Published on Tuesday, 30 June 2009 18:47 | | 
In a world that is opening up at an astonishing speed, schools are recognising the need to equip young people with the skills to contribute to an increasingly global, interdependent society.
Yet in a world in which 4 billion people - two thirds of the population - are of faith, can we be sure that young people are equipped to participate as global citizens if they do not understand much about the world's major religions? How can we ensure that a lack of knowledge does not lead to prejudice, antagonism and tension?
A new global education programme from the Tony Blair Faith Foundation,
Face to Faith, is designed to do just that. The initiative was launched formally on Tuesday 9th June by Tony Blair who took part in a video-conference between three schools in the UK, Palestine and India.
Developed by an international group of educational experts and piloted in more than 10 countries on three continents, Face to Faith uses video conferencing, an online community and a course syllabus to support exchange between young people of different faiths. Face to Faith also contributes to the project component of the 'Global Perspectives' IGSCE from Cambridge Assessment as well as to a range of national RE, Humanities, Social Sciences and Citizenship
qualifications and curricula.
The programme has already been taken up by schools in India, Singapore, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Thailand, Indonesia, Lebanon, the US, UK and Canada, who have recognised the programme's potential to improve young people's religious literacy. Young people involved in the pilot are already reporting how their understanding of the role of faith in today's world has increased by learning from those of differing social, cultural and religious perspectives. As a student from The Indian Heights School in New Delhi said, "It's so much more interesting and real to learn directly from people of a
different religion rather than simply reading about them in a book."
And Virginia Cheng, Principal at National Junior College, Singapore who has been an early pioneer of the programme, commented, "This programme provides us with another opportunity to strengthen our
national education efforts to promote racial and religious harmony."
Face to Faith is currently offered free to schools in the following countries:
- India
- Pakistan
- Singapore
- Indonesia
- Thailand
- Malaysia
- Lebanon
- Jordan
- Palestinian Territories
- Israel
- UK
- USA
- Canada
- Australia
- Morocco
If your school is located in one of these countries and you are interested in joining the Face to Faith programme, please register your interest by clicking the link below. Face to Faith is seeking to expand over the coming months so if your school is not located in one of the countries in which we are currently active, please still register your interest and we will be in contact to discuss the introduction of Face to Faith in your school.
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