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"The Learning Planet Institute (LPI) is proud to partner with the Varkey Foundation and support the Global Schools Prize. At LPI, we are committed to co-designing with young people educational solutions to equip them as active peace-builders and democratic citizens. This aligns perfectly with the Prize’s focus on Global Citizenship and Peace-building. By joining forces with educators worldwide, we may respond together to the urgent needs to counter polarization, strengthen intergenerational trust, develop civic and peace-building competencies relevant to both physical and digital spheres. Schools are a unique space where these skills can be practiced, not just taught."
Olivier Brechard, Director International Relations, Learning Planet Institute
Framing principle
This badge acknowledges schools that foster intercultural understanding, peace education, and global awareness to help build a more inclusive, just, and connected world. These schools prepare students to think ethically, act collaboratively, and contribute to a more peaceful society at both local and global levels in ways appropriate to their developmental stage, context, and available resources. The criteria recognise that schools in high-resource, internationally connected settings may have different opportunities for global engagement than those in rural or resource-limited contexts, and value diverse approaches to fostering these connections.
Criteria For Earning This Badge
These criteria are grounded in global research on peace education, global competence, and inclusive school cultures. They draw on frameworks related to intercultural dialogue, democratic participation, and student-led action for social justice and sustainability.
To earn this badge, schools must provide evidence that they have excelled in the following areas:
1. Global awareness and local connection
The school actively links its local context to global issues, integrating these themes deeply into teaching and learning. It creates inclusive spaces that honour diversity and encourage students to engage thoughtfully with the wider world.
· The school connects local realities with global challenges (e.g., human rights and responsibilities, sustainability, migration), embedding these themes across curricula and extra-curricular life and helping students understand their role in the wider world.
· It creates safe spaces where human diversity and perspectives are respected, cultivating empathy, perspective-taking, and curiosity for peaceful coexistence with evidence from student attitudes and behaviour, feedback from students and staff, and participation rates.
2. Peace education and student-led action
The school treats peace not just as an idea but as a skill students can learn and practice. Through daily activities, students are encouraged to solve conflicts amicably and take peaceful action to build more just and inclusive communities—both in and outside school.
· Peace is taught as a practical skillset including restorative dialogue and conflict resolution, embedded in everyday school culture and adapted to be age-appropriate from early years through secondary school.
· Students are supported and resourced to lead initiatives promoting justice, inclusion, and peace both locally and globally with measurable outcomes such as documented impact on school culture, community engagement, or policy change.
3. Curriculum for Global Competence
The school helps students build skills like critical thinking, empathy, and teamwork through lessons that include different cultures and perspectives. It promotes a participatory spirit by involving both students and staff in decisions about how the school runs.
· Critical thinking, ethical reasoning, adaptability, and collaboration are intentionally cultivated through curricula that reflect diverse worldviews and provide opportunities for applied learning through projects, simulations, or intercultural exchanges (in person or virtual).
· The school engages students and staff as co-creators of school culture, with evidence of how such involvement has influenced real policies, practices, or initiatives.
4. Partnerships, sustainability, and ecosystem influence
Schools build reciprocal partnerships locally and globally, fostering mutual learning and solidarity. Their global citizenship work is sustained and systemic, influencing education networks, policy, and wider community well beyond individual projects.
· The school develops partnerships that promote intercultural understanding, collaboration, and long-term solidarity appropriate to its context, with creativity shown in overcoming barriers such as geography, technology, or resources.
· The school’s approach becomes a reference model in its wider community or education system, demonstrating long-term commitment and influence in promoting peace and global responsibility supported by examples of how its work has been shared, adapted, or scaled by others.
