The British Council Nepal today honoured nine Nepali schools with International School Award 2012.

Of them‚ Kathmandu Valley-based Gurukul Academy‚ Annal Jyoti Boarding School‚ Nagarjuna Academy Higher Secondary School‚ Harvard Academy‚ Apex School‚ Karunanidhi Education Foundation Higher Secondary School received the full award.

Bhu Pu Sainik English Higher Secondary Boarding School and Balodaya Higher Secondary School received the Intermediate Award and Paramount Public School received the Foundation Award. The schools receiving the full award with a trophy and certificates will be allowed to use the International School Award logo on all official stationaries for a period of three years‚ said the council.

While schools receiving intermediate award and foundation award could use the logo for two years and one year‚ respectively.

The council had piloted the International School Award in 2012 with only 10 schools participating in the process.

“These schools worked on seven projects‚ including a collaborative project with their partner school‚ which was based on their school curricula‚” the council said.

The projects were then assessed based upon their learning outcomes by a panel which included council officials as well as officials from the Department of Education and Curriculum Department Centre.

This award is endorsed and supported by the Ministry of Education (MoE).

The 2013 award will be announced in April and will be open to all schools from Nepal with an international collaboration dimension in the curricula.

The council offers the International School Award (ISA) as an accreditation framework for schools to record and evaluate their international work and embed it into the curricula.

ISA acts as a benchmark that ascertains schools as having an outstanding level of support for nurturing global citizenship in young people and enriching teaching and learning environment in schools. During the award handover ceremony‚ Mahashram Sharma‚ MoE spokesman‚ expressed gratitude to the council for initiating such an award to encourage ‘project-based’ learning in schools.

He laid stress on the need to partner with state-owned schools.

Awards at a glance
The recipients of the International School Award 2012 include Kathmandu Valley-based Gurukul Academy‚ Annal Jyoti Boarding School‚ Nagarjuna Academy Higher Secondary School‚ Harvard Academy‚ Apex School‚ Karunanidhi Education Foundation Higher Secondary School

The awardees can use the International School Award logo on all official stationaries for a certain period. The school awards for 2013 to be announced on April.

source: The Himalayan Times,25 march 2013