Bhubaneswar, Nov. 21: Two teachers from Uganda are in the city to understand the Indian school system and how to engage better with parents to bring out the best in students.

The two teachers, who reached here on November 18, visited various city schools today to understand how schools, particularly in the state, involved parents in the holistic development of students. They also want to learn various aspects of school management.

The duo will be thoroughly briefed on the Indian educational system and acquainted with various club activities. The teachers will take part in three international projects in English, music and commerce as well as in various storytelling sessions.

The SAI International School is mentoring three schools from Uganda by providing hand-holding support in developing a strong, deep-rooted pedagogical system.

As part of this partnership, the school has collaborated with the Mackay Memorial College in Uganda on four projects - Music and Noise, Plant It, Global Immersion Programme and Dance.

The project Music and Noise intends to cross barriers through music. The students will learn songs in Odia and Luganda. To involve the students further, the songs will be translated into English. The Plant It project involves sharing information about shrubs with herbal remedies. The Dance project will help students share information about various dance styles, while the Global Immersion project will expose students from partner schools to the societies in India and Uganda.

The teachers from Uganda visited the Happy Hours Play School in Bhubaneswar to gather information on the functioning of the pre-school.

They also visited the Shri Harsha Memorial School for Deaf where they held a storytelling session and later spoke to the students about their school activities.

The teachers shared their unique culture and tradition with the students and staff through presentations, classroom activities, observations and teacher training workshops.

"We want to understand different teaching-learning methods and functioning of Indian pre-schools," said Norah, principal of Scooby Doo Pre-School in Uganda. "We are especially interested in how the schools involve parents," she said.

The visitors have interacted with the administrative staff members of the schools to understand various procedures and the difficulties encountered at each level of school management, said Arundhati Sudhir, dean admissions, Sai International School.

"The teachers spoke about their culture and practices, and it was great to learn their professional working style and draw similarities between schools in the two countries. The Ugandan teachers were curious about the parental involvement in school activities, which is one of the most important aspects of our schools. It plays a vital role in the holistic development of students," she said.

Students at SAI were delighted with their interactions with the Ugandan teachers. "In July, some students from Uganda had come and we made friends with them. We were happy to see more people visit us from Uganda. They reminded us of our friends out there. They are good dancers and singers," said Satwik Nanda, a Class VII student.

Class XI student Adyasa A. Das said: "Interacting with people from other countries is a good experience. In the next few days, I hope to learn more about their culture and everyday life."

Students and teachers from SAI will be going on a reciprocal visit to partner schools in Uganda in the next few months.