SYDNEY: The Armenian National Committee of Australia (ANC-AU) hosted Galstaun Government throughout 2019 – this is a series of workshops for years 7, 8 and 9 students of Galstaun College, and they reached their conclusion with a big election in December.
The goal of the Galstaun Government program, which is part of the #ANCAUoutreach initiatives, is to better familiarise high school students about the processes of government, and how great a role politics plays in day-to-day lives.
First piloted in 2018, Galstaun Government in 2019 included practical workshops designed to engage participating students. These included: Mock Parliamentary Debates, Policy-Setting, Campaigning, Mock Elections and Media Role Play.
Year 7 was divided into two political parties, which they themselves named before participating with a For and Against stance on two topics in a mock parliamentary debate. The topics they debated in 2019 were: 'Ban Junk Food in Schools Vs Allow Junk Food in Schools' and 'Keep a five-day school week Vs Make school four days per week'.
Years 8 and 9 each formed two political parties, named the parties and elected their leaders - Year 8 had the Revolution Party and the Greta Party, while Year 9 featured the Purple Party and the Nature Party.
Each party had researchers, who researched their party’s policies and packaged those for consumption by the greater voting student population. Revolution focused on the Climate Change and Start School Days Later, while Greta focused on Climate Change and Animal Cruelty. Purples focused on Standardised Testing in Schools and Ending Genocides, while Nature focused on Animal Cruelty and Deforestation.
Each party also had campaigners, who prepared posters and flyers promoting their parties and their policies ahead of a major leaders’ debate and election, which was held on December 10th. Greta and Nature were the victorious parties after earning the majority of the votes from the students who watched the leaders’ debates at a special assembly.
The debate was moderated by Galstaun College senior student, Lori Basmajian, who played the role of the media.
ANC-AU Executive Director Haig Kayserian said: "The students genuinely seemed excited to participate in Galstaun Government and were engaged throughout the workshops - whether that was during policymaking, thinking critically, campaigning or debating."
He added: "We hope that Galstaun Government, like all our #ANCAUoutreach programs, will cultivate a generation of politically aware youth in our community, prepare our future advocates of Armenian issues, and of course, motivate the next generation of Gladys Berejiklians, Joe Hockeys and Tim Wilsons - Australian political leaders from our community."
