A group of students from St. Patrick’s School in Singapore has come to Tamil Nadu on a week-long educational visit to learn about Indian teaching methodologies.
Their first stop was at a school in Coimbatore where the 20 students in the age group of 13 to 15 accompanied by three teachers spent half a day interacting with the students of Yuvabharathi Public School. They also attended a few classes.
According to vice-principal Meenakshi Vaidyanathan, her school students performed an assembly based on ‘disaster management’ with focus being on preparation and prevention. They demonstrated a working model of Ham Radio and its uses during the times of disasters when all other modes of communication become standstill. Further, the students also enacted a dance drama on ‘Silapathikaram – the Jewelled Anklet’ besides local folk dances.
Hazlian Karim, one of the teachers from St Patrick’s School, said that the classroom atmosphere was different in India.
While the Singapore schools focussed more on information technology, teachers did most of the explaining in schools here.
“I am surprised to see students listen silently through entire lecture without interruption. The students here are a lot more disciplined. We will be taking back quite a few lessons,” she adds. Her colleague Faheema Mohamad, says they will be trying to replicate the Indian system which is student centric.
The delegation will proceed to another school in The Nilgiris district and one more in Chennai before returning to Singapore. The trip was organised by the Singapore Government’s Department of Education.
