Visiting local destinations is passe, now, school excursions go global

Teenager Jeevan Deepak recently went a six-day vacation to Singapore and Malaysia with his friends.

The package deal for six days and seven nights cost around Rs 22,000.

Nothing unusual here, except for the fact that Jeevan is a Class IX student and the Malaysia trip was a school excursion with his classmates.

The itinerary of school excursions seems to have suddenly gone global.

For most schools, excursions and trips to the zoos, hill stations and bird sanctuaries or even to Rajasthan, Delhi-Agra or Kashmir have now become passé.

While the trend of schools planning exotic excursions to places like Goa, Port Blair and Darjeeling continues, abroad is the new destination, with an aim to “provide students with an enriching experience.”

Places like Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, France, Ireland, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Swiss, Dubai, Turkey, Canada and Hong Kong have become the preferred destinations for schools, according to Kuoni India, a travel services firm.

“The schools are increasingly opting for programs that offer an opportunity to stimulate the child’s mind, awaken imagination and develop his perspective on global issues like conservation and global warming. Tours like these ensure that a dull class in marine biology gets transformed through an exciting underwater experience and the world of science and astrophysics becomes a wonderland with workshops in robotics and jet propulsion,” says S D Nandakumar, head SIT & Business Development, Tour Operating, Kuoni India.

Trips to the Big Apple’s Broadway and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the US also seem to be a hit among schools, as these packages offer many student-oriented programmes.

As part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration  trip, the students undergo a three-day training in aeronautics at the Kennedy Space Centre. Some students call it “a lifetime opportunity.”

Chinmaya International Residential School principal Shanthi Krishnamoorthi feels that these trips, though expensive, take the children to the enthralling world of NASA ’s Kennedy Space Center, where they are treated to a first-hand experience of space mechanisms.

According to Shyamala Tamilselvan, a physics teacher, these trips are definitely worth it. 

However, the price tag attached to these tours often pose a problem for several middle-class parents.