The winner of the “Golden Pen” is the School Complex No. 1 from Lublin
The President of the Personal Data Protection Office awarded the Władysław Grabski School Complex No. 1 in Lublin with the 'Golden Pen' statuette. The distinction is awarded to the school that implements the most interesting educational initiatives as part of the “Your Data - Your Concern” educational programme. This school year, the Lublin facility triumphed not only in the competition for schools, in which it won first place, but also in the competition for students, taking second place.
The main prize, the 'Golden Pen', was handed over by Jakub Groszkowski, Deputy President of the Polish supervisory authority, to Elżbieta Sękowska, Director of the School Complex No. 1 in Lublin, where the award ceremony for all winners of competitions organised by the Polish supervisory authority within the current edition of the programme took place on 14 June 2023.
Together with the Deputy President of the Polish supervisory authority, prizes were presented to principals and teachers of the winning schools, as well as to students by: Sławomir Adamiec, Director General of the Ministry of Education and Science, representing the programme's honorary patron; Lech Sprawka, Voivode of Lublin; Bartłomiej Bałaban, member of the Lublin Voivodeship Board; Teresa Misiuk, Lublin School Superintendent, and representatives of local authorities headed by Marcin Nowak, Vice-Chairman of the City Council, and Mariusz Banach, Deputy Mayor of the City of Lublin.
A letter from the Ombudsman for Children, the programme's honorary patron, addressed to the winners and participants of the 13th edition of the programme was also read out.
About the competitions
The competitions organised by the President of the Polish supervisory authority are one of the essential elements of each edition of the “Your Data - Your Concern” programme. The main objective of the competitions for students and for schools and teachers training centres is to promote the principles of personal data protection among children and young people, to popularise knowledge on personal data protection among students, and to emphasise the important role of the subject of privacy and personal data protection in everyone's life.
In this edition of the programme, the task in the competition for students was to record and edit a short film in the form of reels or to prepare an artistic work in the form of a drawing or comic strip relating to the competition's theme “Data Protection in the Digital Jungle”.
In turn, the aim of the competition for schools and teachers training centres was to select the most interesting educational initiatives disseminating knowledge about data protection and the right to privacy among young people, as well as to work towards broadening and deepening knowledge on this topic.
About the 13th edition of the “Your Data – Your Concern” programme
We are currently heading towards the final of the 13th edition of the programme, so the meeting in Lublin also provided an opportunity to summarise the results of our work in the 2022/2023 school year.
- In this edition, we focused primarily on issues related to responsible and conscious use of new technologies and building and maintaining an image in social media. This year's programme was primarily aimed at showing the impact of new technologies or artificial intelligence on the safety of young people on the Internet," said Jakub Groszkowski.
Participation in the DPA's educational programme provides schools with expert support in the field of personal data protection. Thanks to it, schools gain knowledge on how to apply the law in this area (including GDPR) in their everyday activities, as well as how to teach children and young people about personal data protection and privacy. And how to do it in a way that is engaging for them.
- Around 300 schools took part in this year's programme, which prepared more than 4 000 initiatives. Some 50 000 pupils took part in these events, but none of this would have happened if it had not been for the more than 3 000 teachers who made sure that pupils could learn from their mentors - teachers, but also from the experts of the Personal Data Protection Office, said the Deputy President of the Polish supervisory authority.
Information on the progress of the 13th edition in the school year 2022/2023
During the Lublin meeting, selected prize-winning competition works were also presented. In addition, the hosts of the event presented an artistic programme introducing the elements of folk culture of the Lublin region and the vocal talents of young people.