Heart of Punjab: Turning to overseas lessons for a sound Finnish
Waving a handprint craft of tree leaves while rushing for her home in Hoshiarpur’s Chadial village, a beaming three-year-old Jessica tells her classmates, “I know my mother will be waiting on the doorstep to see what I have got today. Every day, I go home with a new creation”.
A charged up Jessica exhibits the striking change in the classroom activities in her school. The word about the change in classroom learning has spread around and parents of children from adjoining villages of Kheowal and Bains Khurd are also seeking admission of their wards to the local government primary school from the next session.
The mood in the classroom turned joyful after class teacher Vandana Heer returned from Finland where she underwent a special course in primary school education at the University of Turku last year.
Vandana was part of the first batch of 72 members of primary school education staff sent by the Punjab Government for the course overseas. All of them are in demand as resource persons at camps being organised by the Education Department for the fellow staff.
The first memorandum of understanding was signed between the State Council of Educational Research and Training and the University of Turku in September last year. The Punjab Government sponsored the three-week training programme for primary teachers from October 21 to November 8.
The team included six block primary education officers, 12 centre head teachers, 14 head teachers and 40 elementary teacher trainers.
Nearly Rs 2.37 crores were spent on the training of the first batch and roughly Rs 70 lakh was paid to the host university as fee. A total of Rs 2.15 crore is being spent on the second batch, which left for Finland on Saturday.
In the first week of the programme, classes were held locally till March 9. In future, the department plans to conduct the entire training programme in the state by inviting resource persons from the Turku university. Teachers with over 15 years of service left are being provided the chance to attend the special course.
Special Secretary (School Education) Churchill Kumar says, “The state has over 12,800 primary schools with approximately 40,000 teachers. The initial results of the training are positive.”
Education Minister Harjot Bains says, “There is no tinkering with the syllabus. We are making children show more involvement in the classroom activity through innovations. The fun component makes children more interested in the learning process.”
Khamano cluster head teacher Navreet Kaur says, “During our training, we were exposed to pedagogy skills through activity-based learning so as to facilitate easy understanding of concepts.”
She adds, “Children here used to be scared of learning English. We are trying to make it joyful. Like Finland, we are not relegating the first language Punjabi. We are only facilitating kids to consider English as any other subject as it has a huge significance in one’s career.”
The impact of the new learning methods is prominent in WhatsApp groups of teachers and parents. Class activities are evaluated daily and even suggestions pour in from fellow teachers and parents.
Kamlesh Kaur, mother of Jasleen Kaur, a student of Class IV at Government Primary School, Khamano Kalan (Ludhiana), says, “Earlier, she was scared to go to the school. Things have changed for better now. She is always talking about what she will be doing the next day in her classroom.”
A section of teachers is sceptical about the success of the new teaching programme. The biggest handicap is the shortage of teachers. “We have a large number of schools with just one or two teachers for five classes,” says Sukhwinder Singh Chahal, president, Government Teachers Union, Punjab.
Former Secretary (School Education) Krishan Kumar had, during the tenure of the Amarinder Singh government (2017-2022), carried out an extensive training for primary school faculty under the “Padho Punjab, Padhao Punjab” project, which had shown positive results, particularly in the pre-primary teaching.
