Rittika C Parruck,
Assistant Director Schools-India, British Council
English training helps people find self prosperity in this global community
British Council is a government body dedicated to the promotion of cultural understanding and education. The society also imparts training in English and Arts. The British government invests in creation of cultural understanding through education. British council trains people in English to help them be a part of the global community, and to find self sustainability and self prosperity in this global world.
British Council began working specifically for the school sector around year 2002-03. At that time the Council was working on students and teacher exchange programme, but soon this had to be supplemented by professional development programme which helped students understand the culture of other countries.
The Council also does whole school accreditation awards called the International School Awards. These awards are a bench marking scheme that rates or rewards schools on the basis of how much cross border experience they gift their children through the curriculum that they are delivering.
Children learn best if they are having fun, so we tried to gear all the programs to make learning intercultural skills as enjoyable as possible. The Council is trying to develop learning framework for using games for teaching analytical skills and scientific skills.
The Council has devised very basic ICT training workshop for the government school teachers at a certain level. It does a lot of experimental work on the cutting edge technology where computer games can drive the child’s own learning and how teachers can support them in this service. A lot of work has been done in creating physical education resources and the physical education card called the ‘tech card’ which the CBSE now uses. Sports can also be used to teach the children true values.
The British Council has a lot to offer when it comes to the promotion of a sustainable development agenda in the field of education.
