Devang Gandhi shakes hands with Shyam Thapa as Apurba Saha (third from left) and Meena Ganesh look on at the programme on Tuesday. (Sanjoy Chattopadhyaya)

Pailan World School has tied up with Pearson Education Services to upgrade its standard of education and make its students fit for global competition.

Pearson Education is a part of Pearson, an international education, media and publishing group.

The partnership was announced at a press conference in Hotel Hindustan International on Tuesday.

This is Pearson Education Service’s first tie-up with a school in eastern India. The unit has tie-ups with 24 schools across India and Nepal.

“I did not want the tag of being yet another good school in the city,” Apurba Saha, the chairman of the Pailan Group, said. “I wanted my school to reach the top, providing real international education to children.”

Meena Ganesh, the CEO and managing director of Pearson Education Services, said they had done the rounds of several other schools in the city before zeroing in on Pailan. “We liked the way the school was run. The chemistry between Pearson and Pailan just matched. The school has the potential of becoming an excellent international institute,” she added.

Ganesh said that there would be little change in the school’s academic curriculum following the tie-up. Only the teaching methodology would be overhauled. There would be more scope for research and teacher-student interaction, she added.

As part of the changing methodology, the teachers have been undergoing training since the Puja vacations. They have been provided new worksheets, detailed lesson plans, teaching tools and training for using the new “DigiClass (teaching solution)” system.

“The teachers would be given a two-year in-service training. But we hope guardians would note the change in the teaching standard by the second term parent-teacher meeting,” Ganesh said.

Students would be facing continuous internal assessments to drive away the fear of examinations, said Ganesh, but she clarified they would not be put under more stress.

“There will be a strong writing programme. The students will also be trained for a number of competitive exams from an early age,” the CEO added.

Pearson will also provide vocational training and certificate courses in various streams.

The press conference was attended by cricketer Devang Gandhi, the coach at the cricket academy in Pailan, and former footballer Shyam Thapa.