Global Schoolroom provides a unique opportunity for teachers in Ireland and abroad to share educational experiences and contribute to professional development.  It also offers the chance to make a real and lasting difference to the quality of education being delivered so helping eradicate poverty, promote economic development and build sustainable communities.
Global Schoolroom brings teachers from Ireland and the UK together with their colleagues in India to facilitate teacher-education in remote communities of North-East India through a University College Dublin accredited programme. 

Since 2008 Global Schoolroom has facilitated training for 440 Indian teachers and in July 2013 signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Assam Don Bosco University, India, ensuring that graduates are recognised under the recently passed Right to Education Act.  This is a very significant step, as India does not ordinarily recognize “foreign” qualifications. This recognition will have the effect of improving the living conditions of these teachers by, amongst other things, increasing their salaries by as much as 10-fold. 

In addition to facilitating high international standards in teacher education, Global Schoolroom has seen within their affiliated schools in India a 300% increase in children attending school, a 400% increase in children passing state examinations and a significantly greater engagement in the school community amongst parents, many of whom never attended school themselves and can find schools alien and threatening places. These improvements have come about because, through the Global Schoolroom programme, Indian teachers have been enabled and empowered and given a sense of purpose and professionalism.

In addition to the teacher-education programme in India, Global Schoolroom is currently carrying out research in association with the University of Limerick to investigate the impact of methods on the teachers from Ireland and the UK who have, up to recently, been the sole tutors on the programme. In the last number of years, more Indian Global Schoolroom graduates have volunteered as tutors and they now work to this end with their Irish colleagues.  Initial results suggest that the teachers from Ireland and the UK have been impacted significantly both in terms of their overall professional development and in their understanding of development and/or global issues. 

Irish and UK teachers who have been involved have gone on the record to say that Global Schoolroom has given them the best CPD opportunities of their career. This learning has been recognised for course days for primary school Global Schoolroom volunteers by the Department of Education under the ‘INTO Learning’ summer courses organised by the Irish National Teachers Organisation.