Schools sign up for student interaction projects across boundaries

To begin with,10 private schools from the national capital have signed up for the projects. Eight Kendriya Vidyalayas have attended the initial workshop; the British Council will invite Kendriya Vidyalayas and Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas to participate in the Connecting Classrooms programme.

In the first year,the programme hopes to engage 20 school clusters across India and Sri Lanka,and has invited schools in the states of Orissa,Goa,Gujarat,Maharashtra,Chattisgarh,Delhi,Kerala and Tamil Nadu to participate in the programme.

“The aim is to link a cluster of schools in India to a cluster of schools in UK,so that their existing curriculum is enriched or internationalised,” said Rittika Chandra Parruck,Regional Manager,Connecting Classrooms.

“It is imperative in today’s world that children interact with other cultures.”

The projects have already been launched in 15 countries. The schools that have signed up for the projects in Delhi will be provided with video conferencing software and webcams. “By means of video conferencing and an online community,students of different faiths can work together,” said Ian Jamison,Face to Faith facilitator. “It is about celebrating diversity.”

In India,the projects will start with the teacher training or capacity building workshops. The partnership with UK schools will be looked into by a facilitator.

Regarding the collaboration between the British Council and the Tony Blair Faith Foundation for the venture,officials said that “while the Connecting Classrooms initiative aims at partnering schools and equipping school heads and teachers with skills in new technologies,the Face to Faith initiative helps the partnering schools in providing some content – faith – to talk about”.

Principals of the schools from the Capital that have signed up for the Connecting Classrooms and the Face to Faith initiatives said that “the programmes will produce global citizens”.

The British Council has been running the UKIERI programme (United Kingdom India Education Research Programme) with a cluster of schools in Delhi and partnering them with schools in UK for the past three years.