A new pack produced by Scottish charities will teach school pupils how to identify fake news

A new resource produced by Oxfam Scotland and Christian Aid Scotland will teach Scottish school pupils how to identify fake news.

Pupils will learn about aid and development, such as how the UK spends its aid budget, through a new pack created by the two organisations for secondary school teachers.

The pack will provide teachers with lesson plans to show pupils how to analyse media coverage of overseas aid and how to deal with fake news surrounding the issue. Amongst the skills pupils will learn will be how to separate fact from opinion and how to judge the reliability of a news source.

The pack to be launched today is titled Fair Enough? Talking about aid and development and will be freely available to all secondary school teachers in Scotland from the beginning of this new school year.

Ryan McQuigg, Oxfam Scotland’s policy and public affairs manager, said: “This exciting new resource will help school pupils explore and understand aid and development, while gaining vital myth-busting skills which will help them to critically evaluate the effectiveness of UK aid.”

Emma Gardner, education coordinator for Christian Aid Scotland, added: “This resource has been developed to help pupils understand how funding decisions for development projects are made, and how these long term projects can lift people out of poverty.

“The pupils will also explore the Global Goals for Sustainable Development and how these have the potential to bring global organisations together to eradicate poverty and tackle issues such as climate change. With this new resource, we are supporting teachers to talk about controversial global issues in the classroom.”

Both charities are members of the International Development Education Association Scotland, a network of organisations that provide training, support and resources educating about global citizenship.