British Council Nepal awarded International School Award (ISA) to nine Nepalese schools at an event organised on 9 June 2014. The ISA award which is jointly endorsed and supported by the Ministry of Education was handed over by Dr Lava Deo Awasthi, General Secretary of Department of Education, and H.E. Andrew James Sparkes CMG, British Ambassador to Nepal.
In its second year, out of 16 participating schools, the full award was granted to nine schools.The participating schools from ten districts of Nepal worked on seven curriculum based projects in collaboration with their partner school all over the world. The schools who were not successful to get the full ISA award were provided with the Foundation Certificate for introducing Internationalism in their school.
The Chief Guest, Dr Lava Deo Awasthi, General Secretary of Department of Education expressed, “We feel privileged to be a part of the collaboration with the British Council International School Award which adds value to our current education system. It not only connects people but ‘connects nations’ and such innovative schemes should be replicated and practiced across Nepal to uplift the education system for international dimension.”
While His Excellency Andrew James Sparkes CMG, British Ambassador to Nepal expressed, “ISA is the centre stage to promote international learning. With growing social media platform, it gives ample of opportunities to learn and better understand different culture through international partnership. This year we will be celebrating 200 years of bilateral relation between UK and Nepal and we are delighted to be associated with great projects like ISA where ‘the possibilities for growth are endless.”
One of the winning school, Shree Saraswati Model Higher Secondary School’s students expressed, “Since the inception of ISA in our school, learning has become more fun and interesting and has opened door for an exciting inter cultural learning exchange with international partners. I learned how to keep my school clean and my class tidy from friends and teachers of Japan.”
While ISA co-ordinator Apara Bhatta, pointed out “ISA has opened a window onto cultures and has brought the world to our classrooms. From the partnership with schools overseas, we tried to teach our pupils about life in other countries and develop them as Global Citizens.”
The British Council offers the ISA as an accreditation framework for schools in Nepal to record and evaluate their international work and embed it into the curriculum. ISA acts as a benchmark that ascertains schools as having an outstanding level of support for nurturing global citizenship in young people and enriching teaching and learning at school. The ISA approach to school development is holistic and mirrors the curriculum based project work approach to encourage the teachers to use with their students. It is rigorous and evidence based process. It encourages the leaders to foster teambuilding, innovation, and project management.