MUN
Gymnasium Münsterplatz at the Model United Nations Regio Basel 2015, 2 / 3 February 2015
Model United Nations, also known as MUN, is an educational simulation of academic competition in which students learn about diplomacy, international relations, and the workings of the United Nations by representing a nation state.
Often the conference's individual committees focus on particular issues. This year's MUN conference, held in Basel, was scheduled to tackle the not yet attained millennium goals of 2015 and moreover the ensuing post 2015 agenda. The GM participated with fourteen students from the fourth and fifth grades.
Each student or team represented a particular country and that state's political interests, which was one of the biggest challenges since we all had to let go of our personal opinions and stand for our countries' real-life policies.
As one of China's representatives in the committee dealing with universal primary education, I can attest to this having been a unique experience. Although the conference facilitated serious debate, matters soon deteriorated into witty repartee and a verbal battle between larger nations. Evidently, the chair's request for us to amuse ourselves was taken (too?) seriously. It should be noted, in all earnestness, however, our committee came close to developing some revolutionary educational tools, put forward by Saudi Arabia.
All in all, MUN has been a great learning experience and also a lot of fun.
Andrew Lewis, 4B