Date
Sunday 13 September 2015 - 09:15
Location
British Council, Fuller Road, Dhaka

'Connecting Classrooms' started its Bangladesh journey back in 2008 with several schools including government, non-government and Madrasas of Bangladesh. At the beginning phase, this programme was focused on building international school partnerships together by connecting 90 Bangladeshi schools with 90 schools across the UK. The students collaborated on projects to prepare students for life and work and helped them play an active role in their communities. 

Later, the second phase of the programme engaged 1400 schools through the Schools Online platform, and worked closely with over 800 schools across Bangladesh. It provided professional development trainings on developing a global citizenship outlook to approximately 2500 teachers and headteachers in these schools. It provided grants to fund school partnerships to enhance global citizenship provision in the curriculum and ethos in schools through undertaking school study visits to the UK and vice versa, where Bangladeshi and UK teachers were able to exchange learning and share best practices in pedagogical instructions. 

I appreciate British Council for the Connecting Classrooms programme, which is helping to promote the 21st century skills to further develop our students’ creativity, critical thinking, digital literacy and citizenship among young students – our future leaders of tomorrow. I believe this programme will complement the government’s initiative to help enrich education quality in Bangladesh" - Honourable Minister from Primary and Mass Education

The launching event of 'Connecting Classrooms 3' programme instigated in Bangladesh on Sunday, 13 September 2015 at the British Council, Fuller Road in Dhaka. It was a delightful morning with guests including the Honourable Minister from Primary and Mass Education, Secretary from Ministry of Education, H.E. British High Commissioner to Bangladesh and the Director General from National Academy for Education Management, all of whom advocated the continuation of the programme for the next three years. Over the next three years, the new Connecting Classrooms programme will build capacity of teachers and school leaders to integrate six core skills into the curriculum to help young people develop knowledge, skills and values to live and make a positive contribution both locally and globally. 

British Council Bangladesh Director, Barbara Wickham welcomed all the 150 guests, and invited a student and a headteacher on stage to share a tale of the two schools’ journey with ‘Connecting Classrooms’. Rebecca Picton, the Regional Head of Schools shared the exciting packages and opportunities that the programme would offer over the next three years.  

Moreover we made sure that we keyed in enough time in our programme to award those 17 schools who have achieved the ‘Full International School Award’ this year and last year.  The headteachers and the school coordinators were overjoyed to receive their certificates and crests from the Minister and the Secretary, as well as shaking hands with the rest of the celebrity panel. 

We also brought our six schools from Chittagong that created the artwork of ‘Rivers of the World’ to share with the rest on how they were inspired from their river walk and how they drew what they drew. They were so excited to know that their artwork is now in display in the Thames Festival exhibition in Southbank.  

We wrapped up the session with a nice song from World Voice. A group of students from two of our World Voice schools sang the melodious Scarborough Fair, bringing a round of applause around the room and ending on a harmonious note.