5 delegates from Pakistan attended the conference ‘The British Council’s Schools Now! 2024’ in Cape Town SA.
British Council’s Schools Now! 2024 was held over three days in Cape Town, South Africa from 27-29 February 2024. More than a thousand school administrators participated digitally and in person in the conference, which provided a forum for promoting cooperation and exchanging thoughts and best practices in international education.
Five delegates from Pakistan attended the conference: representatives from the International School of Lahore, Cadet College Hasanabdal, Aitchison College, Nixor College, Cedar College, Benchmark School, Karachi Grammar School, DHAI Education System, and Generations School.
The topics, which enhanced a comprehensive curriculum that was contextualized and internationalized, included digital learning, leadership, well-being, and safety. Through a series of captivating keynote addresses, intensive workshops, and panel discussions, attendees learned about cutting edge teaching techniques, curriculum enrichment tactics, and technology integration in the classroom.
“The spirit of Schools Now! is to establish global connections within the educational community, exploring insights and innovations in international education,” said Martin Lowder, Head of worldwide Exams Services at The British Council. Our goal is to enable educators to effectively navigate the ever-changing educational landscape and achieve great outcomes for their students by addressing emergent issues.
“The British Council Partner Schools program supports over 730 Partner Schools in Pakistan to deliver UK International School Qualifications on behalf of UK awarding bodies,” stated Amanda Ingram, Exams Director at the British Council in Pakistan. Schools can improve student learning experiences and academic outcomes by utilizing our instructional support.
Technology advancements are causing a constant transition in the education sector, according to Nixor College Dean Nadeem Ghani. Digital resources and online platforms are changing how we can obtain knowledge. In order to handle these quick changes and guarantee fair access to education, cooperation amongst stakeholders is important. The Schools Now! conference provides educators like us with a perfect forum to exchange information and experience related to implementing innovation in the classroom.
The Curriculum Foundation’s CEO, Victoria Pendry, gave a keynote address at the opening event with the goal of enabling educators to create, oversee, and assess an enriched curriculum. She discussed how leadership, well-being, digital learning, and safety are all intertwined and serve as a basis for high-quality, egalitarian education.
Additional notable speakers included Jo Parkes, the deputy head academic at the British Council School in Madrid, Kathleen O’Hare, an education consultant for the British Council, Pamela O’Brien, the deputy head, and Dr. Funke Baffour-Awuah, the head of the well-being division and child protection lead at Al Rayan International School in Ghana.
A session on “Digital learning” was given to virtual delegates by Tatiana Popa, Deputy Academic Director of Heritage International School in Moldova and an ISC International Education Influencer of 2023. The session covered the use of AI in schools and how it will affect various aspects of work, including teaching methods, educational tools, and much more.
Reham Ali, the Director of Middle and High School Education at Nermine Ismail International Schools in Egypt; Jo Parkes; and Kudzayi Tarisayi, Senior Lecturer at Stellenbosch University in Cape Town, formed an expert panel on “AI in Education” and shared insightful advice on how schools can guarantee that students are ready for needs that will be dictated by AI in the future. Almost 90% of conference attendees speak of AI as a friend rather than a threat, which is startling given the general optimism about AI’s potential advantages.
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