Scottish Educational Resource Open to Indian Pupils
12 November 2011
The Scottish Church Collegiate School in Kolkata is the first in India to be given a virtual library of more than 360,000 images of Scotland compiled from historic records housed in museums, galleries, archives and the media.
Education Secretary Michael Russell presented headmaster Bivash Saniel with memory sticks for the school’s teachers which will allow them and their 3,500 pupils to access images and information on the educational website Scran.
Mr Russell also saw the progress being made with restoring the Scottish cemetery in Kolkata, images of which are part of a packaged resource on Scran put together by the website’s education team. The cemetery, which is the final resting place of many Scots, is now being reclaimed from an inner-city jungle and transformed into an important green space in the heart of Kolkata.
Education Secretary Michael Russell said, “Many Scottish schools have access to the images on the Scran resource and I know they make great use of them. The range of pictures available is amazing – from St Kilda off the coast of Scotland to the Scottish cemetery in the heart of Kolkata.This will help pupils at the school see a lot more of the country that lends its name to their school as well as the progress being made with restoring an important part of their city.
“I also had the opportunity today to pay a return visit to the cemetery, where over 90 per cent of the names are recognisably Scottish. Excellent progress has been made to reclaim this important piece of our joint heritage from the jungle, which is very good news indeed. I am particularly impressed by the joint working between Scottish and Indian experts and most importantly of all, the way those involved are training local people to help protect other important buildings and monuments in Kolkata.”
Rebecca Bailey, RCAHMS Head of Education and Outreach said,“We are delighted that this Scottish-generated education resource is going to be used by teachers in Kolkata and look forward to hearing what more they can tell us about Scotland’s historic links with India.”
