Eid and easter eggs

As schools are encouraged to forge links with others abroad, pupils are discovering how many different worlds are within arm's reach

Rowenna Davis
Tuesday April 29, 2008

EducationGuardian.co.uk

The concept of linking gained popularity after the second world war. Holding hands across the water, it was thought, would give us the contact we needed to promote understanding and reduce the likelihood of future conflict.

Today, the war on terror seems to be inspiring a similar reaction at a school in Oxford. "We were hugely conscious of the bad press surrounding Pakistan, and we wanted to extend the hand of friendship to the communities there," says Philippa Murray, headteacher of SS Mary & John primary school, now entering the second year of its link with a school in Lahore.

According to Murray, this community link has helped challenge the stereotype that Britain is intolerant to Islam. "They couldn't believe that we celebrated Eid in school and that we facilitate the wearing of the salwar kamis in our uniform."

The benefits of the partnership have been tangible. Exchanging letters, videos and artefacts has helped bring education to life on both sides of the globe. On a visit to Lahore last Easter, Murray taught a class of enthusiastic Muslim children how to make nests filled with chocolate eggs. She returned with handmade Easter cards for her students.

SS Mary & John's partnership is one of 1,262 school links supported by the government's DfID Global School Partnerships Programme (DGSP). According to Andrea Mason, the project's senior coordinator, linking programmes deepen pupils' understanding of the world.

"These partnerships highlight our interdependence and the fact that, despite our differences, we often share the same interests and face the same issues as people from other countries. The feedback we get from teachers is that the links enhance learning and motivate students."

The scheme supports school partnerships between the UK and 42 developing countries. Despite 592 extra schools signing up last year, it has not yet reached capacity and is looking for more to take part. Schools report being put off by the cumbersome application process, but Mason insists that a comprehensive system is necessary to ensure schools know what they are getting into.

It is indeed important to look before you link. According to research from Nigel Ringrose at the UN Development Programme, more than half of all links fail, leaving one or both sides bitter over wasted time and resources.

Even when links are sustained, they sometimes do more harm than good. Margaret Burr, head of humanities at the Education Centre in Tower Hamlets, who has developed the Toolkit for Linking for the UK One World Linking Association (UKOWLA), says: "Links have massive potential to break down barriers but, without considerable education and training, linking lends itself to encouraging patronising relationships and reinforcing stereotypes."

No matter how idealistic the motive, Burr argues, partnerships do not exist without the realities of an uneven distribution of political power around the globe.

She says that more often than not, partnerships are initiated in the west and conducted in our language on our terms. With greater resources, western countries often have more information and control over links, reinforcing inequalities rather than challenging them.

In its report, Building Successful School Partnerships, Oxfam warns that links based on charity, rather than mutual cultural or educational exchange, are more likely to perpetuate inequality. By spending their time fundraising for schools overseas, western schools may be encouraging the acceptance of aid as a solution to the developing world's problems.

"Focusing partnerships on financing and fundraising is the wrong philosophy," says Derek Nkata, a district education officer in Uganda who contributed to Oxfam's report. "A partnership should also provide a chance for Ugandan children to realise how much they have to give."

Neo-colonial criticisms aside, international partnerships have also been judged by some as unnecessary. Given the huge diversity of schools and cultures in the UK, why only look abroad for partnerships, when there are bridges to be built between state and private, rural and urban schools in our own country?

As well as its link with Lahore, SS Mary & John's has a local link with Clanfield primary, a small rural school in Oxfordshire (see panel above). According to Murray, there are many benefits to linking locally. "It's good to get to know each other's settings; Clanfield might have a global curriculum, but it's very white, while many of our children don't get to go into the countryside very often."

With Clanfield and SS Mary & John located in the same county, school visits and pupil interaction are feasible - something that remains impossible with the Lahore partnership. Communication is easier and faster and the alignment of school exams and holidays takes the strain off coordination.

Ultimately, however, Murray sees the school's local and international links as complementary rather than competing. With 25% of her students coming from Pakistani backgrounds, the school's international partnership with Lahore has helped social cohesion at home as much as abroad. "It's hugely important that we recognise students' cultural roots," she says. "The partnership lets them know that we value the diversity they bring to our school."

SS Mary & John's experience demonstrates that, when conducted in the right way, links can offer massive benefits. Schools that think before they link can play a part in making the idealistic postwar vision a reality; helping Britain join hands not just across the water, but across the country. "In many ways the local and international links share the same principles," says Muray. "They are about trying to understand our differences and celebrating our similarities."

Weblink

Global schools (DGSP):
www.dfid.gov.uk/funding/globalschools.asp
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