The Corfu Reading Society has developed various educational programmes addressed to school and university students and to the wider public.

•Educational Programme: “The Evolution of our City from the 14th to the 20th Century.
•Annual Student Competition of Essay Writing
•Educational Programme “Publishers, Article Writers and Readers: The Press in the 19th-century Ionian Islands” 

At the same time, pupils/students can take a guided tour of periodical exhibitions that are hosted at the premises of the Corfu Reading Society.

Educational Programme “The Evolution of our City from the 14th to the 20th Century” 

The programme commenced in 2011. Upon communication with the school management, groups of students are offered a guided tour to the Society’s premises. After the tour, they are shown a slide show of 70 slides on the evolution of Corfu town, followed by a discussion, while the students can write down their impressions or undertake an optional assignment in groups or individually, in collaboration with their teacher.

Annual Student Competition of Essay Writing, dedicated to the memory of Alice Padova, the great benefactor of the Society.

With topics on the Corfiot/Heptanesian heritage, this competition is dedicated to the memory of Alice Padova, the Society’s great benefactor, and it is addressed to students of the 1^st Year of Lyceum (upper secondary education) of the Prefecture of Corfu. It has been organised since 2014 in collaboration with the Regional Directorate of Primary and Secondary Education of the Ionian Islands.

The topic is selected by a three-member committee of Greek language teachers, who also undertake the assessment of the papers.

The students participating have a deadline of at least one week, in order to collect the material for the essay. They write the essay at school, during the last two hours, under the supervision of their teachers.

The essay is written in the notebook used for the Panhellenic examinations (tertiary education entry exams) and the students’ names are covered by the teachers. The school Headmaster/Headmistress collects the notebooks, numbers them and sends them to the Reading Society (with return receipt). A three-member committee of Greek language teachers assesses the essays. All participants receive a commemorative certificate, whereas the winners of the competition are awarded the following prizes:

– First prize: 200 EUR and a copy of the book Corfu Reading Society: an Illustrated Overview
– Second prize: 150 EUR and a copy of the book Corfu Reading Society: an Illustrated Overview
– Third prize: 100 EUR and a copy of the book Corfu Reading Society: an Illustrated Overview

The prizes and the commemorative certificates are awarded at a special event organised in the spring semester.

Educational Programme “Publishers, Article Writers and Readers: The Press in the 19th-century Ionian Islands” 

This educational programme was approved and sponsored by the Ministry of Education in 2019 and is currently under way. It is a programme mainly adapted to the subjects of History and Modern Greek Language and Literature, aiming to familiarise the students with the history and importance of the Press, and the development of critical thinking via the examination of articles with different perspectives, etc.

The Corfu Reading Society’s archives number approximately 150 titles of rare newspapers of the 19^th-20^th centuries, forming a total of more than 30,000 issues, as well as approximately 1,000 rare single-sheet prints of the 19^th century (i.e. newspapers posted on the wall), with exceptionally interesting and varied content. It seeks to make this difficult-to-find material accessible and usable to the greatest possible extent, both to the researchers and, most importantly, to the students, as it can be combined with basic school subjects included in the school curricula.

More particularly, the educational programme aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Familiarisation with the history and the importance of the Press
• Familiarisation with the notions of organisation, preservation and utilisation of an archive
• The development of critical thinking through the study of articles with different perspectives
• Familiarisation of the students with aspects of the local micro-history, but also with more complex notions, such as the cultivation of patriotism, of a more mature political thinking and the political procedures through the Press
• Provide information on economy, mentality, environment, even the evolution of the language through the newspapers.

The Programme offers:

1. Access to selected rare archival material
2. Instructions and informational texts on particular themes
3. Work sheets for interactive tasks.