UK teachers on a five-day visit to city schools

To encourage exchange programmes among schools in Kolkata and the United Kingdom, over 12 schools from the city have either visited schools in UK or acted as hosts to the representatives from these schools.

To encourage exchange programmes among schools in Kolkata and the United Kingdom, over 12 schools from the city have either visited schools in UK or acted as hosts to the representatives from these schools.

Currently, three teachers from UK schools are on a five-day visit to schools in the city.

These visits involve devising a global curriculum, proper use of Information Communication Technology ICT tools and working on projects of mutual concern.

Currently, these schools receive the grants under two schemes 8212; UK-India Education and Research Initiative UKIERI and UK Department of International Fund DFID sponsored by the Global School Partnership Programme.

At an interaction session at Gokhale Memorial Girls School, Elena Evans, Head Teacher of Stage Lane Middle School, said: 8220;We are amazed to see how the schools manage so many students. Here, each school has more than a thousand students. It is also interesting to note that children are so self-disciplined.8221;

Interestingly, the British teachers were all praise for the English language skills of the students in the city, although a majority of the students opt for English as their second language.

The schools might not have an infrastructure to use the ICT tools at par with their UK counterparts but it, too, has some benefits. They were also very impressed with the handwriting of the students.

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8220;There is something we are going to take in terms of value education. Here, the children are told that studying is their duty which is not so for our students,8221; said Moira Arnold, Head Teacher of Alyward First and Middle School. She added that they are going to arrange a project on Rabindranath Tagore in their school.

Seven schools in the city, which are government- run or government-aided, have formed a cluster and are in touch with six schools in the UK under the UKIERI initiative. The schools are Sakhawat Memorial Girls High School, Multipurpose Government High School, Hare School, Ballygunge Government High School, Gokhale Memorial Girls School, Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya, Narendrapur and Lake Town Girls High School.

Two teachers of Birla High School for Girls visited their partner school, Saint Nicholas School, Fleet Hampshire in October on a five-day visit to share their experiences.