British Council Nepal awarded International Schools Award to eleven Nepalese schools and reaccredited two schools at an event on 15 September 2016. This award is endorsed and supported by the Ministry of Education and this is the fourth year, Nepali Schools are being awarded through this award scheme.

The award was handed over by special guests Ms Katherine Smitton, Deputy Head of Mission, British Embassy in Kathmandu and Narahari Aryal, Deputy Director, Depart of Education, Government of Nepal. Both the special guests congratulated the winners and shared the importance of being global citizens in today’s time.

Twenty five schools from eight districts of Nepal had submitted their dossier out of 100 schools initially working on International School Award.  Full Award is granted to Eleven Schools out of these 25 dossier submissions. Two schools that were awarded in 2012 have been reaccredited for ISA awards this year.

The schools receiving the full award will be provided with a trophy and certificates and will be allowed to use the coveted International School Award kite mark along with their school logo on all the official stationeries and promotional materials for a period of three years.

As said by Dr, Jovan Ilic, Country Director British Council- “In an increasingly globalised economy, it is vital that our students are prepared for working and communicating with each other regardless of international borders. Nepali students are just as connected as UK students. For them to thrive in a competitive world, they must develop digital literacy, and 21st Century Skills such as critical thinking, problem solving skills, creativity and imagination, leadership, and team building. With the International School Award they do this by making a commitment to becoming responsible and caring global citizens and learning what this means in practice.”

What is International School Award (ISA)?

ISA is a yearly award given to participating schools. Applications from interested schools are called in every year, August/September period and schools are selected on the basis of their application. The British Council offers the ISA as an accreditation framework for schools 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

•        Enriching teaching and learning

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. ISA is content free and schools are encouraged to embed it within their own curriculum. ISA gives context to practice new skills in Information & Communications Technology (ICT) and pedagogy in a safe and structured manner. Participating in briefings and workshops, online community and the award ceremony brings together a large number of schools across the country fostering rich exchange of ideas and creating a vibrant community of education professionals.

Evaluation process

A team of representatives from the British Council, Department of Education and Curriculum Development Centre is developed. The dossiers or the portfolio of evidence submitted by the participating schools are evaluated and school visits are organized to see the authenticity of the work and learning outcomes in the children. With the evidences submitted and the outcome of school visits, the schools are granted the award.

Connecting Classrooms, a project implemented by British Council and funded by DFID, is designed to help young people develop the knowledge, skills and values to live and work in a globalized economy, and makes a positive contribution locally and globally. The program, running from 2015-2018, will build the capacity of 45,000 teachers and 12,000 school leaders worldwide to support them to integrate a range of core skills into the curriculum.

Connecting Classrooms aims to improve teaching in both the UK and Nepal in the following key areas:

•        Professional development for teachers and school leaders

•        Sustainable partnerships between schools in the UK and Nepal

•        Professional dialogue opportunities for policy makers

•        Awards to schools which are successful in equipping young people with the knowledge and skills to live and work in a globalized economy;

•        Online access to high quality resources to support teachers in delivering improved learning outcomes for young people.

The school includes Kathmandu English School, Creative Academy Kirtipur, Akshara School Kathmandu, Reliance Co-Ed Kathmandu, Spiral Galaxy High School Kaski, Palpa Aawasiva Higher Secondary School Palpa, Motherland Higher Secondary School Kaski, New Horizon Higher Secondary School Palpa, Shree Punya Higher Secondary School, Dhankuta, Paragon Academy Jhapa and Padmodaya Public Model Higher Secondary School Dang.

Reaccredited Schools include Annal Iyoti School Kathmandu and Gurukul Academy Dhangadi.