Amnesty International Czech Republic launches online manual for teachers about handling intolerance

Amnesty International Czech Republic has launched an online manual for teachers that provides instruction on how to handle displays of intolerance in the schools from their colleagues, their pupils, and their superiors. The manual is divided into five areas: Intolerance of non-Romani students for Romani people, intolerance of Czech students for foreigners living in the Czech Republic, the "caste systems" developed by students according to economic or other differences, bullying, and displays of xenophobia from other educators or school directors.

The manual offers proposals for addressing specific situations, such as how to respond when others express the stereotypical view that Romani people abuse welfare and don’t want to work. In the other sections teachers can learn what to do when pupils exclude others who don’t have the latest mobile phone or brand-name clothing.

The advice also concerns what to do when school directors and teachers discriminate against a pupil and how to respond to xenophobic remarks in the faculty room. In addition to tips on how to proceed in specific scenarios, there are links to other resources on these topics and contacts to experts and organizations that can aid educators in such situations.

"We chose the form of a website because it can be easily updated and we can gradually expand it. We would be grateful for any feedback, ideas and suggestions from educators," said Šárka Antošová, Amnesty International’s methodologist for education projects, in a press release.

In addition to its other activity, Amnesty International Czech Republic is dedicated to human rights education. As part of that work it runs the educational portal www.lidskaprava.cz, which has a special section dedicated to teachers that also provides them with materials and themes for specific activities to incorporate human rights topics into the instruction of various subjects.