Finland will join hands with Kerala in the area of general education as well as higher education.
Finland, which has the reputation of having the best education system in the world, will cooperate with Kerala in the area of pre-primary education and care, technical education, exchange training programme for teachers, imparting science and maths education and the grading system for student evaluation at various stages. The academic and research institutions in both Finland and Kerala will also establish academic links.
This was decided following the discussions between a high-level delegation from Kerala, led by Chief Secretary V. P. Joy and Finland State Secretary of Education Dan Koivulaakso. The Kerala delegation is in Finland on invitation from Finnish Education Minister Li Andersson.
The discussions will continue at the official level, for which a time-bound framework would be evolved. The Kerala delegation explained the State’s attempts to revise the school curriculum and the desire to learn about the best of the Finnish model of education.
Finland considers India as one of the key partners for cooperation in the area of education. An academic expert has been specially appointed by Finland in New Delhi to take forward the talks with the Union government, Mr. Koivulaakso said.
The research institutions in the area of education in Kerala, including the State Council of Educational Research and Training, the State Institute of Educational Management and Training - Kerala, and the State Institute of Educational Technology will be participate in the discussions with academic organisations in Finland.
The Global Innovation Network for Teaching and Learning, a network of Finnish higher education institutions, with partners from India, China and Africa, for collaboration in research and education, will be the nodal agency to take forward the talks.
Kerala would be interested in adopting Finland models on pre-primary education. The State will also assist Finland in establishing Student IT Clubs on the lines of the Little KITEs’ IT Clubs in Kerala, which is a unique initiative of the Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE), to support ICT-enabled education in the schools in the State.
