Question
Asked By
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they propose to encourage schools and youth organisations in the United Kingdom to twin with similar schools and organisations in Israel and Palestine.
My Lords, this Government encourage international school links through my department’s international website, the Global Gateway, and programmes such as the International School Award and the Teachers’ International Professional Development programme. The British Council is the United Kingdom’s international organisation for educational opportunities and cultural relations. Through its offices in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, it has supported a number of bilateral links with youth organisations in the United Kingdom.
My Lords, I thank the Minister for an encouraging reply, but in the present situation should we not be even more vigorous in our attempt to build twinning between youth organisations and schools in the United Kingdom and in Israel/Palestine? Do we not need not only to construct roads and schools but to rebuild the many thousands of young lives that have been traumatised in recent months?
My Lords, I am sure that we all share the noble Lord’s sentiments and concerns. My department’s research shows that about 50 per cent of secondary schools in this country are involved in twinning. The noble Lord was concerned particularly about relationships with Israeli and Palestinian schools. I can reassure him that we are supporting exchange through the international teacher development programme and working hard, through our Global Gateway website, to support schools to twin sustainably and for the long term.
My Lords, the British Council’s excellent Connecting Classrooms programme promotes trust and breaks down barriers to understanding. Does the Minister agree that if these twinning arrangements are entered into, it must be done so wholeheartedly? I say that because I have just come back from visiting some Connecting Classrooms programmes in Kuwait. While enormous enthusiasm was shown by the Kuwaitis, I have to say that some of the responses from the UK were lukewarm. That does more harm than good.
My Lords, I am sorry to hear the noble Baroness report some lukewarm responses from the UK, which is disappointing. We have worked hard through the International School Award to encourage schools to make a serious commitment to having an international perspective in their work. Our aspiration is for all schools to be given an International School Award over time and to have a framework that encourages them to think globally about their curriculum. So far, we have given 1,500 schools this award; but the noble Baroness is absolutely right that it is not enough. We shall do our best to ensure a more enthusiastic response.
My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her positive reply to a useful and positive Question. Is she aware of the exceptional work of an organisation called the Hand in Hand Centre for Jewish-Arab Education in Israel, which was founded to build peace and understanding between Jews and Arabs in Israel through the development of bilingual and multicultural schools and curricula? Does she agree that twinning Hand in Hand schools with schools in the UK, particularly integrated schools in Northern Ireland, would help to promote peaceful co-existence through shared learning environments?
My Lords, I am aware of the important work that is going on in Hand in Hand schools. I understand that my right honourable friend the Foreign Secretary visited a Hand in Hand school recently. My noble friend has an important point to make. We see through the work of these schools a joining up of Jewish teachers and Israeli/Arab teachers teaching in their own languages, bringing children together and encouraging a culture of tolerance among students. The British embassy in Tel Aviv has supported this work with funding of £28,000 from its bilateral programme budget. It is important and we can see great merit in this approach.
Oh!
What is so funny, my Lords? This is a very serious question, Minister; will you take it as such? Are there any arrangements, such as exist for older pupils in America, for exchanges between this country and China? For instance, my American goddaughter, aged about 16, spent six weeks in China, to both countries’ great advantage.
My Lords, I can assure the noble Baroness that there are indeed such arrangements for exchange.
My Lords, the noble Baroness speaks about twinning with schools in Palestine. Have any schools in Gaza been twinned with the United Kingdom?
My Lords, an enormous amount of twinning work goes on between individual schools and international schools. I have obviously asked the question the noble Lord has put. The reliable data on the number of twinned schools come from the International School Award. I am afraid that I can only say reliably that a small number of schools is twinned with schools in the Palestinian Territories. I cannot say on the record how many might be in Gaza. Obviously it is an extremely difficult situation for Palestinian children who are resident in Gaza.
My Lords, it is the noble Baroness’s turn.
My Lords, can the Minister see the benefit not just of twinning but of tripleting? If a UK school were to twin with both an Israeli and a Palestinian school it might make it easer for the Israeli and Palestinian schools to speak to each other through their arrangement with the UK school.
My Lords, I am sure that the noble Baroness has the kernel of a good idea there. The Henry Beaufort School, in Hampshire, has twinned with a Palestinian school. It is keen, from the reports that we have seen, to twin with an Israeli school. There are interesting and innovative ideas that could be developed.