Monday 20 April 2015

 

Connecting Classrooms is a British Council and FCDO co-funded programme for schools.  The main purpose of the programme is to provide schools with support to nurture global citizenship giving them skills, knowledge, values and aptitudes to succeed in a global economy.

The four strands of the Connecting Classroom Programme are

  •  Partnership
  •  Continuous Professional Development
  •  International School Award
  •  Policy Dialogue

To support the four strands we have activities to facilitate Nepali schools for international school partnership, to provide teachers with online and offline professional development opportunity, to offer benchmarking schemes for schools, to encouraging collaborative teaching and learning through digital platform. We build relationships and work with education policy makers, encouraging them to develop best practice in education and global citizenship and support Nepal's national priorities. Connecting Classroom has over 200 schools in its network and over 1000 teachers have participated in various British Council schools activities online and face to face.

On 18 August 2014 the policy engagement programme was organised which provided a platform for stakeholders of the Education sector from Nepal, Sri Lanka, and India to engage in a discussion on where they are currently with preparing their students for a place in the global economy and how they might embed the international dimension offer in their schools. Policy makers and educators explored the correct context on leading and embedding International dimension in school curriculum.

Today after much awaited anticipation Curriculum Development Centre and British Council Nepal signed the MoU for two years. The MoU was signed at the Curriculum Development office by Diwaker Dhungel, Executive Director and Brendan McSharry OBE, Country Director, British Council Nepal with the objective to develop an effective resource manual to support teachers in an effort to embed and integrate International learning, citizenship themes, digital English resources and life skills identified by the National Curriculum for Government schools.

The resource manual will be piloted in five districts jointly identified by both parties after which it will be handed over to the Curriculum Development Centre in September.

After the signing of the MoU Diwaker Dhungel, Executive Director of Curriculum Development Centre expressed, “The signing of the MoU has only strengthened our relationship with the British Council. Apart from curriculum mapping, citizenship and life skills themes, I strongly feel this is a great opportunity towards opening doors for greater collaborations in developing a 21st century curriculum and continuous assessment systems to enhance our pupils learning achievements in the future.”

While Brendan McSharry OBE, Country Director, British Council Nepal said “Today we reached a major milestone in the Government of Nepal’s curriculum development programme, with the signing of the MOU between the Ministry of Educations Curriculum Development Centre (CDC) and the British Council.  Under this MOU, the British Council will (with its global Connecting Classrooms’ programme) support the CDC in mapping 21st Century skills content and training onto the national school curriculum, which will ensure that the education that Nepali children receive will be more skills and task based and better prepare them for participating in the wider world and global economy.  The Ministry of Education is taking the lead in this respect in South Asia and beyond, and are to be applauded.”

Notes to Editor

The British Council creates international opportunities for the people of the UK and other countries and builds trust between them worldwide. The British Council is a registered not-for-profit- organization that operates as an executive non-departmental public body. We are a Royal Charter charity, established as the UK’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Our 7,000 staff in over 100 countries work with thousands of professionals and policy makers and millions of young people every year through English, Arts, Education and Society programmes.

The British Council has been working in Nepal since 1959 AD and currently, it offers services in 6 cities in Nepal. 

Contact person

Ashim Kharel

School Project Manager

Ashim.kharel@britishcouncil.org.np

Ph#4410798/ext:3145

 

Suchita Shrestha

Marketing and Communication Manager

suchita.shrestha@britishcouncil.org.np

Ph#4410798/ext:3129