Why international education has never been more important

Imagine that you could have voted for how the world would tackle the pandemic.

Option One

National governments across the world ask their scientists to advise on how best to handle the pandemic. Each country has its own solutions, with varying results.

Option Two

Several multinational scientific teams work from the outset to tackle the pandemic crisis. Team-members work together in a spirit of global cooperation and problem-solving. Each country’s government has a multinational team advising it from a global perspective.

Which option would you prefer?

In general, I think what the world got is Option One. On a global scale, the outcomes have been, at best, suboptimal.

Option Two was an IB Diploma Group 4 Sciences project designed for students at EF Academy Oxford, an international boarding school. Students brought together interdisciplinary knowledge, intercultural understanding, and a highly developed sense of global responsibility.

Such a contrast between options begs an obvious question. If each country’s scientists and government ministers had all been educated together in genuinely international schools, would our present global crisis have been handled better?

I think so. Learning to live and learn with people from other countries gives a world view to any problem. As we and our world environment face growing threats, international boarding schools have a major role to play in shaping those amazing people who will find, together, the global solutions of tomorrow.

For my part, it is a privilege to be learning from these young people from around the world how to think globally.

Dr. Paul Ellis

Head of School, EF Academy Oxford