British Council scales up educational participation

Kochi: Princess Camilla’s visit to a school here, was not a coincidence. On the contrary, it was a part of the British Council’s efforts for more educational tie-ups in the state.

“We’ve initiated talks with the State Government to launch the second phase of the teachers training programme to raise the standard of English language teaching in schools. The pilot project launched last year benefitted only a few schools in Kollam and Palakkad districts. This time, master trainers from the British Council would be keen to train a substantial number so that the benefit really shows off,” said Paul Sellers, British Council Director (South India).

The Council is also appreciative of the Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) of the State Government and is willing to extend support in setting up skill development centres. “The state is far ahead in the literacy scenario but there is scope for improvement when it comes to English proficiency in this globalised world,” Sellers said.

Princess Camilla on Tuesday visited Rajagiri Public School, the first in the region to win the International School Award (ISA), a programme of the council that supports the respective school in embedding international learning into the curriculum.

“She visited the school to see the activities related to the ISA programme. She attended a Commonwealth debate session, surveyed various ISA projects undertaken by the students and assessed the Connecting Classrooms project which is a collaborative scheme with partner schools abroad. She even participated in a Skype session between students of Rajagiri and Summerlea School, West Sussex,” said Fr Jiji Kadavan, Director, Rajagiri Public School.

During her hour-long stay, the princess took special care in lauding four students who emerged toppers in one of the ISA projects. “As part of the project we reported ‘Kochi Metro and related issues as a local subject, Wayanad farmers’ suicide as a national subject and Olympics as an international subject,” said Gopikrishnan S. The other members of the winning team were Job Michal, Anna Mathew and Aiswarya John.

“Rajagiri School, in its capacity as British Council School Ambassador, functions as a mentor for other schools,” noted Sellers. The British official said the UK Government was also interested in partnerships in the field of arts and culture.

“We were really impressed by the Cochin Biennale. We’d like to associate ourselves with the second edition to be held later this year. The British Council is also interested in joint programmes in arts like kathakali. Further schemes will be devised so as to encourage artistes from both sides to travel and exhibit their talents in both the countries,” he said.