Strong partnership among Sri Lankan and Nepali school via British Council’s ISA

International School Award (ISA) is an accreditation scheme which recognises international project work in schools. To obtain the ISA, a school has to work on a minimum of seven international projects within an academic year. ISA was introduced to Sri Lanka in 2006 and 369 schools have received ISA to date. ISA was implemented in Nepal in 2012 and 27 schools have received ISA to date. In Sri Lanka there are 200 and in Nepal there are 56 schools working for ISA in 2015-16. Schools form partnerships with overseas schools to carry out collaborative projects. There are approximately 40 Sri Lankan and Nepali school partnerships formed for this purpose. ISA was offered to the Uva Province (Bandarawela, Badulla, Monaragala etc) in 2011 and since then 40 schools have received the award. In 2015-16, 30 schools are working for ISA from this province (Welimada, Haputhale, Ella, Wellawaya and Monaragala) and Boralanda Dharmapala Maha Vidyala is one such school that is working for the ISA from this province. “It is a new experience to work with international schools and children overseas; we got the whole school involved – staff and children. The students’ ICT skills were developed through ‘SchoolsOnline’ and Skype which was a new experience for them. Their research abilities were also developed. Subject teachers guided the students and helped to develop their English, thinking power and creativity,” stated the ISA coordinator of Boralanda Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya, Kokila Rajapaksha. Delhi Public School (DPS), Birathnagar, Nepal was introduced to Boralanda Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya (MV) by the British Council School Ambassador Mangalika Kodagoda who is mentoring the Sri Lankan school for ISA. The coordinating teachers of the Sri Lankan school, Kokila Rajapaksha, and the Nepali School, Suman Lal Ghosh, exchanged emails and had numerous Skype discussions to plan collaborative projects related to curriculums of both schools. Though there were ups and downs in communication, the determination of both schools helped to form a strong bond even before the ISA projects were formally approved by the British Council. They have exchanged more than 1000 regular emails and all ideas have been discussed in great detail. The ISA action plan is a framework to plan, carry out and monitor projects. This was discussed among the relevant subject teachers and delegated the project activities to them in both schools; they worked according to the action plan DPS and Boralanda Dharmapala MV worked together on the following projects: Effects of Monsoon This is an assessment of rural habitat in Nepal and Sri Lanka. This allowed the students to analyse the social condition of people pre and post monsoon, learn the cultivation process in monsoon season in Sri Lanka and Nepal. (13-14 years) Student of DPS, Nepal Rimsta Shah exclaimed: “We went on a field trip to a village which is 25km from Birathnagar. There, we asked questions on the effects of monsoon for the farmers and was able to gain extra knowledge about the effects of monsoon which we would not learn in our regular classes.” “We were able to exchange information of the effects of Monsoon with DPS. This was a novel experience for us .By participating in field trips we learnt in a stress free environment. We gained knowledge of the Nepali culture too,” stated Nayana Darshani, a student of Dharmapala MV, Sri Lanka. Students from both schools stated that it wasn’t an easy task to interview farmers to get the relevant data and analyse it. They came to a conclusion that Nepal experiences hard rain, severe drought, food scarcity and spread of communicable diseases and in Sri Lanka there can be floods which hamper the habitual life and health. Art and Cultural Exchange Manifestation of learning of music, dance, culture and customs of both countries. This provided an opportunity for students to explore the customs and culture of both countries and identify difference forms of music and dance. (10 -12 years) Through this project the students were directed to find information on each other’s culture including arts and crafts, clothes, food, festivals, music and dancing. They exchanged their findings through Skype calls. “We learnt about cultural food, dance, music, costumes etc. of Sri Lanka. We love to discover about countries. We also like to celebrate the festivals of Sri Lanka such as Maha Sivarathri, Pongal and New Year. I really like Sri Lanka very much” expressed Sheetal Gupta student of DPS, Nepal. Oshadi Sathsarani, a student of Boralanda MV said: “Teachers from both schools helped us to find and share information. We learnt Nepali songs and dance – this was a new experience.” Source of Imports and Exports Analytical study of International trade and in-depth comparison of import-export mechanism in Nepal and Sri Lanka. The purpose of this is to provide understanding of different sources of import-export trade in both countries, role of foreign currency in international trade and carry out a comparative study of export-import mechanism of Nepal and Sri Lanka. (15 -16 years) The students were able to gain knowledge of trade relationships of Nepal, Sri Lanka and other countries. ISA coordinator of DPS said that their students had to learn high level maths to analyse the data and students found this quite challenging. According to the Boralanda Dharmapala MV ISA coordinator their students referred to the Annual Report of Central Bank to find analytical figures and drew graphs, bar-charts and pie-charts. They learnt about the ISO certificate during the field trip to a bio – tea factory. There is a separate section for international trade in the commerce curriculum and this project helped to cover this lesson practically. Kunal Shah, a student of DPS, Nepal voiced: “I got to know a lot about International trade relationship between Sri Lanka –Nepal, Nepal with other countries and Sri Lanka with other countries. While doing this project I have realised that this is a never-ending project, even now I am working on it and trying to dig more into it.” To strengthen the partnership and to carry out activities based on the above projects, a delegation of two teachers and fourteen students from DPS Nepal visited Boralanda Dharmapala MV from 27-30 April. ISA Coordinator of DPS, Nepal Suman Lal Ghose, articulated: “There is a gap between the learning methodology in the developed and under-developed part of the world. In the developed world students learn, understand, develop the understanding and then apply it practically rather than memorising and answering questions; ISA is a tool to bridge this gap. ISA is a short cut to teach students on how to think and how to apply. Teachers without any prior training or even without realising, develop the skills for employability in students.” W.M. Senevirathna, Ambassador of the Sri Lankan Embassy in Nepal, stated: “I am happy to see Boralanda Dharmapala Maha Vidyalaya in Sri Lanka and Delhi Public School, Nepal working together for ISA. This exposes students to know different cultural, religious, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds and provides a great opportunity to develop understanding of diversity world-wide. ISA not only connects people but also connects nations and it gives ample opportunities to learn and better understand different cultures through international partnerships.”