Eight schools of Al-Mabarrat Charitable Association won the International School Award (ISA), granted by the British Council to schools every three years in partnership with the Ministry of Education.
This award is part of the “connecting classrooms project”, and affirms “the importance of enriching learning and teaching through themes and activities with a global dimension present in the curricula, for all classes and age stages, as well as helping pupils to be open to others in the homeland and the world and developing the skills they need to be global citizens”.
It is noted that the schools granted the award are: Imam Al-Baqir High School - Hermel, Al-Mujtaba High School - Beirut, Ali Al-Akbar Technical and Vocational Institute - Khalde, Al-Ishraq School - Bint Jbeil, Rasoul Al-Mahabba School - Byblos, Al-Kawthar High School - Beirut, Al-Hadi Institution for Hearing and Visual Impairment and Language Disorders - Beirut, and Al-Rahma High School - Nabatieh.
During a virtual ceremony organized by the British Council, the names of the winning schools were announced, in the presence of the Minister of Education and Higher Education Abbas Al-Halabi, the ambassador of the United Kingdom to Lebanon Ian Collard, the director of the British Council David Knox, the Director General of Education Fadi Yarak, the president of the Educational Centre for Research and Development George Nohra, and the head of the educational programmes department at the British Council Raghda Kawas.
At the ceremony the Minister of Education affirmed the importance of the international award, “being an enrichment for education resulting from the continuous cooperation between Lebanon, the United Kingdom and other countries of the world on professional development, curriculum adjustment, system reform, policy dialogue and raising the level of engagement in global citizenship; and an enrichment for education also as a result of educators and young people proving their growing capacities in terms of the skills of understanding and the points of view required to contribute responsibly to society at both the global and local levels”.
For his part the director of the British Council David Knox praised “the administrations of the educational institutions for the leadership skills they possess in finding ways to overcome the crisis Lebanon and the world are living through, and for involving families in their children's education, alongside their adoption of the connecting classrooms project for its potential to develop teachers' knowledge and skills and its direct reflection on the development of pupils' knowledge and skills”.
For her part the director of educational programmes at the British Council praised “the efforts of 46 educational institutions that were able to meet the required criteria despite the difficult conditions Lebanon is living through”
She added: “The number of institutions that have received the award since 2009-2010 is 350 schools spread over the whole of Lebanese territory, from different institutions and associations, and from public and private schools.”
The ceremony featured interventions by a number of ambassadors, who spoke of their experience of working with schools, alongside testimonies from representatives of pupils from different schools.
