The fake news about the new school year 2024/2025, and those about how many days a week the teaching process will be held, have affected the lives of young people from the non-majority community in the municipality of Istog.

In addition to the fact that this news has irritated them, they have expressed that they have also affected their emotional state in a negative way.

On the last day of the training of "Media education for non-majority communities in Kosovo", in the municipality of Istog, participants were students from the "Fan S. Noli" primary school and those from the "Haxhi Zeka" high school.

The student of this high school, Viola Dervishaj, said that this training has influenced her knowledge about disinformation and misinformation. She also came across the news that the new school year will start on September 9 this year.

"This training has had an effect on my knowledge about disinformation and misinformation, which have differences and similarities between them. We should always research about them and not let them circulate around us. The influence of fake news is very great in our generation, because we are prey to them at every moment, especially in the social and cultural fields, as well as in the emotional aspect of our generation. I have been a victim of fake news lately, where one of them was the start of the school year, because it was not accurate when it will start, on September 2 or September 9, until it was confirmed that the lesson starts on September 2", said Dervishaj.

Meanwhile, the eighth-grade student at the "Fan S. Noli" elementary school, Anes Mededoviq, added that this news bring panic among people and have negative impacts.

The fake news he saw was that this year classes will only be held four days a week.

"Disinformation is fake news that spreads around the world and creates panic among people and is not helpful. False information should not be published in the media because it can cause panic among people and has negative impacts. This school year will be held only four days a week at school, but in fact it was a lie", he said.

Also, Alisa Abazoviq from the same school, emphasized that fake news makes them feel sad or have bad emotions.

She also came across the news that the school year starts on September 9.

"Disinformation is something that should not be circulating around the world, but unfortunately it is happening in everyday life. The fake information in our generation affects very badly, it somehow makes us feel sad or have some bad emotions that we shouldn't have or it also leads to deadly events also killing different people. Until now, I have not experienced disinformation except for one, which was that at the beginning of the school year, there was disinformation that the school year will start on September 9, but in fact it started on September 2", said Abazoviq.

The project manager, Fadil Miftari, has stated that with this project, the objectives have been reached in the best possible way.

According to him, each of the students he met was a story in itself, giving different ideas. And in the tests they did at the end of the training, almost over 95 percent each was able to identify after the training which is the fake news and the real ones.

Miftari emphasized that there may be a similar project in the future.

"We really reached the objectives of this project in the best possible way. During this phase we have met probably more than 800 students from these communities. Each has been a story in itself, given ideas and tested and promoted the best ways of absorbing real news and I believe most of them took what the project offered them. Young people of this age need to certainly continue and advance this project with other forms of training. We will see in the future how we will design the program and I hope we will find support and continue this journey. We usually also did final tests with them and almost for more than 95 percent each of them was able to identify which are the fake news and the real news after the training. The training methodology has influenced that very quickly young people know how to identify the problems they encounter during the time of receiving information", said Miftari.

The project "Media education against disinformation for teachers, students and civil society activists from the Roma, Ashkali and Egyptian communities", is supported by the Embassy of the United States in Prishtina./ A.Shala/