'Vocations to become knowledge skills'
Sheetal Banchariya | TNN | Feb 25, 2019, 13:52 IST
Singapore's Punggol district gets its first global school catering to Indian students with a smart campus
Keeping in view, limited schooling options offering an unconventional mode of education, for the children from Indian diaspora settled in Singapore, a new technologically driven, smart campus was started recently. The campus of Global Indian International School (GIIS) aims to offer skilled-based and offbeat unconventional educational courses to students from class 1 to 12.
The school that boasts of face recognition devices, iPads, sound-mixing studio, ceramic labs, radio studio, digital platform to track the school buses and more, is clearly a school that is ahead of times. "Along with academics, the school will emphasise on critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication, which are some of the core 21 st -century skills that a school should focus on inculcating in the new-age students," says Kaustubh Bodhankar, deputy chief executive officer, Global Indian International School (GIIS), Singapore.
"Two decades ago people would not have thought of career options such as radio jockey, ceramic artists or sound engineering, which have now emerged as popular choices. It is the need of the hour to imbibe relevant skills in students that will help them prepare for future jobs, which are not even known at the moment," he adds.
The Indian expats settled in Singapore battle the problem of school admissions for their children. This was the reason that a school dedicated to Indian students was the need of the hour.
"The skills needed in India are different from those required in Singapore. Thus, we carefully picked the local requirement. Geographically relevant skills are yet to pick up the pace in the education systems across the globe, says Atul Temurnikar, chairman and co-founder of Global Schools Foundation (GSF), Singapore, on the sidelines of GIIS Smart Campus launch, which was officially inaugurated by Ng Chee Meng, minister in Prime Minister's office, Singapore.
Global citizenship is not just about spending time in a particular country but is more about acquiring a global mindset. "Students need to be taught about concepts of global citizenship because the geographical boundaries for knowledge and employment are blurring. Schools should facilitate students to be mindful of developments in foreign countries and have an optimistic mindset to approach global challenges," says Rajeev Katyal, deputy chief operating officer and country director of Singapore, GIIS.
The Singapore government is currently fostering initiatives to fulfil the vision of a 'smart nation', under which the Punggol Digital District Programme helped in shaping up the smart campus.
The focus of education across schools and universities has shifted to skill-based education, but skilling programmes are often categorised and associated with vocational education. "Often the skilling programmes are tagged under vocational education. But, the policymakers should realise its importance and include it in the mainstream curriculum. Many organisations are also adopting colleges and institutes to train students in their last semesters of study as it helps them gain relevant skills and make them job-ready," says Temurnikar.
Keeping in view, limited schooling options offering an unconventional mode of education, for the children from Indian diaspora settled in Singapore, a new technologically driven, smart campus was started recently. The campus of Global Indian International School (GIIS) aims to offer skilled-based and offbeat unconventional educational courses to students from class 1 to 12.
The school that boasts of face recognition devices, iPads, sound-mixing studio, ceramic labs, radio studio, digital platform to track the school buses and more, is clearly a school that is ahead of times. "Along with academics, the school will emphasise on critical thinking, collaboration, creativity and communication, which are some of the core 21 st -century skills that a school should focus on inculcating in the new-age students," says Kaustubh Bodhankar, deputy chief executive officer, Global Indian International School (GIIS), Singapore.
"Two decades ago people would not have thought of career options such as radio jockey, ceramic artists or sound engineering, which have now emerged as popular choices. It is the need of the hour to imbibe relevant skills in students that will help them prepare for future jobs, which are not even known at the moment," he adds.
The Indian expats settled in Singapore battle the problem of school admissions for their children. This was the reason that a school dedicated to Indian students was the need of the hour.
"The skills needed in India are different from those required in Singapore. Thus, we carefully picked the local requirement. Geographically relevant skills are yet to pick up the pace in the education systems across the globe, says Atul Temurnikar, chairman and co-founder of Global Schools Foundation (GSF), Singapore, on the sidelines of GIIS Smart Campus launch, which was officially inaugurated by Ng Chee Meng, minister in Prime Minister's office, Singapore.
Global citizenship is not just about spending time in a particular country but is more about acquiring a global mindset. "Students need to be taught about concepts of global citizenship because the geographical boundaries for knowledge and employment are blurring. Schools should facilitate students to be mindful of developments in foreign countries and have an optimistic mindset to approach global challenges," says Rajeev Katyal, deputy chief operating officer and country director of Singapore, GIIS.
The Singapore government is currently fostering initiatives to fulfil the vision of a 'smart nation', under which the Punggol Digital District Programme helped in shaping up the smart campus.
The focus of education across schools and universities has shifted to skill-based education, but skilling programmes are often categorised and associated with vocational education. "Often the skilling programmes are tagged under vocational education. But, the policymakers should realise its importance and include it in the mainstream curriculum. Many organisations are also adopting colleges and institutes to train students in their last semesters of study as it helps them gain relevant skills and make them job-ready," says Temurnikar.
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