December 2020 Blog Posts (10)

The issues relating to Black Lives Matter which have come to prominence recently are very relevant to the IGCA. The section Understanding other outlooks and cultures calls for IGCA participants to find out more about how people view the world differently. There are many books and articles on racism, and many IGCA participants may wish to explore some of these resources. But Understanding other outlooks and cultures involves participants having direct…

Modified arrangements for IGCA Awards during the Covid-19 pandemic

Many schools have been closed or considerably scaled back during this continuing Covid-19 pandemic. This has disrupted external examinations, and examining bodies such as the International Baccalaureate and GCE A level examination boards have put in place exceptional arrangements. Students are receiving awards on the basis of work completed up to the time of school closure, and without external…

Geetanjali Dhull of Pathways World School, Aravali, India reports the number of awards made this year in Middle School:

Bronze level    50

Silver level       21

Gold level        33

In total, Middle School at PWS has made a total of 1307 awards since it introduced the programme in 2013-14:

Bronze 814, Silver 360, Gold 133

Completion of the programme and the award process has been held up by school closure for…

Covid 19 – an example of man’s dysfunctional relationship with the natural world

One of the strongest points to emerge during the Covid 19 crisis is the relationship of humans to the natural world.

Covid 19 is thought to have crossed the species boundary from a wild mammal to man. As it wreaks its devastating and tragic impact on human populations, we have responded by going into lockdown.

One of the few upsides of the pandemic is the resurgence of nature –…

Walter Arevalo from Academia Británica Cuscatleca sent through some photos of activities in November 2019 by IGCA participants at his school.

Walter’s photos of IGCA participants…

John Labor of the Arabian Pearl Gulf School, Bahrain got in touch with news of the programme in his school:

“The pandemic indeed disrupted our programme. Our collection of plastic bottles was not disposed of as intended. Children’s donations await delivery to charity. Projects are stalled. But safety and wellbeing of our participants remain paramount, so we are contented with our current accomplishment. We continue to encourage participants to pursue IGCA activities at home…

Plastic use – digging behind the figures

A recent study in Scientific Advances has highlighted that some figures on plastic use by countries can be misleading.

The Guardian reported that “Previous work had suggested…

Plastic use – digging behind the figures

A recent study in Scientific Advances has highlighted that some figures on plastic use by countries can be misleading.

The Guardian reported that “Previous work had suggested…

While studying the University of Bristol's excellent free online course on global citizenship a section concerned Diversity and Difference and this got me thinking. This is of relevance to how we work with IGCA participants to understand other cultures and outlooks.

Diversity recognises different types, often identified by the observer rather than the people themselves. The ethnic groups used in censuses and surveys usually require a person to select which of…