(Our Bureau, May 29) Tech entrepreneur Unnikrishnan Kurup and dentist Dr Anup Jinadevan want Kerala’s kids to emulate their peers in Finland, the world’s happiest country. Hence, the Finland-based Malayalis launched VentureVillage in 2019, a startup that has already worked with 3,700 students across Kerala. “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,” Kurup, who’s also a co-founder at data management company Gravito, recently told The Better India. The Finnish education system is very different from India’s — students have the freedom to choose electives from as early as fourth grade, behavioural skills including social media responsibilities are imbibed and the focus is more on outside work than homework. Also, students are grouped according to their training level and not per age. VentureVillage is propagating some of these changes through its programs which cost ₹4,000 for the entire year, Kurup, who moved for work to Finland in 2010 from Kerala, said. “While my bread and butter comes from the company I co-founded, VentureVillage is my way of giving back to Kerala,” he added.
- Follow VentureVillage’s work on Instagram and Facebook.