The British Council hosted a two-day international conference on ‘Delivering Quality Assurance for Schools’ in Kathmandu at Hotel Yak and Yeti on 17 and18 November 2016.
The British Council invited education policy makers, administrators and practitioners from across South Asia and beyond to this conference to try and find answer to how can we put the right school quality assurance systems in place. By coming together to share examples of effective practice, participating delegates developed deeper understanding of how to improve school quality assurance systems within the context of their own countries.
Quality assurance systems from the UK was showcased in keynote speeches from Sir Michael Wilshaw, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills, and Dr John Laird, Her Majesty’s Inspector, Education Scotland.
The conference was opened by Minister of Education of Nepal Dhaniram Poudel.
On the occasion, minister Poudel expressed his gratitude and shared that Nepal Government is working towards the development of the educational sector specially schools with national and international support. He highlighted that the Education Act had been amended for the eight time and from this year Nepal Government has introduced the school improvement programme. The main objective of the programme was to increase the outreach and networking between the schools and provide quality education for students of Nepal.
Poudel also added that for quality education Nepal Government has introduced Educational Quality Testing Centers and programmes according to National Qualification. The government has been supporting the “Connecting Classroom Project” of British Council Nepal with the hope that Nepali students can learn from the best schools from around the world. And finally he wanted to acknowledge the 200 years of relationship of British and Nepal at the occasion.
Michelle Potts, the British Council’s Director of Education for South Asia on the occasion said, “We very much welcome the support of Hon. Minister for Education in attending the conference personally and the engagement of his collogues from the ministry in the full two days. This demonstrates that the ministry is passionate about providing quality education for children in Nepal”
Other visiting delegates were from Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Taiwan, Sudan and the UK.