Congratulations for successful completion of Principals’ Exchange to Italy. The inaugural Exchange Program for Principals and School Heads with Italy from 17th-24th October 2018 witnessed several school visits and presentations.
Principals shared best practices in themes including curriculum design and pedagogy. AFS India, in association with its Members Schools will be hosting the Italian Principals in April 2019.
Participating educators:
- Amrita Burman, Sunbeam School Varanasi
- Alpana Khound Phukan, Maria’s Public School, Guwahati
- Meena Kak, Lakshmipat Singhania Academy, Kolkata
- Dr. Mrignaini Khullar, DLF Public School, Sahibabad
- Smita Rathore from Queens College, Indore
- Ridhi Mulchandani from Queens College, Indore
- Kiran Harika, British Co-Ed High School, Patiala, Punjab
Testimonials by Educators:
“We visited six Scientific and Art high schools and studied the education system prevalent in the country and made a comparative study of the same with the Indian system, besides interacting with the faculty and students and showcasing India’s rich culture, ethos and the best practices pertaining to Indian schools. As a team member from the northeast of India, I would wish to thank AFS from the core of my heart, for the privilege of being a part of the group, the wonderful learning experience and the immense warmth and hospitality bestowed upon us by the AFS volunteers. They were very helpful and looked after our needs with immense care and concern. The young ones too showed tremendous responsibility and maturity in handling the program. I hope more such program is held in the future for the development and growth of school leaders and faculty members.”
By Alpana Khound Phukan, Principal, Maria’s Public School Guwahati, Assam
“I wholeheartedly thank AFS for providing our school with a wonderful platform to know more about the culture, education system, tradition and people of Italy through this Leadership Exchange Program. We got the chance to visit 6 selected schools of different streams- linguistic, science, art and Fashion in Milan and Torino. It was a delightful experience to learn their classroom pedagogy and the curriculum they follow in High School. We were welcomed wholeheartedly with love, care and warmth.
Visiting different schools made a long-lasting impact on us as the hospitality and passion of the host schools was outstanding. To our surprise, the Italian students and teachers took equal interest in Indian Education system, values and culture. There are no words to express our gratitude towards AFS Italy volunteers and special mention to Ms. Teresa and Mr. Alexandria, who went out of their way to make our trip comfortable, enjoyable and full of learning. I am grateful to AFS for making this visit memorable one.”
By Dr. Mrignaini Khullar, Executive Director, DLF Public School, Sahibabad
“I have been very fortunate to be a part of first AFS Principals’ exchange program. To begin with I realised how much detailing the AFS chapters in India and Italy have gone into, to make this program successful and comfortable. My heartfelt gratitude at the outset.
Visiting schools and understanding the education pattern was an immensely fruitful learning experience. If compared to Indian system, Class IX onwards in Italy is a 5year High School system where by on completion of 5 years students are awarded with a Diploma. These High Schools are separate and not a part of regular school.
I was amazed to see the level of depth that students get in their subjects while being in High school. They get lot of opportunities to think, experiment and express. While visiting the Art School Istituto Boccioni in Milan, I was immensely impressed by the way students took us to an Art Museum and described 20 selected paintings by famous Artists. As such Italy is the seat of world-famous Artists. Similarly the design work, sculpture, model drawing, sketching and fashion work which we saw was of a very high level.
The concept building in scientific school was completely based on experiential methods using tools and experimenting in labs. While observing classes, the atmosphere was somewhat informal but at the same time the respect of the teacher and the class decorum was taken care of. As students do not have any prescribed uniform, I feel the experiencing of freedom is more by them. (Also possibly teachers do not have to spend time and energy on enforcing the compliance for the same. They would be using this time more fruitfully I suppose)I experienced Italians to be very warm hearted and hospitable – like us. It was a pleasure meeting some very enthusiastic and spirited volunteers. My belief and trust in AFS has grown all the more after this tour to Italy. Once again, my heartfelt gratitude and thanks for this opportunity.”
By Smita Rathore, Principal, Queens College, Indore.
“At the outset, a big thank you to AFS for making this great learning experience possible. It was a well-organized program and the learning experience got better with each school visit. We visited a variety of their high schools and had a good insight into their schooling system. The volunteers at Milan and Turin were very good. “
It was great to see the children very responsible as volunteers and it was very heart-warming to meet the Heads of the different schools who were very welcoming and down to earth. Their education system was a little different from ours but it was an eye-opener to realize that our students have a lot of in-depth information compared to their students in the field of science. It was very nice to see their children in fashion and art schools doing a lot of practical work. Their children make choices of careers very early in life i.e. in class 8 to pursue from classes 9 to 13. Their school is a year extra compared to ours. Their classroom delivery patterns were good but ours seemed to be at par with theirs. It was nice to note that most of their students went to public schools as their Public School system was good and it was rare that children went to private schools.”
By Mrs. Amrita Burman, Deputy Director, Sunbeam School, Varanasi