West Worcestershire MP Harriett Baldwin has visited local schools who take advantage of opportunities to link up with schools in Africa to inspire young students. The British Council runs a scheme which helps local schools to pair up with a school in Africa and many local teachers have already visited schools across the continent as part of an exchange scheme. Harriett met with head teachers from local schools who already send teachers to Tanzania as part of the Connecting Classrooms scheme initiative which is funded by UK aid. Harriett commented: “The Connecting Classrooms initiative is a great way to help younger people to gain an understanding of education in other countries and I am pleased so many local schools already participate. “It was useful to chat to teachers about how they are able to adapt their teaching programmes to cover international issues and this is one great example of how our UK aid budget helps build strong international partnerships and better awareness of the challenges faced in schools in other countries. “It was also great to hear that local schools carry out their own fund-raising to help their international counterparts and I hope that this scheme helps both African and our own school children.” Photo: Harriett Baldwin MP meeting with local head teachers to discuss the Connecting Classrooms initiative at Wyche Primary School.