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Year 1 AC (After Coronavirus): Three months of essay contest under the microscope
Being a part of the essay review team was a pleasure and a learning experience. The task assigned to me was ambitious: looking at the content of the essays, understanding how children and youth reacted to the topics we proposed, and finding some common patterns. More than a thousand participants had already submitted their proposition when we launched the in-depth analysis. Their work represented a corpus of more than 350,000 words and nearly 2 million characters. After almost ten days for attentive work, it was possible to observe quantitative results and provide a qualitative analysis for each topic.
Findings include the team realizing the actual pandemic was always present even if the title of some topics did not directly refer to COVID-19. We found repeated words in most essays such as ‘lockdown’, ‘virus’, ‘COVID’, ‘global’ and ‘coronavirus’. This showcases young Indians are aware of the current situation, the worldwide spread of the pandemic, and the need for swift and effective decisions at all levels.
We also noticed participants from the youth category commonly use pronouns such as ‘we’ or ‘us’, showing that they are experiencing these difficult times as a community, and not individually. Those in the children category frequently use ‘I’ or ‘my’, indicating that topics we selected made them relate more to their personal experience, with a reflection based on their context and current situation.
Under the youth category, the most common topic discussed was about gender and related stereotypes. Words such as ‘equality’ and ‘stereotypes’ were commonly used by both women and men essayists. The ideas of gender equality and the need to tackle stereotypes appear to be widely acknowledged. This information is encouraging as UNESCO is strongly dedicated to the achievement of gender equality. Indeed, gender equality is a Sustainable Development Goal within the 2030 Agenda, paving the way for peace and prosperity for people now, and into the future.
A large number of children discussed the influence of ‘media’, and addressed misleading ‘rumors’. Children overwhelmingly agreed with the idea that not everything we find online is true. These results are promising since UNESCO is also committed to improving Media and Information Literacy (MIL) in a global effort to help individuals navigate through all the information we are exposed to daily.
Overall, children and youth imagined a new world with hope and ambition. They did not hesitate to call for structural changes regarding gender equality, but also climate change, science, education, and solidarity between every member of society. They described in the essays the new future in which they would like to live.
Being part of the effort surrounding our essay contest was a fruitful experience, as I had the opportunity to analyze documents and generate a word cloud. This activity was strongly didactic and experimental as it included categorizing data, finding the adequate software, and designing a method. I am very grateful to the whole team responsible for the essay contest and deeply grateful to all participants. Your essays are full of hope and transmit the will to achieve significant changes. More than ever, youth keeps sharing its light during these difficult times!
Stay Ambitious and Creative! Stay Safe!
