Bright future

Jamshedpur/Ranchi, Feb. 4: Soon, school students and their counterparts in Bristol, UK, can — and will — work simultaneously on their class projects.

An initiative of UK India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI), this unique tie-up between schools of the two countries aims to substantially improve educational links between India and UK. In all, 13 clusters have been formed under the initiative in eastern India. While Jamshedpur has one cluster, the other is of Navodaya Vidyalayas of Jharkhand and Bihar.

Six schools from Jamshedpur have formed a cluster with four schools from Bristol. Among the six Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas that are part of another cluster, three are from the state — JNV Ranchi, Bokaro and Lohardaga.

“From now, we will work on joint projects to better the education system in both countries,” said Jamshedpur Public School principal Lalita Sareen, during an ongoing visit by UK teachers. She is the leader of the six-school cluster.

Among the other schools in Jamshedpur are Baug E Jamshed; JH Tarapore School; Tarapore School, Agrico; Kashidih High School and DBMS Kadma High School.

“This is a partnership of three years. We will take up projects and share ideas,” said Georgie Paddon from Waycroft Primary School in Bristol. She and her fellow teachers will be in Jamshedpur till Friday.

UKIERI was announced by former Prime Minister Tony Blair during his visit to India in 2005 and launched in 2006.

JNV, Bokaro, principal D.K. Modi said the main objective was to help students integrate with the outside world. Since a number of Navodaya Vidyalalya students come from underprivileged backgrounds, this was a huge window of opportunity. According to Modi, an MoU was signed between the Navodaya schools and four UK schools — Braunton School and Community College, the Bridgeford College, the Park Community School and the Pilton Community College.

“We have a joint curriculum based on the ‘Five R’ policy — reuse, reduce, recycle, refuse and rejoice. Over the next three years, all projects which are taken up jointly would be based on this theme,” said Nargis Madan, the principal of JH Tarapore School in Jamshedpur.

The visitors were impressed. “This morning we saw paper bags made by students. This is a concept we will try to implement at our schools in Bristol,” said Erica Griggs from Parson Street School.