In a ceremony held by the British Council Lebanon this week, forty-three Lebanese schools, both public and private, including six UNRWA schools, were awarded the prestigious British Council’s International School Award under the Connecting Classrooms program, which is supported by the Department of International Development UK.
This program is part of the campaign signed by AUB and the British Council for a computer-delivered International English Language Testing System (IELTS) on October 8.
The agreement marks the first online version of the IELTS test in Lebanon. This partnership led to the launching of the UK-Lebanon Year of Education 2020 campaign, building on UK’s substantive education support to Lebanon.
It’s that time of year again, the British Council is holding the CC International School Award Ceremony (ISA) at the Ministry of Education celebrating successes of 43 Lebanese public and private schools including 6 UNRWA schools. #ConnectingClassrooms#YoE2020 @MeheLebanon pic.twitter.com/YKNVOAzEtC
— British Council (@lbBritish) December 16, 2019
As stated on the British government website, this campaign adds over $200 million to UK’s support to education in Lebanon for the period of time between 2016 and 2021. That is in hopes of expanding access to education quality and system with the help of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.
Furthermore, this endeavor aims to support children with special educational needs by creating a more inclusive education system, as well as creating investment opportunities for UK EdTech firms, and strengthening the link between the British-Lebanese universities.
According to British Ambassador Chris Rampling, “Four of the top 10 universities in the world are British. Over a third of Nobel Prize winners who have studied overseas have done so in the UK. The English language is truly the world’s language, and UK qualifications are recognized for their quality and credibility across the globe.”
“As a sign of our education leadership, in the last five years, there has been a 90% increase in the number of Lebanese students studying in the UK. Education is not just about schools and universities,” he said.
Education is one of our flagship programmes in . UK invests in futures of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, committing £165m since 2016. With @AWMurrison we saw a non-formal class in Tripoli. Inspiring to see the future! #YearOfEducation2020 @UNICEFLebanon @realtime_violet pic.twitter.com/xGziAqqf5X
— Chris Rampling (@crampling) October 10, 2019
He also stated that over 200 Lebanese students have studied in the UK through the Chevening program and are now part of a wider network of over 50,000 Cheveners around the world.
Ambassador Rampling ascertained that their work with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education is ongoing to support quality education to all children across Lebanon; formal, non-formal, and inclusive education.
