: NRI Helps 3700 Kerala Kids Learn Sustainable Ideas From ‘Worlds Happiest Country #IndiaNEWS #Kerala Unnikrishnan Kurup (Unni) stays approximately 6,100 kilometres away from India, in Finland, a

NRI Helps 3700 Kerala Kids Learn Sustainable Ideas From ‘Worlds Happiest Country #IndiaNEWS #Kerala
Unnikrishnan Kurup (Unni) stays approximately 6,100 kilometres away from India, in Finland, a country known to be the happiest country in the world.
Keeping this attribute in mind, and having spent more than a decade in Finland, Unni has decided to export some of the country’s good practices to Kerala, his hometown. For this, in February 2019, he launched Venture Village to incorporate and implement Finnish ways of learning with children back home in India. Having impacted the lives of 3,700 students across 25 schools in Kerala, the programmes developed by Venture Village have helped these kids understand the environment, as well as waste management systems, better.
An engineer by qualification, Unni was a resident of Kerala until 2010, before he moved to Finland for work. He began working there as a consultant with Nokia, and eventually went on to co-found a start-up with some of his Finnish colleagues. “While my bread and butter comes from the company I co-founded, Venture Village is my way of giving back to Kerala,??? he tells The Better India.
Unni founded Venture Village with his friend Dr Anup Jinadevan.
Unni and Dr Anup
“Our focus points were educating children from a very young age in subjects such as sustainability, environment, work life balance, entrepreneurship, personal health and hygiene, to name a few. The teaching methodologies we used were mainly based on tried and tested Finnish ways of teaching like learning by doing, play and learn, and phenomenon-based learning for acquiring 21st century life skills,??? Unni says.
While both Unni and Dr Anup have been funding the venture as of now, Unni adds, “We have designed this venture to be a for-profit-social-enterprise and have been seeing marginal profits as well. ??? So far the duo have put in close to Rs 20 lakh to get their venture going.
Drawing inspiration from the good
A class in progress.
With two school-going children in Finland, Unni had first-hand knowledge of how well the country’s education system worked. “The manner in which some fundamental things are imprinted in the minds of students from a very early age caught my attention,??? he says.
He says that some examples of Finnish teaching techniques include the children being given the freedom to choose elective subjects from as young as Class IV, and being taught behavioral skills, which includes social media responsibilities. “Some topics they discuss in class include bullying on social media and learning to identify fake news. Life skills include vocational courses such as carpentry/wood work, textiles, and cooking/baking,??? he adds.
“While the subjects my kids study in Finland remain the same as India’s, it is the method of teaching that makes all the difference,??? he says.

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