The primary ethos of OCEP is to promote education worldwide, as we believe that education is one of the best ways to encourage social mobility and alleviate poverty in the long term. Our distinctly ambitious mission statement is:
Clearly, an organisation of OCEP’s size cannot achieve this lofty mission alone and in its entirety. Instead, OCEP has developed a model geared towards specific countries, particular areas of education and corresponding roots of poverty.
Learning English is a vital tool for many of the children we reach. It can be an end in itself to open the door to many careers in the burgeoning fields of tourism and international trade and business in China and south-east Asia, as well as to make friends with English people and enjoy aspects of English-speaking culture. It is also often an important aspect of their formal education to increase their chances in the immensely competitive sphere of entry into higher education. For instance, in Qinghai a good grasp of English can enable students to go on to the ‘ETP’ and improve their prospects for the future.
The camps are funded in a variety of ways. Many camps in relatively more prosperous areas, such as those in Changsha, in China’s Hunan Province, and in Hong Kong, are run as commercial enterprises, which is to say that children pay to attend. The costs are met by the attendance fee, though this is subsidised heavily by sponsorships from interests in both the UK and the locality of the camp such as education authorities or private companies, newspapers for example. Costs are kept low to make the camp available to as many children as possible, for instance by sending volunteer teachers rather than paid teachers.
Some camps, such as those in Qinghai province or in Beijing’s suburbs for children of migrant workers, are free to attend, and are often partly funded by charitable organisations in the UK. They also benefit from money made by some of the commercial camps.
Charging for some camps is vital to meet their costs, and enables OCEP to reach communities that otherwise would not be able to benefit from an OCEP Summer camp. It also decreases OCEP’s dependency on charitable donations and sponsorships, which makes the organisation more sustainable from year to year. This reflects a wider trend in international organisations, away from direct giving and donations towards more sustainable commercial models which better enable organisations to deliver a great service over a longer period of time.
The ability to speak and write English is a highly sought-after skill in the countries in which OCEP operates. As a result, there are clearly many English teachers already employed in these countries. OCEP aims to complement their teaching, rather than take work away from local professionals. OCEP aims to do this in two main ways.
Firstly, as with learning any language, having access to teachers who speak that language in their daily lives is extremely useful. In matters of pronunciation, everyday idiom and so on, OCEP’s volunteers can reinforce and extend the work done by local teachers, a bit like the conversation lessons you may have endured at GCSE!
Secondly, it gives the children a chance to experience different methods of teaching. It is generally accepted that in many schools in the countries in which OCEP operates, the teaching method involves a great deal of rote-learning and fewer opportunities to contribute to lessons than is found in UK schools for example. This approach has its advantages, in imparting rules of grammar and large amounts of vocabulary for instance. OCEP camps aim to develop different skills in the students, such as the ability to think on their feet and engage in spontaneous conversation, and to promote active as opposed to passive education.
As may become clear from the name of the organisation, the Oxbridge Cultural Exchange Project is all for cultural exchange. By sending students from UK universities to volunteer for weeks at a time in the same place, OCEP aims to sew acorns of mutual understanding and novel experiences which can bloom in the fullness of time into the mighty oaks of lasting friendships and lifelong fascinations. This applies equally to the children, the volunteers and the countless other characters you will meet along the way.
Meeting and working alongside people from cultures other than your own is one of the best ways to raise the consciousness of all concerned to international issues, cross-cultural similarities and differences – whether that involves dispelling stereotypes, learning a new language or just discovering the joys of rice-wine fuelled karaoke. In turn, OCEP is a great way to accomplish this, as volunteers immerse themselves in the culture of their adopted country and work alongside locals throughout the duration of the camp, and many volunteers take the opportunity to travel after the camp to further broaden their horizons.