British Council Colombo wins global award
View(s):In a press release, the British Council Colombo said: “Sri Lanka is a challenging context in which to work on implementing child protection policies, systems and procedures. There are many factors in Sri Lanka that contribute to crimes against children including absence of one or both parents who work overseas, strong family units protecting perpetrators, lack of education for children on keeping safe, shame and embarrassment in discussing child abuse issues, increase in the use of phones and the internet, post-war difficulties, such as loss of parents and normalisation of violence and child labour.
“Child protection is a high priority for the British Council in Sri Lanka due to the large number of children we come into contact with. There are over 3500 young learners and more than 1000 young adults under the age of 18 across our teaching centres in Colombo, Kandy, Jaffna, Galle and Matara. The library has around 3000 young learner memberships and there are numerous activities with children happening throughout the year through our schools programmes and English Language Training projects.
“The exams team in Sri Lanka have mainstreamed child protection into the process for conducting Cambridge Young Learner Exams. Approximately 17,000 children take exams through the British Council, Sri Lanka each year, so this is a momentous task.
“Where exams are not conducted in a school, a risk assessment is completed on venues and appropriate safety measures are put in place. There is a drop off/pick-up policy for exam candidates to ensure that children are adequately supervised at the venue and that they leave safely after the exams. There are around 300 invigilators and 75 examiners working with under 18s and they all receive training in child protection. Invigilators and examiners who are non-British Council staff have a face-to-face briefing on child protection and their responsibilities and are given access to the British Council online training course to complete.
“To monitor this, nominated members of British Council exams staff have administrative rights to run training completion reports for the online course. Every quarter, there is a 5% spot-check of exams by staff and there are also regular checks by external inspectors, which includes checking safeguarding of children. In addition, on our website there is detailed guidance for candidates, from choosing which exam to take to tips for preparing and what to expect on exam day, to help make study and the exams as stress free as possible and give students the support they need to perform at their best and achieve success.”
The press release added that the British Council is constantly reviewing and revising current practices.
“Delivering UK qualifications to thousands of people in Sri Lanka is an integral part of our operation. Our work with Cambridge International Examinations, with Pearson Edexcel and with Cambridge English Language Assessment all involves working with children aged 6 and above. Children are a vulnerable group and at the British Council we take extensive measures by training and re-training both our staff and the extended networks we work with to ensure we are at the forefront of best practice in child protection” – said Simon Creasey, Country Exams Manager.