By Rudie van Meurs

During the preparation of the course, I showed hesitation and scepticism about the possible one-sided organization. But at the end, I was not unsatisfied at all. We started with 27 students and we finished with 19 – that’s a rather good score and considering the eagerness and the mutual cooperation they showed an even promising score. Four of the students were from the SEE-university in Tetovo – but that’s only for the record because differences did not show up. It cost me three days to drive the students that journalism is a deadline business and that they have to start at nine sharp. The fact that there was a memorial day on Monday the 9th and that every politician and civil servant was engaged with the elections, handicapped us a little bit.
Almost every day whether Saso Ordanoski or his deputy Zoran Bojaroski were presence. Saso is a born teacher. Zoran is a good organizer. Every morning Daut Dauti joined the discussions about journalism and gave sensible remarks – he is modest and moderate and deserves attention for a further role in lecturing. Not any problem appeared between the three domestic trainers and me – presence every day, to work and to listen to them and the guest-speakers.

That last category, the guests, was for me a cause for some dissatisfaction. I don’t question their abilities. I don’t even doubt the necessity of their lectures. But not during that very two weeks, meant and started as a practical summer school. For instance Jasmina Mironski discussed ‘the art of interview’ (three hours). Her colleague-journalist Aleksandar Damovski talked one-and-a-half hour about ‘ the freedom of the press and the press industry’ – also discussed by myself in the beginning of the course. The respected senior reporter Ljupco Popovski dealt with ‘specialist reporting’. The very restrained Ibrahim Mehmeti from ‘Search for Common Ground’ discussed the ‘ethnic clash’ and ‘the role of the NGO’s’. He was so boring that I had pity with my students who had to listen to him three full hours. Dobrinka Taskovska, our very efficient organizer of the summer school lectured in cooperation with her colleague Nikolas Tupanchevski two times two hours about ‘freedom of expression, its protection and limitations’. Very interesting, I learned a lot. The author Luan Starova (former ambassador) talked two hours about cultural diversity, language and communication. I adored it, very good indeed. The students told me most of the subjects were new for them because they are used to listen in a lecture-hall together with some hundreds of other students to a complete disinterested professor who read his lecture dozen and dozen times before. But again. Not during that very two weeks, meant as a summer school for practical work.After consulting my trainees intensively, I realized that the students from the University in Skopje in the three and four years they spent at the HH Cyril and Methodius, they never did practical work and they never got any support when they undertook iniatives to do some practical work. The students of the SEE-university have just started. In addition, their university is very much orientated towards technology and communications. To educate them in journalism it even takes more time and exertion.So, I come with some recommendations.
If it comes to a continuation of the summer school, we must focus on practical training. I suggest doing it even more intensively. May be it is a good idea to train the students the first five, six days exclusively in the technics of making a lead, a news story, an interview, a reportage – even a feature. They will work under supervision of experienced, professional journalist-trainers at the university.
Next, the students will be sent to the spot – the place where the news is. Prepared and carefully produced. For instance, all the students go to the town Ship – the so-called Macedonian Manchester – now struck by unemployment and decline. Students have to collect all the news and the facts about the misery; they interview workers, families, members of the staff of the factory and have to find out how come that the textile- and garment industry disappears from Macedonia. Next, after say three days, they go back to Skopje to make the articles/reportages/features in another four days, again under supervision from journalist-trainers.If everyone agrees that the other subjects, taught by the guest-lecturers, are important, the summer school has to create room to fulfill these needs. I think three days will be enough. But these three days will be apart from the practical two weeks.Rudie van Meurs
Skopje
September 12, 2002