notion of civil responsibility; they will discuss how important personal contributions and personal responsibilities are in the process of building positive communications with representatives of other nations of Russia.
During the lesson pupils will learn how to write the word ‘peace’ in 86 languages and their names in Farsi, will learn in Russian proverbs of different nations: Tatarian, Jewish, Dagestanian, Udmurt, Bashkir, and others.
«Nowadays the most important thing in the field of international relations is to work with children, to tell them about other cultures, religions, to learn them to hold intercultural dialogues. The things we put in our children today will determine the future of Russia. Therefore, we are ready to support such projects as the Tolerance Lesson on all fronts and to promote them in all the regions of our multinational country,» Igor Barinov told.
«The Tolerance Lesson is not a lesson which it is possible to hold during an academic hour. It is a global educational project aiming at upbringing tolerance in the society and prevention of international conflicts. We hope that lessons dedicated to this theme and held at schools of Russia during the International Tolerance Day will become a successful start in fulfillment of other educational and research and development programs carried out as part of collaboration of the Tolerance Center and the Federal Agency for Nationalities,» Alexander Boroda specified.