Ahlam bint Khalifa Juma Al Ma’mari (left) an English language teacher at the Atika for Basic Education of Girls School, Oman, and Wafa Yasir Al Rawahi, an English language teacher at Al Alia School, Oman, watch as a sub-editor explains to them how a newspaper is produced, at The Peninsula’s office.

DOHA: Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) is conducting a two-week journalism training workshop for 10 teachers from various high schools in Oman. The purpose of the workshop is to help the teachers to start journalism programmes and publications in Omani schools.

As part of the training, the teachers paid a visit to The Peninsula’s office, accompanied by the Senior Associate Dean of the Medill School of Journalism in NU-Q, Richard J Roth. They were introduced by Erika Widen, Head of Business Development and Marketing, and Khalid Abdul Rahim Al Sayed, Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, to the newspaper’s Young Journalist programme, which will be officially inaugurated in October

this year.

The programme, which aims to help youth develop their strengths in the field of journalism and discover their creativity in writing, reporting, photography and illustration, goes beyond Qatar’s borders since it will also provide online training.

The teachers visited The Peninsula’s newsroom and were told in detail about the process of production of a newspaper. A number of the teachers intend to launch either both, printed newspapers and websites for their school, or just online publications.

“It was an amazing and useful experience,” said Issa Al Shabibi, a teacher at Shabib bin Attiyah School. “I got brilliant ideas on how journalism functions.”

Wafa Al Rawahi, a teacher at Al Alia School in the northern Sharquia region of Oman, said: “It was a great experience. The Peninsula is giving great chances for young people to participate in journalism as it is offering online courses.”

A teacher at the Atika for Basic Education of Girls School, Ahlam Al Ma’mari, said as a result of the workshop and the visit to The Peninsula, she had concluded that “journalism is really an interesting profession.”

The workshop at NU-Q, which will conclude tomorrow, is jointly sponsored by the journalism programme at Northwestern, the Middle East Partnership Initiative, the International Education and Resource Network, and the US-based Academy for Educational Development.

THE PENINSULA