This academic year two new series of trainings will be launched in Anija region schools. These trainings have been financed by Horizon Pulp & Paper Ltd., the largest company in the municipality.

Aegviidu and Alavere schools will join the Deliberative School (Arutlev Kool) programme. It is a series of activities involving the whole school in which young people are taught critical thinking skills and debating. The programme is organised by the President Kaljulaid Foundation, Estonian Debating Society, and the Good Work Education Foundation.

Kehra Gümnaasium (Kehra high school) will start study groups on supporting self-directed learners, which are offered by the Noored Kooli development programme for education leaders in cooperation with Tallinn University and Good Deed Education Fund. Teachers participating in the programme have the opportunity to receive support from specialists during the school year in developing students’ learning competence and self-directed learning ability.

Tiina Silem, Anija Municpalty Deputy Mayor, said that several long-term training courses can be offered in the schools of Anija region thanks to several years of very good cooperation with Horizon. In the past, the company has supported the organisation of short-term training courses for the employees of the municipality’s educational institutions, most recently the communication training which ended in August. Since the previous academic year, the employees of Aegviidu School and Kindergarten have been participating in the two-year training of the NGO Vaikuseminutid (Minutes of Silence) programme “Well-being Creating School and Kindergarten”, which will continue this academic year.

“We have met regularly with Nikhil Krishnan, the representative of Horizon, over the past two years. Horizon has specific directions that they want to support, and I ask our schools and kindergartens about the kind of training they want. Based on these, we make a choice and the rural municipality government organises – we take price offers, choose a trainer, agree on where and when the training will take place,” Tiina Silem explained.

She noted that Horizon has not rejected any of their desired trainings so far and has paid for the trainings 100 percent: “This is one part of the charitable work that the owners of the Kehra factory do. It is very important for them to contribute to the community. They want the residents of Anija region, especially young people who grow up and study here, to do very well. They also care very much about the actual benefits of the training, what the teachers have learned from them, and how they use it in their daily work.”

According to the deputy mayor, the company’s support for the small municipality is very important, as the municipality’s own capacity to train hundreds of education workers is small: “Thanks to Horizon, we have been able to order good and important training for education workers in recent years. I have also told my colleagues from other municipalities that we have a company that supports us like this, everyone gasps and says that we are very lucky.”

Tiina Silem added that the rural municipality government and education leaders still have ideas about what they could do in cooperation with Horizon.