Since 2012, the City of Rijeka has been implementing a very popular programme in its schools titled “My Rijeka“ with the idea of offering our little fellow citizens a possibility to gain more knowledge about the city they live in and form a positive emotional attitude among pupils towards their nearby surroundings.
The fact that this Programme has been included in the Development Strategy of the City of Rijeka for the period from 2014 to 2020 is the evidence of its success. The Strategy determines the introduction of the educational programme “My Rijeka” in all elementary schools in Rijeka as one of its strategic goals, whereby planning to develop a relationship between pupils and the city and its identity, while the introduction of the educational programme in elementary schools will promote nonviolence, tolerance, solidarity and basic human values among pupils.
This interesting and original programme successfully encourages students’ linguistic and creative expression tied to numerous historic, geographic, artistic, cultural and sports attractions of the City of Rijeka. So far, pupils who attend fifth and sixth grades of elementary schools in the city of Rijeka, could take part in the programme, however, as the city attractions are so many and wishing to continue the Programme, it has been supplemented by another manual dedicated to pupils who attend seventh and eighth grades and since school year 2014/2015 those somewhat older pupils have been enabled to take part in Programme implementation.
Both patriotic themed manuals “My Rijeka” contain 33 different lessons that are translated into the Italian language with the aim of approaching its contents to pupils who belong to the Italian national minority. Also, we should emphasise that the manuals are richly illustrated, in accordance with the age of the target population, and equipped with didactic and methodical components that indicate the method in which the content is tackled, research and creative impulses and guidelines, and numerous correspondent components are included within each unit that indicate its interdisciplinary feature.
Both manuals are prepared by the same team of professionals: the author of texts is Velid Đekić, the author of the methodical part of the manual is Karol Visinko, the manuals were illustrated by Ivan Mišković, while the photos were collected and processed by Ivan Vranjić who is also the graphic editor of the manual and the author of the website where the contents of the manual are presented. The manuals are proofread by Gordana Ožbolt and are translated into the Italian language. The manuals were translated by Melita Sciucca, and Italian texts were proofread by Patrizia Pitacco.
The entire programme has been completely financed from the budget of the City of Rijeka.
Given the dynamic of adopting single teaching units and pupils’ interests, among thirty-three themes contained in each manual, teachers can choose those that will teach in one educational year. The themes include various elements that define the city, and they include information on the geographical position of Rijeka, its natural and cultural environment, sports and, in particular, the city’s rich history.