Wednesday, May 27, 2009
UK Global School Partnership Scheme has positive impact on students and teachers.
The first interim report from a three year research study of the impact of the UK’s Global Partnership Scheme reveals both schools in the UK and their partner schools in Africa and Asia believe the scheme is showing positive benefits.
The Global School Partnership Programme is funded by the UK government’s Department for International Development and currently has 1300 UK schools taking part in an active partnership with schools from 12 countries in the Southern Hemisphere. The programme is led and managed by a consortium of Cambridge Education Foundation, The British Council, VSO and UKOWLA on behalf of DFID. The scheme is designed to enable schools to develop meaningful links which support and develop their students as global citizens.
Research into the impact and effectiveness of the scheme has been commissioned by DFID and is being conducted by the London Centre for Leadership in Learning at the Institute of Education. The three year study has just published the findings from its first year in which 600 schools were surveyed regarding a range of aspects of their partnership.
An overwhelming majority from both North (UK) and South (Africa and Asia) countries reported finding the partnership had a significant impact on learners, staff and school development. For example, 91% of North (UK) and 85% of South ( Asia and Africa) schools reported that the partnership had had a positive influence on their students’ development of "content and context knowledge". Assessing the benefits of the school partnership on "student impact and engagement", 66% of North schools and 87% of South schools reported a positive influence.
In almost all areas the South schools reported a higher impact than schools in the UK, although a significant majority of UK schools reported a positive benefit in a majority of areas of school life. To read the Research Report in full click here.
The Global School Partnership Scheme has recently been presented with a World Aware Education Award by an international jury representing the Council of Europe’s North-South Centre. The award was given for the programme’s "excellence in networking, partnerships and co-ordination to increase and improve global education."
Andy Egan, DGSP Team Leader, said, "It is an honour to have been selected for this award...there was a lot of positive feedback about our focus on equity, learning and sustainability." DGSP was one of three schemes selected for an award from numerous applications across Europe. The other two were: Operation Dagsvaerk for Global High Schools in Denmark and No Strings International and Trocaire based in Ireland.
To find out more about school partnership schemes visit the Global Gateway site. - here you can find details about partnering with school in all regions of the world through various funded schemes including the Global School Partnership Scheme.