LOCATION Hilton Park Hotel, Nicosia

SPEAKER Peter Millett, British High Commissioner

DATE 14/10/2009

Globalisation: perhaps an over-used term.  But there is no doubt that the world has changed and that education has to change with it.  

Today’s world  is one where ideas and issues cross borders, where people are increasingly mobile and where contact with other countries has become part of people’s everyday lives.

The challenges we face as individuals and as citizens are global.  No country can solve the big problems of today by itself: climate change, world poverty, the economic crisis all require common commitments and joint solutions.  Migration is another global phenomenon:  in many countries of Europe there are big issues relating to how we live together in a multi-cultural environment, how we relate to other cultures, and how our identity fits in a wider perspective.

Education has to address these challenges:  Young people need to   prepare themselves for the way the world is changing. In Cyprus we already see this desire for an international perspective in the number of Cypriot students (over 10,000) who choose to study in a UK university; and the over 50,000 Cypriots who take UK exams each year through the British Council.

Cambridge International Exams play a major role here as a well-established UK exam board with over 10,000 exams taken in Cyprus annually.

So Cambridge International Exams are well-placed to introduce this new qualification Cambridge Global perspectives. It provides a framework for encouraging awareness of global problems and commitment to global solutions.

It also fits well with the cultural relations work practiced internationally by the British Council. Projects such as Connecting Classrooms, which is due to be introduced in Cyprus in the next year.  The Council's aim is to create sustainable, mutually beneficial partnerships between schools here, in the UK and other countries, helping connect students and teachers in different countries.  The Council recognises schools’ international work through the International Schools Award.  This award, administered by the British Council has been given to over 1,000 schools in the UK and has been piloted in 2 private schools in Cyprus.

I hope that the Cambridge International Examinations’ Global Perspectives IGCSE will have every success in Cyprus, and that it will help you develop your students as global citizens and your schools as places where students and teachers can participate in international educational activity.

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