DISINFO: USAID has started 'manipulating' teachers from Russian schools in Moldova
SUMMARY
USAID (the US government agency for international development) wants to manipulate Russian school teachers in Moldova. USAID openly advertises on social media their intent to "train" teachers in Moldova, focusing on those who teach in Russian schools.
RESPONSE
Recurring disinformation narrative about the foreign influence - from the EU and the US - on the countries of the former USSR. The article itself promotes a manipulative and misleading message trying to imply hidden intentions of USAID.
In fact, the announcement in question is about a training programme funded by USAID, proposed by the NGO Center for Independent Journalism, for teachers who want to teach optional subjects in media education in schools. This course has been taught in schools in the Republic of Moldova as an optional matter since 2018 and it is also open to Russian speaking teachers and students.
The media education course aims to teach students about the role and power of the media in a democratic society and to be aware of the dangers online by adopting responsible behaviour and becoming responsible media creators, as it is mentioned in the Curriculum for VII-VIII year students, adopted in 2018 by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research of the Republic of Moldova.
See here a similar case claiming that the high school media literacy course in Moldova aims to remove all Russian information from the informational space of Moldova.