Euro School or Euro Kids is the franchise programme originally from Denmark. Euro School Nepal started from 2001 and has 12 pre-schools chain here presently. Shailaja Adhikary, Managing Director of Euro School and Euro Kids Nepal recently talked about the growing popularity of Euro Kids and current trend in Nepal’s education system with The Corporate. Excerpt:

What’s the difference between Euro School and Euro Kids?

Euro Kids is a pre-school and Euro School is the mainstream school. Both the schools are truly international schools in context of Nepal. Euro School is originally from Denmark but we are monitored by Euro School of India. We are 12 branches altogether in Nepal. Euro Kids Nepal at Tangal, Bansbari, Tinkune & Samakhushi in Kathmandu is an IEC Group venture.

What kind of education system is of Euro school?

We have an international curriculum called ‘Global Classroom’ which is being used in 4 continents. There are 200 educationists behind this curriculum. There are 11 philosophers whose philosophy is being applied here in Euro Kids, which includeperson like Dr Howard Gardener, Mahatma Gandhi and others.

Is Euro School similar to Montessori Education system?

The Montessori education trend is not going right in the country.People are just selling Montessori’s name, but they’re not delivering what they promise. It’s easy to talk about the method, but they’re not goingdeeper into it. There is lack of governing and monitoring bodies to check this trend. With that, Montessori method has not been updated for many years now. Every curriculum needs to be revised and improvised on a regular basis.

At Euro Kids, Montessori teaching methods is one of many teaching methodologies that the school adopts.

You have adopted an international Brand name. What is the significance of branding in education?

These things are secondary part. When I introduced Euro kids, people barely knew what it was. It’s the effort that we made, the way we operated or run the school that made it popular or brand in Nepal. It was a brand in India but not in Nepal.It’s not the name but what we give or how we run made it a brand.

When we introduced Euro Kids, there was no good pre-school in Nepal, and people were charging the money but were not giving the value of the money. There I felt the need of bringing a good international pre-school in Nepal who are actually maintaining the standards in terms of curriculum as well as infrastructures.

How do you view the trend of commercialisation in education?

I believe that you have to be provided with the value of money. Surely quality comes with the price, but you have to give what you promise for and maintain the standards accordingly. We are giving best international education at Euro Kids. Be it infrastructures or providing food or be it curriculum, we’ve maintained quality. That’s why people pay a good amount for that.

A lot has been talked about making Nepal an Education Hub. What is your view on it?

Nepal carries a huge prospect for emerging as an education hub. The climate here is very appropriate to attract foreign students. If we focus on providing good faculties and quality education we can attract students from abroad too. Slowly this trend is being started in Nepal too. I have international students in Euro Kids too. I think, the Medical colleges carry a huge prospect to attract international students.