On week-long visit to Delhi NCR, Japanese students go back with better image of India
During their visit to the HDFC School and other places they discovered to their utter surprise that India was much more clean, advanced, and planned with lot of educated and intelligent people.
NEW DELHI/GURUGRAM: For a delegation of Japanese students from Osaka Meisei Gakuen Meisei High School, the week-long visit to India, was a lifetime event. Their visit to Delhi NCR-based HDFC School on December 13-18 helped them acquaint themselves with a “better India” than they thought of it before they came here.
While sharing their experience about their maiden visit to India, these students said that their visit to Delhi NCR and long and close interaction with the HDFC School students grossly changed the perception of India in their minds – from negative to positive and progressive. Before they came to India, they carried a not-so-good image of India – courtesy media platforms such as TV, Radio and newspapers that described India as a country with a lot of chaos and dirt around. But after reaching here they discovered to their utter surprise that India was much more clean, advanced, and planned with lot of educated and intelligent people.
On day one on December 13, the visiting students reached HDFC School, Gurugram and got involved in some activities with the school students here such as playing cricket. The next day they visited Japanese companies including a startup followed by their visit to IIT Delhi on the third day. Then followed their visit to Agra to see the seventh wonder of the world Taj Mahal. The students’ visit to India was organized by Shin Edupower, a Japanese educational company based in New Delhi.
One of the most fascinating experiences for the touring Japanese students was their home-stay with the HDFC School students at their respective residences, and interaction with latter’s family members, enjoying their food and closely experiencing the rich India culture and ethos. Some of the students said that during their stay in India they enjoyed a lot of spicy food as well as sweets, and this led to weight increase of a couple of them
The final day at HDFC School on December 18 was full of action and emotions as these students attended dance class, science class at Physics and Chemistry laboratory, an art class (Japanese Calligraphy, Indian lunch, music class, and finally the farewell assembly when the top management of the HDFC School and the Education Leader and Principal Anita Makkar. A pioneer of school education, Mrs. Makkar brings with her a rich three decades of experience in the education domain. With excellent leadership and effective administration skills, she has a focused vision for holistic education and a strong commitment for inclusive education.
“Such cross-country visits offer a lifetime opportunity to the students of either sides to gain first-hand and rich exposure of each other’s culture as well as the educational pedagogy. It is not only the Japanese students who learned about Indian culture, our own students too gained immensely by closely interacting with their especially during host-stays of Japanese student at their homes. The biggest takeaway of this visit was that the touring Japanese students’ perception about India grossly changed to a better one than what they carried in their minds before they visited India,” said Mrs. Makkar. She added that her school might plan a similar students’ visit to the same school in Japan sometime next year.
Takanobu Tanaka who is a Japanese founder of this company Shin Edupower as well as a representative of Japan at IICCI (Indian Importers Chambers of Commerce & Industry) was a part of the program from Japan. He has rich experience in Education, Business, and Sports and is utilizing that knowledge in this program.
Previously Mr. Tanaka was the head of the program funded by the Japanese government which aims to develop innovative educational solutions collaborating with 3 Indian states from 2013 to 2015. He has developed multiple educational programs which have been implemented at various schools in India. He also has 17 years’ experience as a sales representative for government and municipal offices in Japan, 2 years of launching a new eco-solutions business, and 5 years of planning and developing new educational solutions in the visual communication division. He also was a rugby player in the Japan national team.
Shin Edupower is an education company from Japan that has been developing and providing various unique and innovative educational programs such as SHIN PROGRAM (Japanese style Experiential Holistic Learning Program) and Global Collaborative Learning Program (India and Japan) for schools in India. Our programs have been successfully implemented in numerous schools in India, including top-rank prestigious schools, receiving fantastic feedback from not only teachers and students but also principals and parents. The company has provided programs, workshops, and teacher training to over 500 schools, 18,000 teachers, and 1,30,000 students now.
