The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Swedish, Indian school students interact

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 04, 2007
ePaper


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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Swedish, Indian school students interact

Staff Reporter

Visit part of institution's curriculum offering "global education"

ALL EARS: Visiting students of Sweden's Gangsatra Gymnasium interacting with students of Bharathiyar Matriculation Higher Secondary School. — Photo: A. Muralitharan

TAMBARAM: It is not only at the college level that students from foreign countries come to Chennai on an exchange programme. Thirty-two students of Gangsatra Gymnasium in Stockhome, Sweden, visited the Bharathiyar Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Guduvanchery on Wednesday as part of an annual exchange programme conducted by the Swedish school.

The school is a member of The Hindu 's Newspaper in Education Programme. Ola Anderson, one of the five teachers accompanying the students, said children in Sweden enrolled in schools at the age of seven and had to spend a minimum of nine years in school.

Their institution was among the few in the country offering "global education" and such a visit was part of their curriculum.

There were about 550 students at the high school level and some were selected for overseas trips like the Indian programme, Mr. Anderson said, adding students visited other countries of the world as well. The present batch of 32 students were selected after some tests and their preference to visit India, particularly Tamil Nadu.

"They have been working for the past six months, studying about various aspects of Tamil society, history, politics, social issues and culture," he said. The students were divided into batches and they worked on Dalit issues, health care, child labour, democratic patterns in Tamil Nadu and other issues. On Wednesday, the students interacted with students of Bharathiyar School, who were all ears when they noted the methods and patterns of the educational system followed in Sweden.

And so were the Swedish students who were informed that in India, students had to reproduce, during the examinations, all they read from textbooks. Bharathiyar School students were glad that their counterparts in Sweden were given a lot of scope and freedom to work on subjects of their choice and were also surprised when they learnt that the Swedish students could call their teachers by their surnames.

"We are more like friends," Mr. Anderson said, describing the student-teacher relationship. Teachers from the host school were present.

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Tamil Nadu