Nigeria, UK education partnership is about inclusiveness – British delegation

The British Council delegation to Nigeria on Transnational Education (TNE) has said the partnership it is seeking to solidify in Nigeria is aimed at providing quality international UK curriculum education to citizens seeking to travel abroad to study in the country.

UK Government’s Education Champion and head of the delegation, Professor Sir Steve Smith, stated this in Abuja, when the Global CEO British Council, Scott McDonald and the UK Government Higher Education delegation paid a courtesy visit to some British Council Partner Schools running the Cambridge curriculum.

The delegation heard from a panel of head teachers from 5 partner schools, including the Centagon School; Premier International School; Zamani College; The Regent Secondary School and Doveland School, and hosted by Premier International School in Wuse II, Abuja.

Smith stated that the desire of the group was to attain a first-hand view of the situation on ground, while he advocated for more of the inclusive school model. He stated the need to understand the progress of students following the impact of the pandemic.

”What we are trying to ensure is to establish a partnership with Nigeria schools and universities, and bring into Nigeria a way of teaching by providing a curriculum that allows the best teaching in the world to happen here in Nigeria without using the cost structure that makes people travel abroad.

”So it is about inclusiveness and about making sure everyone in the country have access to outstanding education thereby solving the problem of access to education because without education it is difficult to move on in life,” he stated.

Earlier, Global CEO of the British Council, Scott McDonald, stated that there are currently 2000 partner schools around the world who are part of a global community benefiting positively from sharing and providing knowledge based on best practice.

Meanwhile, the director of Examinations at the British Council Nigeria, Marniee Nottingham, said students in British Council Partner Schools in Abuja running the Cambridge curriculum are performing excellently well and scoring top globally.

She noted the challenges that limit the delivery of the curriculum, how the schools use digital technology to help with learning and how the curriculum is beneficial to preparing students for the outside world and the impact of the COVID- 19 pandemic on learning.

She also listed other key areas she intends to focus on to include the implementation of the ‘E3’ – Education, Employment and Empowerment; sports, entertainment and culture as a vehicle to create jobs and recreations for the youth; and the rehabilitation of dilapidated social and physical structures as well as institutions in the 2 LGAs.