Hyogo high schools participate in first online WKC High School Forum
On 11 February 2021, over 200 students from 12 high schools across Hyogo Prefecture participated in the WKC Forum “High School Students Thinking Globally Day”. This event is co-organized by the WHO Kobe Centre, Hyogo Board of Education and Osaka University. It has been held annually since 2016 as an important local engagement activity of the WHO Kobe Centre. This year, the Forum was held virtually for the first time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In previous years, the highlight of this event has been a poster session of students’ research projects. This year, the students were asked in advance to submit video presentations of their independent research projects to an online platform created specifically for this event by Osaka University, where the video presentations would undergo peer review and formal judging by a panel of judges from the Board of Education. A total of 53 videos were submitted by individuals or groups of students from 15 different schools. The four presentations that received the highest marks from the panel of judges were from Hyogo High School, Nagata High School, Kakogawa Higashi High School and Himeji Nishi High School. The students were invited to give their presentations live during the online Forum.
The students gave outstanding presentations on topics of local interest with global relevance and consideration for the current pandemic, such as on the potential for virtual international tourism and effective remote learning/teaching techniques. The students also handled the Q&A session with Osaka University faculty members and graduate students with poise, demonstrating the skills of this young generation with information technology and remote communication.
The event also featured a discussion with Mr Yoshiaki Nagata, Deputy Assistant Director of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Kansai Centre and Dr Megumi Rosenberg, Technical Officer of the WHO Kobe Centre. This session aimed to raise awareness about the work of these local organizations and promote general interest in global development careers. It elicited several questions from the students about each organization’s work, the impact of the current pandemic, and the educational and career experiences of Mr Nagata and Dr Rosenberg.
The Forum concluded with a message from Dr Sarah Louise Barber, Director of the WHO Kobe Centre, who congratulated the students and their teachers on their achievements despite the many challenges they faced this past year due to the pandemic.