Up-skilling education system: 6 teachers arrive from Finland to Thane school to impart quality teaching

Mumbai: In a first in the Mumbai-Thane belt, a school in Thane has brought over six teachers from Finland to upgrade the quality of its teaching and provide international class infrastructure.

The Goenka Global Education, which had the franchise of Billabong High International School, Thane, has now tied up with EduCluster of Finland and the school will now be rechristened as Finland International School.

Team of teachers to live in Thane for 6 years

"The team of six teachers will live in Thane for about three years  and interact with teachers and other stakeholders of the school and help them adopt best practices in education, said Shashank Goenka, managing director of Goenka Global Education. He further added, "a school on the Finnish model was started in Pune in August last year with only 30 students. Another bigger school is being planned in Pune. However, the Finnish tie-up with the Thane school has already commenced."   

On Saturday, a large number of parents attended a meeting in the school's campus at Thane where audio-video presentations were made by the school management and a representative from Finland. Incidentally, the Punjab and Delhi governments are also seeking help from Finland to upgrade education in their respective areas.

"The GGE management has taken a conscious decision in up-skilling  the existing system of education in the school by enhancing the teaching. The major shift in education in the school now will be focusing on transversal skills and phenomenon-based learning alongside rigorous academic programmes," chairman of Goenka Global Education Sudhir Goenka explained. Children will also be imparted training in carpentry and other  The school currently offers the ICSE, IGCSE and IB examinations and this will continue. "Only the level of teaching and learning  will improve vastly," said Vijayam Ravi, director of the school. Shashank Goenka informed the parents that “The aim is not only to build a global, empowering educational system, but also to foster infrastructure, a learning community and an atmosphere which is student-centric and inspiring."

The Finnish curriculum

The Finnish curriculum has been mapped with various boards like ICSE/IGCSE/IB and made suitable for the Indian scenario, where local teachers will be upskilled under the guidance of highly qualified Finnish educators. The Finnish mentor teachers will be present physically for continuous collaboration and co-teaching While the current School boards and their assessments will all remain the same, the curriculum will be enhanced with higher order thinking skills and life skills education, a school spokesperson said. 

Interestingly, the school will also hire a senior chef of JW Marriot Hotel to design nutritious lunch for the students. EduCluster Finland is beginning to  co-create  state -of -the -art schools in India, where they aim at synergizing Finnish best practices with the Indian educational approaches. Established in 2010, EduCluster Finland Ltd. engages in global operations pioneering expertise over the entire Finnish educational spectrum. EduCluster Finland co-develops leading-edge educational solutions with its three owners: the University of Jyväskylä, JAMK University of Applied Sciences, and Jyväskylä Educational Consortium Gradia. EduCluster Finland has partnered with several education providers across the globe.