DFID Global School Partnership Programme:

A novel experience for students

M aliyadeva College Kurunegala has been engaged in an exhilarating teacher-student exchange programme for the past five years with Soham Village College, Cambridgeshire, United Kingdom under a project conducted through the British Council.

The exchange programme which was kick started following the visit to Soham by one of the English teachers of Maliyadeva College, Ayoma Damayanthi has provided many opportunities for teachers and students of the two schools to exchange views and learn about each other's cultures and countries. The Sri Lankan Day programe which was conducted by Ayoma Damayanthi in 2006 had impressed the teachers and students of Soham and enabled to speed up the exchange programme.

Under this programme two teachers and seven students of Maliyadeva College visited their partner school between June 11 and 25.A musical programme was presented by them at the Soham Village College and one of the items that had impressed them most had been the tabla recital conducted by Madura Gunawardhana, a grade 12 student of the College (Maliyadeva).

Two sessions of tabla playing had been conducted by Madura for the benefit of the British students. As Soham teachers and students were not familiar with the tabla they had been highly fascinated that this musical instrument could produce so many tunes. Meanwhile teachers and students of Soham Village College who had paid a visit to Maliyadeva College under this exchange programme had conducted a demonstration as to how a student of Soham spends a day at the College.

Local students had also been taught how the British held their important festivals and conducted classes on science and geography.

This is very exciting education for both the schools, said Ayoma Damayanthi who is the Partnership Coordinator of the Programme in Sri Lanka. Miss Frances Doughty, the Geography teacher of Soham Village College coordinates the programme from UK. She is of the opinion that this exchange programme makes the global connection so much more real.The Head of the School Projects of the British Council Mrs. Deepthi Wijesinghe said that these programmes provide opportunities to develop classroom activities and the cultural awareness of the two countries. This exchange programme makes Cambridge very much closer to Kurunegala and exposes our students to the concept of global village, said the principal of Maliyadeva College, R.M.M. Ratnayake who was on tour to Cambridge.Dr. Carin Taylor, the principal of Soham Village College said that she was very keen in studying the cultures of the two countries through this type of partnership programmes and plans to visit Sri Lanka next year.The tour of London and Cambridge had been a novel experience to the Maliyadeva students as was the tour of Hikkaduwa and Pinnawala for the Soham students. Students of both the countries gained intensely to widen their horizons by the exchange programme.