How to increase the activity of UNESCO club members in NIS Aktobe?

Abstract. NIS Aktobe UNESCO club started his work from 2019, the first year of every club plays key role in further development that is why this research was conducted to find possible ways to increase members activity. At the beginning, primary research methods as analysing of the school UNESCO club report gave us overview for problem.  Further, in the interview took part press-secretaries of the club and presidents, while at survey took part members of the club. The secondary research includes searching data from the internet, where were found information connected to the UNESCO clubs work. From research the tendency for passive participation in club's life was noticed and the reasons as priority to get passport and not enough motivated for projects influence it. To increase club's activity should be taken the following steps like develop team spirit and organize meetings with representatives of UNESCO clubs.

Аннотация. Клуб НИШ Актобе ЮНЕСКО основали в 2019 году, так как первый год каждого клуба играет ключевую роль в дальнейшем развитии, поэтому это исследование было проведено с целью поиска возможных путей повышения активности членов. Первичные методы исследования, такие как анализ школьного отчета клуба ЮНЕСКО, дали нам представление о проблеме. Далее интервью провели с пресс-секретарями клуба и президентами, а опрос проходили члены клуба. Вторичный метод это поиск информации в Интернете, связанной с работой клубов ЮНЕСКО. Из исследования была выявлена тенденция к пассивному участию в жизни клуба и на него влияют причины как приоритетного получения паспорта, так и недостаточного мотивирования для проектов. Для повышения активности клуба необходимо предпринять следующие шаги, такие как развитие командного духа и организация встреч с представителями клубов ЮНЕСКО.

Аннотация. Ақтөбе НЗМ ЮНЕСКО клубы өз жұмысын 2019 жылы бастады, әр клубтың алғашқы жылы әрі қарай дамуда шешуші рөл атқарады, сондықтан бұл зерттеу мүшелердің белсенділігін арттырудың мүмкін жолдарын табу мақсатында жүргізілді. Зерттеудің бастапқы әдістері, мысалы, ЮНЕСКО клубының мектеп есебін талдау, проблема туралы түсінік берді. Содан кейін клубтың баспасөз хатшылары мен президенттері сұхбатқа қатысты, ал клуб мүшелері сауалнамаға қатысты. Қайталама зерттеу әдісі Интернеттен ЮНЕСКО клубтарының жұмысына қатысты ақпарат табылған деректерді іздеуді қамтиды. Зерттеу нәтижелері бойынша клуб өміріне енжар ену тенденциясы анықталды, оған паспортты алудың бас себептері де, жобаның жеткіліксіз мотивациясы әсер етті. Клубтың белсенділігін арттыру үшін командалық рухты дамыту және ЮНЕСКО клубтарының өкілдерімен кездесулер ұйымдастыру сияқты келесі қадамдарды орындау қажет.

Keywords: UNESCO, activity, club

Introduction.

School clubs are gaining popularity as they help to develop in different directions. NIS Aktobe is not the exception and their UNESCO club was established at the February of 2019 year, which positioning itself as regional club and promote UNESCO’s ideas in specific area.

From clubs report we could find that in 12 months with 136 participants they have been conducted 9 projects in five directions: education, ecology, art, charity and culture. MUN conferences are belong to educational project and the number of organized conferences reached 3. Trash tag challenge and Clean Hill both ecological projects, where club members cleaned rural areas from garbage and encouraged people to become more eco-friendly. Instagram page is necessary to share with reports of projects in order to promote the work of the NIS Aktobe UNESCO club. Debates and educational platform “Study Buddy” are educational projects, which are aimed at increasing the level of knowledge. However, these projects have since ceased to function projects, whereas for holding charity action “Second life of clothes” had made a commitment another NIS Aktobe volunteering club. Also, there is no projects arranged in two more directions as culture and art.

In fact, at president votes were suggested and planned a lot of projects by candidates, but the above examples prove decreasing tendency of activity of UNESCO club Aktobe. Such propensity is noticed by most of the school clubs.  NIS Aktobe UNESCO club is acting one year and this period of club's existence will decide its following years activity and destiny. However, nowadays from 137 members only about 40 people are participating in projects and run all projects.

Also, the main importance of this club is to spread UNESCO’s missions and in order to achieve all goals submitted in front of us we should conduct projects. Also, there is a significant importance of such clubs in achieving sustainable development goals and creating a such society respectively.

This project will help in solving this problem by examine possible reasons and suggesting several solutions, which will be implemented in NIS Aktobe UNESCO club or even in any other school club to increase activity.

Methods.

To conduct the research next methods were used: an interview, a survey, analysis of the school UNESCO club report and searching in the internet. The collected data referred to primary and secondary sources, that is why there were precision and accuracy increased. Moreover, methods could be divided for two categories as quantitative and qualitive methods. It provided quality results and avoiding generalisation. 

At the beginning to understand the present situation was used method of analysing of the school UNESCO club report, which was primary source and gathered information gave us overview for problem.  Further questions for interview and survey will be based on it.

UNESCO clubs are most spread worldwide club therefore there was a range of web sites, which were checked for credibility. The best choice to get general information is official web site United Nations Educational, Scientific and cultural Organization because it was written by UNESCO itself and gives reliable information that is why the research based a lot on data from this source. Another reason to choose this website was absence of vested interest owing to they will not give any gain from that as an international organization. Another website that will be useful in research is Kazakhstan National Federation of UNESCO clubs, where placed relevant information about events and clubs located in territory Kazakhstan. The risk is neutrality due to it predisposed to support a particular view for reasons of saving reputation.

It was equally important to find information about how to run the school clubs effectively. A lot of data shared on this topic, however study posted by EBSCOHost relate to the most reliable source due to it was shared in World journal of education by Ikram Cinar, who was studying in Department of Educational Sciences at Kafkas University, Turkey. The over reliable sources were Mindtools and IONOS by 1&1. There were described two methods of increasing efficiency by which you could activate productivity, like, rule of 80/20, which is popular as Pareto’s principle and Eisenhower’s urgent consequently. Nevertheless, drawback was the ability to see because where is only theory and in practice it could lead to different result and in order to avoid it will be necessary to stock for exact instructions and tips.

Second qualitative method used in this research to achieve aim was interview. Interview had been taken from 5 people, who knew NIS Aktobe UNESCO club from the beginning and had data about projects in order to avoid vested interests to show that they work well and save their reputation. All collected data refer to a primary source. First interviewee was ex-president of the NIS Aktobe UNESCO club, because he ran the club and could get overview of members activity, therefore it will be useful in comparing with the current situation. He answered 14 questions and they contain information not only about past situation, but also assumptions for future. Second interviewer was ex-press secretary, owing to the fact that it was one of the founders of the NIS Aktobe UNESCO Club and answered same questions. Third interviewers were current leaders, they now organize all projects and from them depends future of clubs' life. They had been asked questions about the present situation and undoubtedly about future predictions. Fourth interviewee is the press secretary of the club, who responsible for communication with KazFUCA and obviously help to drive all projects.

The next method was questionnaire among the NIS Aktobe UNESCO Club students. It was sent in group chat of the NIS Aktobe UNESCO club members because it is the main way of interaction according to the presidents and contained 9 questions. They were asked in order to get their perspective for the clubs' life and in order to have honest answers, it was taking anonymous to make them felt confident. However, as it was expected I did not get 140 answers due to clubs' inactivity. To solve this problem survey was received to the NIS Aktobe UNESCO clubs mail. 

Results.

Having into account all the replies, approximately 92% of NIS Aktobe UNESCO club members want to make the community better where they live and study, also get some new experience because it will be needed in applying for universities.

However, 33% are not included in any directions and percent of those who have not participated anywhere 36 from all interviewees. Charity is joined by 11 active members, nevertheless the number of people attended in one of their projects “Second of life of clothes” account for 9 people. Moreover, charity was highlighted like active during throughout the club’s work by two current presidents, ex- president and ex-press-secretary. Art direction was selected by 9 people which represented 23,1% but they have not been arranged any projects yet. That is why, it was used to be passive but now are planned to run several projects in this direction by presidents. The same percentage of participants have ecology, despite that they had undertaken large-scale projects with involving other institutions. For instance,  “CleanHill” and “Trashtag chellenge” with the participants amount 8 and 12 consequently. Education have activity rate similar for ecology, more other it was mentioned as the most active by ex-press-secretary, nevertheless this section was mentioned as passive from the perspective of current presidents. For example, previous president organised 3 MUN conferences, debates and “Study Budy” learning system, while now none of them are operating. Culture have less participants and we could not appreciate its activity due to the fact that no projects have just been conducted in this section over one-year time period.

Most problems are noticed in attending meetings. According to the statics gathered from survey, only 23,1% visit them always or often, while other 20,4% either did not visit them at all and 56,4% attend rarely or partly at meetings. The main reason for entering noted by interviewees were getting official document as passport and ID number, which will help them to apply for university and get tick in extracurricular activities, similar ideas were provided by about 2 other respondents through the survey. That is why, members have been answering that they don’t have enough time to present at meetings and have the high workload because they have been ranged their priorities and positioned a lessons above everything. It is worth pointing out that the current projects were not interesting for 18.4% of the NIS Aktobe UNESCO club members and WhatsApp chat, which was recognized by all presidents and press secretaries as the main workplace, but at answers for survey at least two people mentioned that there no meeting notifications were sent.

Survey forecasts that renew participation for next year were ready half of the active members, others find difficult to answer and remarkably only 12,8% were going to leave the club. Despite the predictions of press-secretaries that had believed of the gradually decreasing number of participants. Presidents had been convinced that they would continue participation at a minimum in order to save their passports.

At the end of the survey focus group was asked to choose or write methods to increase efficiency of the club. Mostly they voted for conducting training for rallying club members, after went “awarding the most active participants of the club” and the last one was “meet with successful people working in this area”. Additional ideas were to put only achievable goals, drive projects without division into separate groups and not starting several projects at once. Press-secretary recommend not to remove anyone from the group due to all of them have can be inspired in any time. The opposed answer was giving ex-president and wanted to change the system. Firstly, imply removing passive members. Secondly, expressed support to took out dividing into directions and for implementation awarding system. Ex-press secretary saw removing participants unfair in spite of permission of KazFUCA for this action but claims that clubs work depends from leader.

Discussion.
 Some conclusions can be drawn from the work carried out and they could be divided in three parts by three aim questions.

What is driving people in entering to the NIS Aktobe UNESCO club?

Members understand the importance of helping for the society and some people are strive toward to achieve it. However, they do not prioritize clubs activity by the comparison with school lessons.  While, activity rate of others prove that they want to have only badges, passports with official NIS Aktobe clubs ID in order to use it in the university application forms as extracurricular activities, nevertheless they are empty because most of them even did not participated in any project.
 
Why do members participate passively in the club's life?
There are several reasons of this tendency. First, everything starts from their goals as already have been mentioned for them were more priority to get passport and further participating was in the background. Secondly, they miss meetings, where they should plan projects and respectively, they were not interested in participation on ongoing projects. Thirdly, they are not enough motivated, because of lessons and high workload they went unheeded about UNESCO club.

What changes should be done to increase activity of the club’s members?
To increase club's activity should be taken the following steps. At the beginning to interest members participate in club's life they should be installed awarding most of the active members. An alternative way would be inviting persons, whom this experience really helped, and they could share with their success. Moreover, to stay motivated for the long time period they should come together to further work as a team.

In this case two principles for productivity could be used. Firstly, create a project plan by Eisenhower’s urgent, where all projects will be divided in four sections, which will help to finish until deadline. Next, on Paretos principle could be based organization of projects, so 80 per cent of the outcome can be achieved by using each member for 20 per cent. If everyone makes a little effort, we will obviously prevent passivity.

One of the solutions would be creating a web site, there we can place all notifications and future projects, so everyone will be stayed informed. Also, there can be placed rating of the members by their activity and reports of done projects, which will be inspire not only members of NIS Aktobe UNESCO club but also promote the work all around our community. While rating will be used in monthly awarding active participants.

Acknowledgements.

I want to thank my GPPW teacher, Zhaulbayev Azat Zhumabekovich for helping to conduct research. Also, interviewees and members of the club for taking part on research.

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