The British Council’s education work spans the schools, tertiary and vocational education sectors. We are committed to more inclusive education systems based on the principles of access, engagement, empowerment and enablement aimed at ensuring the highest quality of education for everyone. We do this through collaboration and project partnerships with policy makers, educational partners, school leaders, teacher educators and teachers.
Examples of British Council programmes which contribute to Goal 4:
Case study: Capacity Building in Primary and Secondary Education, Iraq
SDG 4 – Education, contributing also to SDG 5 – Gender, SDG 10 – Equality and SDG 17 – Partnership
The 14.2m EUR Capacity Building in Primary and Secondary Education project in Iraq is funded by the EU and supported by the Ministry of Education (MoE). The project aims to improve the quality of, and access to the Iraqi education system. It also strengthens the institutional capacity of the education administration at central and local level. The project collaborated with stakeholders at policy, institutional and community levels to remove barriers and support education system strengthening and learning for all children.
It supported the introduction of a new policy giving children who are deaf or hard of hearing the right to take national exams and continue formal education. It also provided technical assistance to the MoE to develop the country-wide Strategy for Enrolment. Working with the national Iraqi Disability Alliance, it supported the development of the first national framework for inclusive education.
Working with community leaders and influential female community activists and a network of 35 community-based organisations across all Iraqi provinces, it co-designed and supported a community campaigning with the slogan ‘I’m not leaving school’. The campaign, targeting attitudinal change among parents and communities, prevented 14,500 children from dropping out of school and improved physical access to schools for children with disabilities.
The project also worked to improve accountability within the Iraqi education system by strengthening its school inspection function. As a result of the intervention, more than 50,000 school leaders and inspectors were trained and a digital platform for sharing external evaluation reports was designed and operationalised.
