A delegation from Finland led by its Minister of Education Anna-Maja Henriksson will meet Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday.
The delegation will include the Finnish Ambassador and Finnish Consul General. The visit is to prepare a roadmap for coordination with the Nordic country in the area of education, and plan activities accordngly.
They will meet Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty, Planning Board vice-chairperson V.K. Ramachandran, Chief Secretary V. Venu, General Education Principal Secretary Rani George, Director of General Education Shanavas S., and heads of various agencies under the General Education department the same day.
Delegations from Finland have visited the State earlier too to conduct preliminary discussions on areas such as pre-primary education, teacher empowerment, technology, science and mathematics learning, approach to evaluations, and research. Working groups that were formed met to hand over information on various aspects.
Minister for General Education V. Sivankutty, at a press meet here on Saturday, said the delegation would reach the State capital on Wednesday morning. It would visit Government Model High School and Lower Primary School and Pre-Primary School, Thycaud. In the afternoon, it would visit Cotton Hill Pre-primary Teachers’ Training Institute.
On Thursday, it would meet Mr. Sivankutty, senior officials, education experts, and teachers at Hyatt Regency at 9 a.m. before meeting the Chief Minister at his chamber at 12.30 p.m.
Mr. Sivankutty said one of the main areas of cooperation between Finland and the State discussed by the working groups was the pre-school sector. The discussions would focus on what aspects of the Finnish model could be adapted in the State. Training of teachers for the pre-school sector too would need changes.
The pre-school sector would have to be included in formal education so that children could be prepared for primary school, the Minister said.
