The Middle East continues to be a priority region, with Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Yemen of particular importance. Our focus over the next few years will be on supporting educational reform across the region. We will also be introducing new leadership programmes and expanding our work around creativity. Security will continue to be an issue for the foreseeable future.

An innovative art exhibition – Classroom Portraits – which explores the life of children in the Middle East and the UK, has added a new element to our school linking programme in the region.

In 2007 the British Council commissioned British photographer Julian Germain to take classroom portraits in schools in the region and in the UK. In Yemen, Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, in towns and villages, and a variety of private, public, primary and secondary schools, he met and recorded the lives of schoolchildren.

As well as collecting the images, the British Council gathered data from all the classes, giving the children questionnaires on what they think and talk and dream about – What’s your favourite food? What time did you go to bed last night? What are you most afraid of? What do you talk to your friends about? What will you be when you grow up? What word best describes you?

The resulting exhibition was opened by Education Minister Abdulsalam al-Jawfi in the National Museum Yemen, in December 2007, and is now touring Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the UK, reaching over 15,000 people. In each country, an activity programme invites school classes to visit, to work with and to think about the pictures and the lives of children in schools in their own and other countries. By using art to illustrate this shared experience, young people in the UK and the Middle East have an unusual and engaging opportunity to find out more about each other’s lives, to explore different cultures and exchange ideas.

The art exhibition complements Connecting Classrooms, our school partnerships project, which aims to increase dialogue and understanding between young people in the Middle East and the UK. In joint curriculum projects, children share experiences and increase their international awareness, so preparing thousands of them for their role as global citizens of the future. The project also supports teacher development and leadership in schools. Experience is shared with teachers and heads around the region and in the UK. All existing Connecting Classrooms schools are fully involved in Classroom Portraits’ activities. Schools work together with a specially designed education pack, a quiz, and an essay competition on the child’s idea of the perfect classroom.

The Connecting Classrooms project has been running since 2006 and currently has 182 schools working in 65 partnerships. The project reached over 9,000 people in 2007–08 and 97 per cent of participants now have improved perceptions of the UK and the Middle East. In 2008–09 67 more partnerships will be formed from another 190 schools.