CONTENTS MARCH 2018 | VOLUME 14 | ISSUE 03
COVER STORY
08
TOP INFLUENCERS SHAPING UP SCHOOL EDUCATION WORLD IN DIGITAL ERA SPECIAL STORIES
PRESCHOOL PERSPECTIVE 20 PRAJODH RAJAN Co-founder & CEO, EuroKids
22 PRITAM AGRAWAL & SUNITA JAIN 18 GOVT POLICIES REINVENTING SCHOOL EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM
Founder Directors, Hello Kids
GUEST ARTICLE 30 YOU ARE YOUR GREATEST ASSET SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE
26 ATAL TINKERING LAB FOSTERING CREATIVITY OF SCHOOL STUDENTS
CEO, Chaithanyaa International School
INDUSTRY INITIATIVE 57 SONIA SHRIVASTAVA Head, Vodafone India Foundation
UNIVERSITY PERSPECTIVE 58 VINEET GUPTA Founder and Trustee, Ashoka University
32 ANJU GAUR Principal, JKG International School, Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad
CONFERENCE REPORT
24 SOCIAL MEDIA A NEW TOOL TO EVALUATE YOUNGSTERS’ ABILITIES?
38 RAJITH RAJIV GOWDA
39
Editor-in-Chief Dr Ravi Gupta
Ahmedabad Bureau Assistant Editor: Hemangini S Rajput
Editorial Team - Delhi/NCR Senior Assistant Editors: Souvik Goswami, Gautam Debroy Assistant Editors: Sandeep Datta, Priyanka Sharma, Gopi Krishna Arora Senior Correspondent: Akash Tomer Correspondents: Rashi Aditi Ghosh, Dipen Pradhan Mumbai Bureau Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma Senior Correspondents: Poulami Chakraborty, Rakesh Kumar Roy Correspondent: Harshal Yashwant Desai Jaipur Bureau Senior Assistant Editor: Kartik Sharma Chandigarh Bureau Assistant Editor: Priya Yadav Hyderabad Bureau Assistant Editor: Sudheer Goutham B Amaravati Bureau Correspondent: Mohammad Akbar Basha Lucknow Bureau Assistant Editor: Arpit Gupta
Bhubaneswar Bureau Senior Correspondent: Biswajit Sahoo Bhopal Bureau Senior Correspondent: Divakar Mukherjee Sales & Marketing : digitalLearning Senior Manager: Kumar Chandan Anand Assistant Managers: Sandeep Gulati, Ashish Jain, Amit Kumar Chandrabhan Singh Senior Executives: Ashutosh Dubey, Krishna Kumar Singh Executives: Silky Bhatia, Rewanshi Singh Subscription & Circulation Team +91-8860635832; subscription@elets.in Design Team Creative Head: Anjan Dey Deputy Art Directors: Om Prakash Thakur, Gopal Thakur, Shyam Kishore Director, Administration Archana Jaiswal
Editorial & Marketing Correspondence digitalLEARNING – Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd: Stellar IT Park Office No: 7A/7B, 5th Floor, Tower-2 Annexe Building, C-25, Sector-62, Noida, Uttar Pradesh - 201301, Phone: +91-120-4812600, Fax: +91-120-4812660 Email: info@elets.in digitalLEARNING is published by Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd Owner, Publisher, Printer - Dr Ravi Gupta Printed at Vinayak Print Media, D-249, Sector-63, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
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EDITORIAL
Understanding the Vision of Indian School Education’s Evolution If school education lays the foundation stone of any generation’s development in a literate society, the visionaries behind it define it. As innovative practices and modern technologies are influencing the education, the perspective of leaders of education landscape is setting its contours. In this light, our latest issue of digitalLearning magazine has focussed on top influential leaders of the Indian school ecosystem in a broad way. Our latest edition highlights these leaders for their unique vision, their choices and the paths they have chosen to guide, mentor or prepare hundreds of youths every year towards the goal of nation building, through the cover story “Top Influencers Shaping up School Education World in Digital Era”. Since individuals playing key role are the visionaries who, in a way, determine future and choices of a lot of youths, our cover story offers a bird’s eye view of these leaders’ vision and efforts towards ensuring education sector’s growth. Our Special Story “Govt Policies Reinventing School Education Ecosystem” talks about how the Government and its policies play seminal role in transforming and improving the education sector of any country. How the Central Government and the State Governments are responsible for development of an educational ecosystem at national and state level. ‘Social Media A New Tool To Evaluate Youngsters’ Abilities? ‘ is our another special story which dwells upon the trend, necessity and ethics of evaluating individuals for admission or recruitment on the basis of their reflection on social media. Another special story is ‘Atal Tinkering Lab Fostering Creativity of School Students’ explores how the country’s thinktank NITI Aayog under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development is instilling the concept of ‘idea’ among grade 6 to 10 students by means of tinkering — which in itself is an option that requires failing, and importantly carry out the learning to innovate. We are also carrying a report of the 6th School Leadership Summit: Innovation through Collaborations held in Delhi. It was intended to highlight and share finest practices, ideas and latest trends about school education among those who matter for overall growth of the Indian education landscape. Inaugurated by Dr MVV Prasada Rao, Director- CTET, JNVST; Misc Exam, CBSE in February, the summit was participated by eminent personalities from India’s education space like Anil Swarup, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India, Dr Biswajit Saha, Director, Vocational Education, CBSE. Various prominent school owners and principals, and ed-tech corporate leaders deliberated upon the finest and latest educational practices at this summit. Presenting latest bouquet of articles, special stories and interviews along with industry initiatives, we hope to get an invaluable feedback of our readers.
Dr Ravi Gupta Editor-in-Chief digitalLEARNING magazine and CEO Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd
COVER STORY
TO P INFLUENCERS S haping up S chool E d u c ati o n Wo r l d i n D i gi ta l E ra “As we look ahead into the next century, leaders will be those
influencers in education industry through its publication, online
who empower others,” Microsoft founder turned philanthropist
portal and events. These influencers include many political leaders,
Bill Gates said once. As schools have been playing a key role in
government officials, school owners, principals and others. These
shaping up various personalities and careers with each passing
influencers are known to be leaders in education landscape.
year, the visionaries behind these schools are those who, in a way,
They’ve always stressed upon adopting better education practices,
determine future and choices of a lot youths. There is a need to
requirement of new government policies or amendments in them,
discern these leaders for their unique vision, choices and the paths
role of teachers, school management and parents for better
they have chosen to guide, mentor or prepare hundreds of youths
learning outcome of students among others.
every year towards the goal of nation building. Most of the points discussed by these influencers have been Beyond the realm of financial prospectss, there is a strong desire
adopted by them in their institutes lead to the improvement
to take one’s set of pupils ahead of others and enable them to
on overall quality of education.Along with government, various
deliver the best with the help of innovative approaches and
private players have also contributed to develop a world class
practices. But perhaps what is most important is the ability to
education system in the country.
inspire and motivate them and take a generation forward. Based on their perspectives, Akash Tomer of Elets News Network
8
digitalLEARNING, Asia and Middle East’s first and only magazine
(ENN) takes a look in a flashback mode at the top influencers
on innovation in education, has played a vital role in highlighting
linked to the education landscape over the years who inspired
the top influencers’ best practices, visions and discussing their
others with their pearls of wisdom on various occasions created
challenges and brought solution providers on the same platform
by the digitalLearning world. Some of the prominent influential
to ensure excellence and real improvement in the school education
leaders who have shared their vision various occassions on
ecosystem. The magzine has showcased a large number of
digitalLEARNING’s plaform are:
MARCH 2018
[ dl.eletsonline.com ] The Largest Portal on Innovation in Education in Asia and the Middle East
Vashundhara Raje
Kiran Maheshwari Minister
Union Minister Human Resource Development Government of India
Chief Minister Rajasthan
Minister of Higher and Technical Education, Sanskrit Education, Science and Technology Government of Rajasthan
As the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Prakash Javadekar is one of the biggest influencers of the country. Be it a digitalLearning’s knowledge summits, publications with State Governments or the magazine’s monthly editions, the minister has been appreciative of organisations performing in education domain. In one of his messages, carried in digitalLearning’s Rajasthan Souvenir published in association with the Department of Higher and Technical Education, Government of Rajasthan, in 2017, he referred Rajasthan’s education system a vast one in terms of number of institutions and students.
“ In a rapidly moving world, the contours of what constitutes education are being frequently redefined and it is important that education systems especially higher and technical, evolve and adopt to changing times. To my mind a degree alone is insufficient unless the degree holder has the tools to translate the knowledge he has gained into practical output. We believe that skills and education need to come together seamlessly so that the employability of our youth is optimum.
“Rajasthan is a fast evolving State of India. The State government has developed policy architecture for achieving the task of better literacy rate in the form of skilful students. The government policies help students in achieving their goals easily and make them capable to compete globally. The rules and regulations formed by the government majorly fulfil all the educational needs of students. The Government is endeavouring to develop this State as an educational hub in the country,” says Kiran Maheshwari, who is currently Cabinet Minister in Rajasthan Government.
COVER STORY
Prakash Javadekar
She has served as a Member of Parliament in the 14th Lok Sabha representing the Udaipur Constituency of Rajasthan state.
In his another message for our Higher Education and Human Resource Conclave, he said, “such conclaves guide students on right path and inspire the current and future generations to contribute to education excellence and bring added pride to the nation.” In a recent message, referring 6th School Leadership Summit (SLS) as a knowledge-sharing platform, he hoped enthusiasm from schools for improvement in various spheres by participating in such conferences.
Bhupendrasinh Chudasama Education Minister Government of Gujarat
His vision and support to innovative measures and practices in education sector as a minister has been a big boost in bringing holistic improvement in the system. It has left one of the biggest influences on education landscape of India in last few months, encouraging organisations, institutions and in introduction of the latest innovations, technologies, pedagogies and practices followed across the world.
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“Youth are the base of any developing or developed nation. They are filled with motivation, determination, passion and have desire to achieve something. These talented youths are capable enough to create jobs. However, there is a critical need to bring innovation across all sectors. Gujarat Government has taken various initiatives to promote Start-ups and innovations.” -
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MARCH 2018
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COVER STORY
Anil Swarup
Dr Shalini Rajneesh
Dr MVV Prasada Rao
Secretary Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India
Principal Secretary Department of Primary & Secondary Education, Karnataka
Director CTET, JNVST & Misc Exam, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
“Skill education is extremely important because only through skilling we can nurture a student’s capability of getting a job. Ultimately, whatever he or she learns, it is for a purpose and that purpose can only be served if the student is skilled enough to get a job. Hence, we believe that vocational training and skilling are very important components of school education.”
“If a child enjoys the learning part of education then the learning is successful and sustainable. It will be with the child all through his or her life. Similarly, if teachers are not enjoying the art of teaching it is again a burdensome kind of thing for them and third one is the joy of parenting. Are the parents enjoying the education imparted by the teachers? So, with the new education policy in Karnataka, we are trying to improve the teaching-learning experience,” feels Dr Shalini Rajneesh, who has been an IAS topper in women’s category.
“Technological development has doubtlessly done a revolutionary change in the entire world but the way the technology has grown, the child’s mind has not grown. We are now interested in producing the quantitative result than quality. If parents and schools do not come together, it will be very difficult to develop the child. And this aspect is missing in today’s education scenario”
Anil Swarup is Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India is the leading bureaucrat in India’s school education system. Before this assignment, as Secretary, Ministry of Coal, he was instrumental in carrying out the auction of coal blocks. As Director General, Labour Welfare, Ministry of Labour and Employment, he worked on policies targeting welfare of workers in the unorganised sector, including the implementation of the National Health Insurance Scheme (RSBY)-the biggest public-private sector partnership model providing health insurance cover to 150 million people across India.
She was the youngest member of the 1989 -batch of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS). She has served as Principal Secretary, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Government of Karnataka. She has held various positions in the Central Government including Ministry of Finance, Civil Aviation, Shipping, Agriculture and Road Transport.
Dr Biswajit Saha Director Vocational Education, CBSE
“The country is facing a gap between higher education and school education. The conference may act as a platform to minimise this gap as well as an opportunity for appropriate networking between the two segments of education sector. It is high time to deliver the academic content in an innovative way so that after 10 years students can face the market challenges.”
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MARCH 2018
[ dl.eletsonline.com ] The Largest Portal on Innovation in Education in Asia and the Middle East
Amol Arora
Raghav Podar
Chief Executive Officer Ryan International School
Vice Chairman and Managing Director Shemrock & Shemford Group of Schools
Chairman Podar Education
“Technology has already changed our way of life to a great extent, and it has definitely changed the way we learn too. In the near future, technology is going to make the entire learning system easily accessible, interesting, and at the same time challenging for students and teachers. In fact tablets, electronic screens, online lessons, digitised books have already pervaded the education sector and they are here to stay.”
“Today parents see the benefits of good preschool education. A child who has been to a good preschool system is more confident, has more social skills. We teach socialisation skills in our schools. Also verbal development also quickly adapted in preschools. Role of our sector changed dramatically from preparatory schools to preschools preparing them for formal schools. There are 70 percent elements of running a quality school that are replicable. That is why franchising works beautifully.”
“I have attended many seminars and conferences to know about the best practices, technologies and pedagogies in education but the most important thing is that are we making any difference in lives of the students. More than technology, what matters in school is the learning culture and in our school we are trying to provide students a stress-free learning environment.”
Roshan Gandhi Forouhi
Abha Meghe
Manjula Pooja Shroff
Director of Strategy City Montessori School
Director Meghe Group of Schools
MD & CEO Kalorex Group
“We are not just sticking to the technology. It is only useful when it’s in the hands of teachers who know how to use it well. So, along with adopting latest innovations, we are also focussing on teachers’ training along with their rigorous IT training.”
“Out of the best practices we have started, one is “Partnership with Parents”. When we talk about inculcating moral values or life skills in children, involvement of parents and society is also required. This practice is helping us to get good results.”
“Kalorex, a professionally managed autonomous institution, is focussing its activities on K-21 education since its inception. The group believes in empowering children to succeed in all spheres of life. Currently with 40+ schools and growing, Kalorex follows a cradle to career approach- addressing need of all segments of educational domain.”
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MARCH 2018
COVER STORY
Ryan Pinto
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COVER STORY 12
Shreevats Jaipuria,
Neeta Bali
Pritam Agrawal
Vice Chairman Seth M R Jaipuria Schools and Jaipuria Institute of Management
Director-Principal G D Goenka World School, Gurugram
Founder Director Hello Kids
“At Jaipuria, we believe that student has to be at the centre of the teaching-learning process. Our pedagogy is designed to encourage students to participate in the classroom and co-create knowledge at an individual and group level. This requires a high degree of training for teachers to act as facilitators for this process.”
“GD Goenka follows the International General Certificate of Secondary Education (IGCSE), University of Cambridge (UK) and the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB), Geneva. As part of the larger global community of international schools, our approach is to teach every subject from a global perspective.”
“Hello Kids, by offering the best education, is trying to have the best of both the worlds in its children, i.e. Eastern culture with Western competitive standards. Our children will grow up as emotionally balanced, confident and strong individuals. We have 550 centres across India and Bangladesh and are targeting to reach over 1,000 centres by 2020.”
Krishna Nambiar
Priya Krishnan
Lina Ashar
Director Aptech Montana International Preschool
CEO Founding Years Learning Solution,
“We are fortunate that we are not bound by any frame work; there is no fixed curriculum in preschools. We have a lot of freedom; we are allowed to do things, research and experiments. I think it’s a high time that all of us should collaborate to frame some kind of body that allows us to share knowledge.”
“Preschool segment of education spectrum is largely ignored because there are no consumer outcomes defined like schools where people get into colleges and colleges where they get into postgraduation and in jobs. I see that as a benefit to preschool industry. One very interesting aspect of this segment is that the consumer of the service is different from the payee of the service. Consumers in preschools are the kids whereas the fee for our services is paid by their parents.”
Founder Kangaroo Kids Preschool & Billabong High International School
MARCH 2018
“We give a lot of importance to Emotional Intelligence. Implicit curriculum which includes habits of mind, developing EQ, values, life skills is embedded in our curriculum. Also as a company that gives importance to EQ we have tied up with Yale University and our teachers are doing an online course on emotional quotient, thereby, equipping teachers to deal with children accordingly and inculcating similar habits in them.”
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Prajodh Rajan
Vinesh Menon
Director Petals Group of Schools
Co-founder & CEO EuroKids
“Petals is an innovative, vibrant, creative and energetic organisation where each one of us strives through our practices to serve children whole heartedly and make every learning moment joyful, effective and meaningful one. We are the most awarded and preferred preschool of Delhi where all the training and academic resources are provided by UK.”
“EuroKids is among the first to adopt innovative learning initiatives to stay ahead of the others. At EuroKids, we place tremendous importance on providing a caring atmosphere for children. We realise that the pre-school is children’s first step outside the comfort of the home and away from their parents.”
Chief Executive Officer Education, Skilling & Consulting Services VIBGYOR group
“This is the only industry where we have 240 million brand ambassadors, the students and their parents. So, I think, as long as you are able to focus on inputs and continue to do the kind of thing that you stand for as an institution, you will be able to build your name and brand.”
Sudha Gupta
Anu Gupta
Jitendra Karsan
Chairperson Presidium School
Director Little Leaders Play School
CEO Safari Kid, India
“At Presidium, we follow the experiential learning method – as opposed to rote learning – this helps children understand concepts better and apply what they have learnt in real life situations. Children learn by doing, and this makes learning joyful, as they learn how to apply their knowledge. We also noticed that when children are engaged with and find interest in the process of learning, they learn without even realising that they are actively learning.”
“Little Leaders is an institution where we let our learners explore and flourish, where sky is the limit but we ensure that they remain rooted to the ground. We ensure our kids should learn and derive the learning and the objectives should be complete. We have uniquely designed a thematic integrated learning programme that addresses diversified needs of children based on internationally acclaimed pedagogic practices.”
“At Safari Kid, we understand that classrooms must be a very stimulating space that facilitates and suggests multiple possibilities of action. The environment and the educational practices in the classroom must coexist in real, meaningful ways that are closely related to students and their potential.”
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MARCH 2018
COVER STORY
Preeti Kwatra
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COVER STORY 14
SK Rathore
Prahar Anjaria
Anirudh Gupta
Director Founder and Managing Director Sanfort Group of Schools
Chairman Rangoli Group of Institutes
CEO DCM Group of Schools
“Education sector in India has long awaited an overhaul to meet the growing demand for a contemporary education system which is accessible and acceptable to all. Children and youth in India of the last decade are increasingly technology-driven, revealing considerable potential and readiness to imbibe and learn using digital media. Digital India has been envisioned as an ambitious umbrella programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.”
“Brand is a promise, brand is a legacy and brand is a faith. It is very important to be consistent and to adapt to change to increase your brand value. Once you are a brand, it’s very important for you to be cautious about each and every aspect of school management and school functioning.”
Rita Kaul
Vinod Gandhi
Shalini Nambiar
Director Academics Millenium School
Managing Director, The Geekay World School (TGWS)
Vice President GEMS Education
“A school can reach the top position in a city or state if it has a clear vision and mission which promises its students to attain their dreams. It’s a challenge to deliver what has been promised and those who can keep it are the true winners. The Millennium School Noida is a school where technology and values blend together to bring optimum result.”
“TGWS aspires to facilitate future citizens of the world, soaring towards creative influx of mind and body. Our uniquely framed integrated curriculum at pre-primary, primary and middle school focusses on this aspect of development in each child with the added core components of leadership skill inculcation, community service and Information Technology. The uniquely framed performing and visual arts modules and sports curriculum supports this transformation in every student of TGWS.”
“If you leave the children in a room with a set of books, research proves they will learn faster than if a teacher is there. They learn faster than us. Trust them, as you know, you start picking up things, when you know there is nobody to help you.”
MARCH 2018
[ dl.eletsonline.com ] The Largest Portal on Innovation in Education in Asia and the Middle East
“Investing in India’s school education sector is a big opportunity as the Government is working very hard to improve it. New Education Policy of India is an inclusive policy. It will help the educational institute to nurture employable youth.”
Manju Rana
Dr Rajesh Hassija
Director JKG International School, Ghaziabad
Principal cum Director Seth Anandram Jaiuria, Ghaziabad
Director Indraprastha Group of Schools
“It’s a great opportunity for us to bring international education alive into our classrooms through a teaching assistant from a foreign nationality. It is a good chance for all of us to build collaboration with UK and get teaching skills beyond national boundaries. In addition to this, we will learn cultural diversities.”
“Jaipuria espouses a hybrid approach of teaching and learning, mixing conceptbuilding with enquiry-based learning in an appropriate degree. Innovative progress is examined by the management and the principal at the helm. The school takes each student’s academic assessment, innovative progress and evaluation acutely.”
“In past 54 years, things have changed, schools have changed, schooling has changed, infrastructure has changed, curriculum has changed, skill inculcation has changed, value concept has changed and, in short, education per se has changed. It is usually said the education transforms and reforms. Learning reforms and strengthens knowledge, skills, values and believes.”
Rachna Pant
Dr Niyati Chitkara
Sunita Jai Singh
Principal Ramjas School
Principal Chitkara International School
National Academic Head Global Indian International School
“We now have a class which is cyber secure, knows safe internet usage, is net savvy, better exposed to new pedagogy, in sync with changing global culture and times, a strengthened teacher, student and parent bond and a sense of achievement in having overcome all the setbacks. We are sure, it will have a far reaching effect on their growth and its reverberations will be felt throughout their life.”
“At Chitkara, we make sure that the pillars of education get enough exposure with the right training and guidance through international travels, conferences, seminars, workshops and visits in order to know about the latest happenings in the industry and education and to give a new direction to innovation at school.”
“Our school was started to provide education to Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). We try to provide holistic education to our students and we have proprietary framework called Nine GEMS. Under it, we try to inculcate value in our students along with imparting technology training.”
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MARCH 2018
COVER STORY
Karun Gaur
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Battling Vendor Management, the Smart Way ADVERTORIAL
While the admission season creates enough of a havoc for school administrators, it’s the management of vendors for academic kit and other products that gives them nightmares.
‘Please reach out to the below vendors for uniforms, text books, note books, stationery, bags, shoes’ ‘Visit the school premise on the below dates for order placement of all school essentials for the new academic year’.
T
hese are familiar announcements to an average parent of a school-going child. Unfortunately, in the age of ‘everything online’, School Commerce is still catching up with modern times.
Long queues of parents sweating it out under the sun, holding on to their kids in desperation. A few grumbles within and another few to people at the kiosk incessantly trying to dispatch uniforms & books. Teachers and school administrators running round the clock doing the thankless job of managing this entire process. Heavens break loose, announcing the commencement of a new academic year. Come March-April & schools witness an outbreak of activities, attending to a bunch of new faces while following up with subsequent batches. According to a report by EY-FICCI, the K-12 school system in India is one of the largest in the world with more than 1.4 million schools and over 250 million students enrolled. While the rising �igures symbolise a progressive move in the Indian education system, it also demands ef�iciency and effectiveness in school administration & management to cater to such a huge crowd.
Admissions count as a herculean administrative effort for schools and their entire staff, including faculty and support staff, who are on their toes for months to ensure a seamless start to the new academic year. This chaotic activity demands months of planning, management and internal coordination between the school administration and relevant vendors to ensure the primary needs are ful�illed for the smooth functioning of the school ecosystem.
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MARCH 2018
Challenges in Vendor Management 1. Schools have a massive operational requirement that demands identifying, appointing and managing vendors besides transacting and coordinating with them regularly. Such vendors often lack a systematic distribution of essential merchandise, leading to discontentment among parents in collecting the same from multiple branches. 2. Managing payments and maintaining records of the huge transactions is quite cumbersome and often leads to �inancial pilferage.
3. Last minute needs are inevitable & going through the process of coordinating with vendors to making the �inal purchase is quite tedious for school authorities. 4. Schools are exposed to a host of government directives, which are audited periodically to ensure accurate data management and transparency. 5. School security at stake with outsiders infringing the school premise on pretext of order placements.
These are just some of the challenges and if you are one of the school owners or administrators facing any or all the above, we have an apt solution to your annual woes.
Edyoo.com is a School Commerce Market-
place, a one-stop destination for parents of school-going children to purchase all school-related merchandise including uniforms, books, bags, shoes & a host of other learning and development products & services. Edyoo.com works closely with the school management and their recommended vendors to catalogue the merchandise on its platform, providing intuitive interface and ease of use.
Casing all aspects of vendor management from setting up kiosks at individual school premise & taking order bookings to certifying the ful�ilment of orders & their timely delivery at respective branches or parents’ home, Edyoo.com ensures a convenient and hassle-free experience besides saving time and maintaining price transparency.
Edyoo.com is associated with over 500
vendors across the country, including national players such as Chowhan and Sons, Deena Uniforms, Damask, Pin a Kin Garments, Global Infratech and many more, who are currently servicing over 1,000 schools and pre-schools including prestigious names like the Jain Group of Institutions, Delhi Public School and Shishya BEML Public School. The brand’s elite clientele seals its credibility among the school ecosystem.
Our Education Ecosystem Solutions
A robust logistics and supply chain support, bringing all school-recommended vendors online without disturbing the existing ecosystem. Doorstep delivery of essential merchandise much to the delight & feasibility of parents. E-store for all school-endorsed products from trusted vendors, enabling parents to make online purchases of essential goods & services. School POS for accurate inventory tracking, assuring transparency in orders & transactions.
End-to- end fulfilment and customer support for vendors and customers alike. Improved vendor relationships, given the transparency in payments and increased access to merchandise. An exclusive webpage with school branding and contact points of authorised vendors, access to which is extended only to the respective students/parents. This ensures a seamless integration of vendors and other services into the school page besides being an incredible tool for indirect branding.
Evolution has brought many changes in our society, and we at Edyoo.com believe �irmly that Education Commerce industry is ripe for this change. Edyoo.com strives to facilitate convenience & choice to parents so that the academic institutes can fully concentrate on vital aspects of kid learning. For more queries, reach out to us on support@edyoo.com or call +91-9731711277, +91-9686507177.
[ dl.eletsonline.com ] The Largest Portal on Innovation in Education in Asia and the Middle East
SPECIAL STORY
GOVT POLICIES REINVENTING SCHOOL EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM The Government and its policies play seminal role in transforming and improving the education sector of any country. In India, how the government policies are helping school education ecosystem to grow, explores Akash Tomer of Elets New Network (ENN).
l The Government is also in the process of formulating the
new education policy which is supposed to incorporate the latest and best practices of education sector along with a vision for future. l The Central Government amends the existing provisions of Indian Constitution and drafts new policies to improve education sector of the country. The modified policies envisage a National System of education to bring about uniformity in education, provide universal access, retention and quality in elementary education, establishment of pace setting schools like Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district and vocationalisation of secondary education. l The Central Government performs educational functions through NCERT, UGC, Central Universities, Central Schools organisations etc. Central Government also partially finances some programmes, planned and implemented by the State Governments. Role of State Governments l Elementary education is essentially a responsibility of the
I
n India, the schools are adopting the best global practices to nurture global citizens. From latest technology to the best teaching-learning pedagogies, the schools are adopting the methods that help students to develop holistically. Seeking the importance of education, the Central and State Governments are also embracing the best practices and modifying their policies to improve the education landscape of the country. The Central Government and the State Governments are responsible for development of an educational ecosystem at national and state level. At the same time, the Governments work in coordination so that no State lags behind as far as the education is concerned. Role of Central Government l The Central Government plays a lead role in the evolution and monitoring of educational policies and programmes, the most notable of which are the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986 and the Programme of Action (POA), 1986, which was updated in 1992.
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State Government. Various States to train their citizens for careers in administration, industry, commerce, medicine, engineering, agriculture etc, set up and maintain a number of high and higher secondary schools, industrial and technical institutes, polytechniques, colleges and universities. l The State opens training schools and colleges to make available trained teachers to educational institutions. l The State prescribes syllabus and course of study for various school classes and grades. The length of each course, working days, working hours and vacations are determined as per the State Government’s directives. l States also appoint commissions and committees to discuss various aspects of education and educational activities in the State. These committees suggest ways and means for improvement in education sector. As it can be observed that drafting and modifying policies is one of the major roles of Central and State Governments. There are a number of policies in the country and in States that act as guiding tools for the governments to take decisions and achieve rational outcomes. The Central Advisory Board of
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Education (CABE) is the highest advisory body to advise the Central and State Governments on drafting the new policies. There are a number of government initiatives that have helped the school education ecosystem to flourish.
Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) is a Centrally sponsored scheme launched on 15th August, 1995 to improve enrolment, retention, attendance and nutritional levels among children. In 2001, MDMS became a cooked Mid-Day Meal Scheme under which every child in every Government and Government-aided primary school was to be served with cooked mid day meal with a minimum content of 300 calories of energy and 8-12 gram protein per day for a minimum of 200 days. Mahila Samakhya programme The Mahila Samakhya programme was launched in 1988 to pursue the objectives of the National Policy on Education, 1986. It recognised that education can be an effective tool for women’s empowerment. The aim of the scheme was to build a positive image of women by recognising their contribution to the society, polity and economy. Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) The scheme was launched in March, 2009 with the objective to enhance access to secondary education and to improve its quality. Important physical facilities provided under the scheme are: additional class rooms, laboratories, libraries, art and crafts room, toilet blocks, drinking water provisions and residential hostels for teachers in remote areas. Vocationalisation of Secondary Education The Centrally Sponsored Scheme
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of
Vocationalisation of Secondary Education provides for diversification of educational opportunities so as to enhance individual employability, reduce the mismatch between demand and supply of skilled manpower and provides an alternative for those pursuing higher education. Digital Payment Campaign In the wake of demonetisation, Union HRD Minister, Prakash Javadekar launched a cashless payment drive across the centrally aided institutions. The scheme helped parents to pay the fee in online mode rather than in cash. No Detention Policy The Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to revise the old policy of promoting all the students from Class 5 and 8 to next classes. Under the new policy, it is mandatory for all students of classes 5 and 8 to clear the examination so as to get into next class. The policy was enforced to provide primary education to each and every child between the age of 6 -14. Government schoolteachers to be trained abroad Delhi government announced that school teachers and principals would be sent to best schools and institutions of the world to undergo training. The training will help the teachers to understand the best practices and implement the same in their teaching. When it comes to matters of policy, education stakeholders look towards the Central and State Governments to lead the way. Though, standards and quality of education consequently vary widely from state to state and district to district. However, various schemes and initiatives by Central and State Governments are supposed to bridge the gap and improve school education ecosystem of India holistically.
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Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan has been operational since 2000-2001 to provide every child equal access to education, retention of students, bridging gender and social gaps in elementary education, and improve the quality. SSA interventions include opening of new schools, construction of schools and additional classrooms, toilets, drinking water, provisioning for teachers, and free textbooks & uniforms.
The Central Government and the State Governments are responsible for development of an educational ecosystem at national and state level. At the same time, the Governments work in coordination so that no State lags behind as far as the education is concerned.
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PRESCHOOL PERSPECTIVE
EUROKIDS: MAKING LEARNING FUN EuroKids has transformed itself by adopting innovative and contemporary learning practices to stay ahead of the others, says Prajodh Rajan, Co-Founder & Group CEO, EuroKids, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). How has the recent transformation of EuroKids helped it to be different from others? What prompted this transformation?
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It is crucial to create an experience that is engaging and nurturing and hence needs matured and experienced hands which possess the knowledge, understanding and experience of early child care education.
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The identity, and its experience have undergone a huge transformation to provide both the children and the parents a superlative pre-school experience. The transformation has enabled us to share a pre-school environment that is nurturing and provides holistic learning for the child. With an emphasis on child development, security, hygiene and establishing a close rapport with the parents of each child, our pre-schools have transitioned into the Child’s Second Home. However despite our refreshed and modern appeal, what remains at the core of our efforts is the Child-First ideology. Our team of experts have dedicated years towards understanding the needs of young children and refined the delivery of curriculum at our pre-schools making it contemporary and engaging. In a digital age, the curriculum strikes the appropriate balance between digital learnings and conventional preschooling learning mediums like story-telling, rhymes, book-reading, group learning etc. Our presence extends across three countries, 350+ towns and cities, 1000+ pre-schools, and has contributed to the growth and development of over 3,00,000 children. We now look forward to Reinventing Education across the country.
Being one of the oldest and most renowned brands in preschool education, how has EuroKids survived the competition due to rise of various new names in the segment? Competition is what makes the category evolve through constant innovation. In a competitive
environment, only those pre-schools will flourish who have a ‘Child First’ ideology engrained at the core of all their initiatives. This means that a successful pre-school must focus on ensuring that all initiatives undertaken inherently have to be in interest of the ‘child’. Every effort must then be made towards improving the lives of children at the pre-school by working positively with all stakeholders i.e. parents, teachers, partners and positively impacting the entire ecosystem. This ideology ensures that the brand strives constantly to innovate, so that it sets itself apart from the others in the segment. This difference or edge that a brand delivers, will be visible to its end beneficiaries - the parents who will acknowledge the proposition delivered and patronise the same.
Given the situation what makes EuroKids unique and the right choice for parents and kids? EuroKids aims to create a joyful pre-schooling experience for both parent and child. We believe in ‘Making Learning Fun’ for children. Our curriculum which is in its sixth upgrade has been powered by research findings from the world’s best universities and with our extensive experience of dealing with young children for the past 15 yearsour program aims to develop ‘Executive Function Skills’ (EFS), crucial for building positive behaviour in children from an early age. Our unique program
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Today technology aids education and learning, how much exposure should
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be given to students for avoiding any wrong outcome? For us this question can be answered in two parts. Technology today is all pervasive. However, when it comes to early childhood education, the amount of technology that a child must be exposed to in his formative years, we believe, must be monitored closely. At EuroKids, we believe that what we provide is an engaging and interactive learning environment for the child where there is a balance between digital and traditional learning mediums. As part of our curriculum we have Motion-Based Learning, which enables learning through digital media in the form of games, stories, rhymes, videos. Simultaneously we also have puppet learning, story reading, group engagements and special learning kits that provide hands on learning coupled with exploration and DIY experiences. Beyond pre-schooling, we believe technology has ensured a paradigm change in the manner in which education is delivered in this country. Most institutions today showcase digital curriculums and mediums to disseminate education to a wider network of students. Technology has also made it convenient to share the curriculum, revisit the same at convenience and hold easier procedures towards assessments. All in all, when under a supervised platform, technology is a great enabler of education.
What is the way forward for EuroKids? We have chosen franchising as the pre dominant manner in which we distribute EuroKids PreSchools. We currently work with more than 1000+ entrepreneurs in more than 350 towns and cities and have now drawn up very ambitious plans to scale this network to 2000+ preschools in the next 48 months. We have all the ingredients for the aggressive scale up, a 15 year time tested product and highly motivated team. We also now sense an opportunity in the daycare segment and have now built our capabilities in this segment and now offer both on site and near site solutions to corporations who desire to incorporate this much required service for their employees. We currently have 2 on site care facilities and 2 upcoming near sites at Mumbai & Trivandrum. The plan is to operationalize 100 day care centres in the next 36 months.
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In a competitive environment, only those pre-schools will flourish who have a ‘Child First’ ideology engrained at the core of all their initiatives. This means that a successful pre-school must focus on ensuring all initiatives undertaken inherently have to be in interest of the ‘child’.
PRESCHOOL PERSPECTIVE
also integrates Phonics, Motion Based Learning, Toy Library, EuroGym & EuroMusic for early years and they have been devised with an aim to integrate multiple representation, expressions and engagementsthat are vital for Next Gen learners. In addition to exploration and fun based learning, our pre-schools are equipped with CCTV cameras, so the child remains supervised at all times whilst at pre-school. We have child-friendly furniture, and toys used in the school are of international standards and are 100% non-toxic in nature. Our teachers and support staff are hired post a rigorous background check including a police verification and previous employer check. All Teachers and staff are trained in safety drills required in event of an extreme scenario. As part of our continuous improvement in Health & Safety standards we partnered along with a leading international certification agency to co- create Safety protocols specifically for Pre-Schools and then ensured that the same was applied at our centres with third party audit & certification. This kind of initiative is a first by any Pre-School in the country. The last mile in the pre-school ecosystem is interaction with parents. We reach out to our parents through various platforms like parent orientation programs, parent-teacher meetings, informal and casual conversations with parents on an everyday basis so that they are always assured that their child remains in the best of hands. Additionally, to keep the parents in the know of all the developments at the pre-school, we have the Buddy App which showcases all the fun activities, learnings, and fun times at preschool so the parent is aware of the typical day at EuroKids. This 360-degree preschooling expertise makes us the preferred pre-schooling choice for many parents. It is crucial to create an experience that is engaging and nurturing and hence needs matured and experienced hands which possess the knowledge, understanding and experience of early child care education. At EuroKids, our academic experts are atthe forefront, driving innovations & strategic initiatives and are responsible for recalibrating the benchmark of pre-schooling in the country,that enables us to deliver a highquality pre-schooling experience.
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NURTURING CHILDREN HOLISTICALLY THROUGH PLAY-WAY METHODS Hello Kids is a preschool where children grow and develop while reading, listening and playing. At the school, they learn to move from dependence to independence, says Pritam Agrawal and Sunita Jain, Founder Directors, Hello Kids, in an interview with Elets News Network (ENN). The preschool segment is gaining popularity in India, how Hello Kids as a preschool brand is different from others?
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We have 550 centres across India and Bangladesh and are targeting to reach over 1000 centres by 2020. We have also entered in K-12 segment in 2017 and currently have four K-12 schools.
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We are India’s first no royalty model brand. We train owners and teachers at 25 locations across the country. The affectionate behaviour of staff imbibes a sense of belongingness in children that helps them in their progress. Since the children at Hello Kids are not more than six years old and use the best practices from all parts of the world to nurture them holistically. We undergo the effective approach of training of staff to inculcate the attribute of patience and saying yes to the child’s activities.
What practices are followed at Hello Kids to nurture the kids as young and confident children? Please describe about the teaching-learning methodologies followed at Hello Kids for their holistic development and to prepare them for the challenges ahead? To develop a strong foundation in the initial years of the kids, at Hello Kids children are taught in a playful environment. We focus on one to one interactive session in everyday basis along with life skills development. Sports and fitness activities are a part of our curriculum along with focus on stage exposure and personality development at an early age.
Infrastructure wise, what facilities are provided at Hello Kids to make the learning delightful, yet keeping them safe?
The infrastructure helps teachers and staff to create this environment. At Hello Kids, we ensure that there is no such equipment or furniture that may harm the students. We also make sure that the objects students are playing with or using in their learning activity should not have poisonous colours or odours.
How are you placed in the market and what are your expansion plans? We have 550 centres across India and Bangladesh and are targeting to reach over 1000 centres by 2020. We have also entered in K-12 segment in 2017 and currently have four K-12 schools. Hello Kids by offering the best education, is trying to have the best of both the worlds in its children, i.e., Eastern culture with Western competitive standards. Our children will grow up as emotionally balanced, confident and strong individuals.
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SOCIAL MEDIA A NEW TOOL TO EVALUATE YOUNGSTERS’ ABILITIES? As social media is fast turning an integral part of life for many, it seems it should no more leave anyone surprised if one’s social media activities may be checked to evaluate an individual. The trend is popularising among admission officers, HR professionals to check aspirant’s social media accounts, a report by Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).
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he trend is quite popular in awarding placement. In fact, some sectors encourage employees to use social medias as a tool to improve the marketing approach. Teachers may as well check students social media activities. It should not sound too surprising that some college admission officers may check student’s social media activities during admission. Why? Experts opine, it may help aspirants in portion during admission or placement, and it may not if their activities are disparaging and defamatory as the interactions maintained in the social media platforms are viewed as ‘public activity’ notwithstanding of users’ privacy controls or followers size. Social network users in India is
estimated to reach 258.27 million in 2019 from 168 million in 2016. The number of Facebook users were at 2.07 billion in 2017 3rd quarter, Twitter users at 22.2 million in 2015, and LinkedIn users at 33 million in 2016 January. Replying to a question: Is evaluating social media activities right measurement of one’s abilities or personality before admission in higher education, Gauhati University College Development Council Director Dr Biswajit Sarma, said: “This should not be the criteria for selection. It is the role of the institutions to take the lead in providing students a quality education and character building opportunities.” Tumkur, Karnataka-based Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education Vice-Chancellor Dr Balakrishna P Shetty
MARCH 2018
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feels it is a good practise. He said: “Although we don’t do it, I feel it is a good practise because their (students) social media activities give an institution an idea how good is the student, although in a face-to-face interview they present themselves good.” Sambalpur-based Gayatri College of Pharmacy Director Dr AK Satpathy, said: “Yes the personality or activities of students/teenagers must be taken as a determinant factor for admission into higher education.” “If the definition of personality is analysed, it is nothing but overall characteristics of a person through which he tries to express himself before the entire world. Activities in social media is the reflection of his or her personality
May be - 5.1%
No-14.1%
In a 15-day poll, digitalLEARNING magazine asked the visitors: Is evaluating a youngster’s social media activities right measurement of one’s abilities or personality before admission in higher education? In the survey of 100 people, 80.8 per cent say they feel tapping the students’ social media activity a right measurement to decide one’s admission criteria. The 14.1 per cent feel that it is wrong, and 5.1 per cent voted ‘may be’.
Yes - 80.8%
through which the orientation of the youngster can be ascertained and given right direction to choose the career path. Youngster activities in social media provides wide range of scope to know their taste and preferences and accordingly new curriculum can be designed. Apart from the behavioral issues the activities of youngsters in social media exhibits their potential skill which needs to be cherished, developed and retained through higher education.” Satpathy said. Mixed Public Response “I don’t think one should be judged on that basis. Everyone has the right to get higher education regardless of abilities, personality,” Pemala Tamang, a teacher said. “I think so, as it shows a part of the person’s character which can help in knowing the personality of the person along with his/her ability like thoughts, talents, etc,” reporter Reza Pradhan says. “Yes because the millenials, due to circumstance, owe up a lot on social media. No, as social media is yet another platform. Anything one says or does, it necessarily mean anything, but to put this as a variable to evaluate for higher education is wrong,” Siddharth Pradhan a manager of a travel company said. Industry Perspective on Checking Aspirant’s Social Media Accounts Ericsson Talent Acquisition Leader Saurabh Sharma, said: “It depends on what kind of
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role a person has applied. I would rather focus on searching someone on the skills for the job. If it is not fitting within the required skills, I don’t think the recruiters have time and bandwidth to actually go and check the social media channels. Especially, if the channel is a personal channel, I don’t think we can derive any benefit out of it. ” Does it help the aspirant? “If it is in LinkedIn, which is a professional social media platform and if somebody is active in the area an individual is working, for even business leader or talent acquisition leader, definitely the chances of recruiters spotting that person is high. In that case it works,” Sharma said.
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DL SURVEY
Is evaluating a youngster’s social media activities a right measurement of one’s abilities of personality before admission in higher education?
Denave Symbiosis Institute of Business Management Global HRD Samriti Malhotra, said: “It is very useful. I’d say that more than 50 per cent of hirings are happening through the social media platforms. It would be no exaggeration to say that social network activities can become a boon while seeking placements through various social media platforms, and is a very helpful marketing tool to boost the admission process for any learning institutions due to its userfriendly approach. But, evaluating students social media activities should not be the only measurement for admission officers to award admission to students.
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SPECIAL STORY
ATAL TINKERING LAB FOSTERING CREATIVITY OF SCHOOL STUDENTS ‘Innovation’ is the buzzword in the current Indian polity — and rightly so. Slow and steadily gaining traction and favoured by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Government of India has involved several ministries to support innovation schemes — especially for schemes like ‘Start-up India’ and ‘Make in India’. The idea is to identify problems and create solutions that mandate creating an ecosystem to clear the blockages which prevent innovators from developing a ‘prototype’ to finding its ‘scalability’ in the market. Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN) explores Atal Innovation Mission fostering creativity of school students.
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he idea is to identify problems and create solutions that mandate creating an ecosystem to clear the blockages which prevent innovators from developing a ‘prototype’ to finding its ‘scalability’ in the market. Ideally, the innovation process requires having an idea. Then, to inculcate the concept of ‘idea’ among students to think, learn, the country’s think-tank NITI Aayog under the Ministry of Human Resource and Development started to facilitate setting up Atal Tinkering Lab (ATL) in both government and private run-schools and institutes a year ago. In the lab, grade 6 to 10 students can implement their understanding, especially the STEM subjects, by means of tinkering — which in itself is an option that requires failing, and importantly carry out the learning to innovate. It’s a worldwide
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practise wherein such labs are equipped with tinkering kits — science, electronics, robotics, open source microcontroller boards, sensors and 3D printers and computers — for students to explore, to experiment, through mentored-workshops. Atal Tinkering Lab is being facilitated by Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog. AIM, runs other innovation programmes like Atal Incubation Centre, Mentor of Change, Atal Grand Challenge, Atal Vikas Challenge — for higher education along with R&D institutes, corporate sector, business accelerators, group of individuals, and individuals — with an objective to stimulate interests, creativity and imagination and instil skills such as design mindset, computational thinking, rapid calculations, measurements etc. With the use of IT in education being widely acknowledged
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across schools to prepare students to become competent with emerging technological trends, several countries are starting to introduce coding — the base of creating software, website, or an app — in the curricula from the age five. It is emerging as the new literacy alongside STEM subjects to help students become more creative, innovative, and inventors. Even in IT jobs including data scientists, front-end Web developers, software engineers, app developers, website programmers — regarded as the most future-proof jobs — coding is the foundation. Although coding isn’t mentioned in the ATL’s list, expert opine that the trend is soon to follow, as many international schools have started to include coding in the academic curricula. The Prime Minister recently announced more than 2,400 schools to have been selected for setting up ATLs. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant said that plans are afoot to set up 30,000 tinkering labs across India in the next three years. The vision is to prepare a million children in India as neoteric — meaning a person who advocates new ideas — innovators. Under the initiative, NITI Aayog provides Rs 20 lakhs grant-in-aid. Of which, Rs 12 lakhs (Rs 10 lakhs for establishment of ATL, procurement of the tinkering kits and Rs 2 lakhs towards meeting operation and maintenance [O&M] cost, organising science fairs, carnivals) is disbursed in the first year and the remaining Rs 8 lakhs is dispersed over a period of next four years for O&M expenses.
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AIM has laid guidelines for the interested schools to be eligible for the fund such as developing a comprehensive plan, creating an organisational structure, identifying and setting up the physical space, identifying and allocating human resource, to name a few. In the second round of selection, AIM has further laid 33-point selection criterias. Once selected, the schools will have to utilise the funds to purchase tinkering kits as suggested in the AIM guidelines namely, l P1- Electronics development, robotics, IOTs and sensors l P2- Rapid prototyping tools l P3- Mechanical, electrical, and measurement tools l P4- Construction kit, power supply, consumables, accessories and safety equipment NITI Aayog has given the responsibility to vendors to setup ATLs in schools. TECHB, one of the vendors has been providing tinkering equipments to schools along with providing the training. Edtech start-up Avishkaar Box recently announced to have set up 125 Tinkering Labs across the country. NITI Aayog frequently invites applications from equipment manufacturers having expertise in providing equipments and training for establishing Atal Tinkering Labs in schools who give a clarion call with regard to selection of vendor for purchasing the equipment and training services. According to Global Innovation Index Ranking, India ranks at sixth position, from 66th in 2016 to 60 in 2017, out of 127 countries. The Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar has recently announced to setup an Innovation Cell in the Ministry to strengthen the innovation efforts.
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Zonal distribution of ATLs across India.
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The Prime Minister recently announced more than 2,400 schools to have been selected for setting up ATLs. According to Global Innovation Index Ranking, India ranks at sixth position, from 66th in 2016 to 60 in 2017, out of 127 countries.
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KKEL: NURTURING EMOTIONAL BALANCE AMONG KIDS THROUGH PERSONALISED LEARNING The personalised learning approach in the well researched curriculum of Kangaroo Kids helps its students to develop life skills and a balanced emotional approach, says Lina Ashar, Founder, Kangaroo Kids Preschool & Billabong High International School in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN).
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At Kangaroo Kids we give a lot of importance to Emotional Intelligence. Implicit curriculum which includes Habits of mind, developing Emotional Quotient (EQ), values, life skills is embedded in our curriculum.
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Emotional well-being of students is very important to inculcate traits like optimism, motivation, creativity and leadership among them. How at Kangaroo Kids, students’ emotional quotient is improved? At Kangaroo Kids we give a lot of importance to Emotional Intelligence. Implicit curriculum which includes Habits of mind, developing emotional quotient (EQ), values, life skills is embedded in our curriculum. To emphasise on developing EQ of students, we have collaborated with Yale University under which our teachers are provided an online course on emotional quotient. It will help teachers to deal with students’ understanding, their emotional needs and inculcating good habits among them.
Research and development is very important for a unique and effective curriculum. What are the practices followed at Kangaroo Kids to keep the curriculum in line with the global trends? I have always believed in experience-based learning. Being among the first in preschool sector, we developed a new curriculum. Over the years, we have recruited a team that works on developing curriculum for preschool, primary and middle school. The team comprises trained and well-qualified professionals who develop the curriculum with emphasis on personalised learning and neuroscience. The team members also attend seminars, lectures and pursue online courses to keep themselves updated with the best practices and innovative trends and to incorporate them in the curriculum.
What were the challenges faced by Kangaroo Kids in changing the traditional ways of learning and adopting new practices? How the challenges were overcome by the group? We were the first in the Indian education industry to introduce a learner centric methodology and innovative ways of integrated and theme-based learning. This was new to parents and initially there was a lot of resistance but good results and better learning outcomes in their wards made the parents understand that the new methodology is better than the earlier ones. It was also very challenging to train teachers in the methodologies and practices. They were not in tune to the learner centric approach back then. That’s when we started in house training of teachers and inculcated skills to follow the latest approach.
In line with the vision and mission of Kangaroo Kids, how the group is planning to serve every section of the society and improve education landscape of the country? We follow regulations of the Right to Education (RTE) Act to educate maximum number of children. Our schools have partnered with Angel Xpress – an NGO that supports underprivileged children. Teachers from our school along with students and their parents visit the NGO to teach children in it. We have also developed a trust to help poor children financially. We also conduct activities under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) throughout the year.
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YOU ARE YOUR GREATEST ASSET “The best thing about you is you” - Anupam Kher
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In a way, success can be compared to a video game. The higher level you achieve, the more challenging and difficult the level becomes. You either continue to play or you quit. The choice is always yours.
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he best, the unique and the most special thing about each one of us is being ‘us’. There are certain pointers which would definitely give a boost to the way we live. Be Good: Being good doesn’t harm anyone. It always gives blessing in return and if you do good you will feel good. Try it as often as you can and you will be proud of helping others. Greet everyone with a smile and if nothing else, you will get a smile in return. Today the world needs more smiles and joy. Spread Joy to bring a smile. Respect elders and even the ones younger to you. By simply being good to everyone around you, you can make a huge difference. Even the smallest of candle when lit, lights up the room. Likewise, a good deed done shines out in this weary world. Try applying what Gautam Budha said “Conquer the angry one by not getting angry; conquer the wicked by goodness; conquer the stingy by generosity, and the liar by speaking the truth.” Don’t fear failures: Life always has two shades. Sometimes it will show you a bright coloured shade the happy one and sometimes the difficult one. In this journey called life, the path is not always smooth. It has pebbles, it has pot holes and sometimes even the road to your destination may be blocked. But you
need to keep moving and sometimes even change the path to reach your final destination. Life will keep on throwing challenges at us. Challenges, success and failures all go hand in hand. In a way, success can be compared to a video game. The higher level you achieve, the more challenging and difficult the level becomes. You either continue to play or you quit. The choice is always yours. Isn’t it? Change with time: Change is the only constant thing in this universe. One has to change with time and if you don’t change then time would surely push you back. By changing, I don’t mean changing your morals or values. No matter whatever be the era, a man of values always stand the strongest. By change I mean changing the strategies, the outlook and even when needed perception. Some of us tend to live in the past. Why? We have the future ahead to look forward to. You can’t change the history but only learn from it and improvise upon the future. So, keep moving further. Let the past become just a learning lesson and not your entire life. Be a person of morals and values: In accordance to the Hindu mythological traces, both Duryodhana and Yudhisthira were equally mighty and courageous. But a certain factor prevailed to alter the elevation of success attained by them. The factor
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Anurag Vij
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was values. Materialistic things may come and go. What remains with you are your values. Think before you Judge: I will share a story. A 24 year old boy seeing out the train’s window shouted, “Dad, look at the trees running behind.” His father smiled and nodded lovingly. A couple sitting close by looked slightly confused at a 24 year old getting so exited and thrilled by just having a look at the passing by trees. Soon after he shouted again “Dad, look at those clouds. They’re running with us.” Every next moment he appeared to be astounded by every other part of nature. The couple sitting close by couldn’t resist and said to the father, “We think you should take your son to a good psychiatrist or may be a good doctor. There seems to be something wrong with him.” The man patiently replied, “We’ve actually just returned from a good doctor. My son was born blind. Today, he can see for the first time.” Remember not to judge people’s lives. Everyone’s living a different story, going through their own challenges. Before we make an assumption about anyone, we really need to understand and know the person and the circumtances. And remember, judgement is critical but
observing is educational. Focus on learning about people before passing a judgement. Sometimes by giving too much help we tend to hurt: Once upon a time there were two neighbours. One was a business man and the other one was a retired teacher. Both of them were very fond of gardening. And they decided to plant the same plants in their respective gardens. When they started to do this, the retired teacher took some care of his plants , but didn’t over pamper them. The businessman on the other hand, being extremely meticulous, gave a lot of attention and took care of the plants almost too well. One night there was a mild storm and heavy rain. The next morning the
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retired teacher and the businessman both came out to see their garden’s condition. The businessman found that his well kept plants had actually become quite damaged and destroyed because of the storm. The retired teacher however saw less damage in his plants, and they weren’t as affected. The businessman was a bit confused. He’d pampered his plants and given much further care to the growth of his plants. He approached the wise teacher and asked, “Why is that my plants didn’t survive, but yours did?” The retired teacher smiled and shared a very important lesson. He said, “Because you were giving such close attention and pampering to your plants that they became extra dependent on you. They needed you for their survival. But because I kept some distance and allowed my plants to find their own nutrients, to develop their own strong roots, they were able to survive the storm. The same is true for us as a parent and educationist. We must realise that a little distance allows our children to grow, it allows them to grow much deeper and stronger. (Anurag Vij is a renowned educationist and founder director of The Chintels School)
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JKG: INSTILLING WISDOM AND ETHICS THROUGH EDUCATION Academic excellence with character and personality development is our ultimate goal, says Anju Gaur, Principal, JKG International School, Vijay Nagar, Ghaziabad, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). Along with imparting quality education, what are the core values inculcated in students of JKG International School to make them ready for challenges ahead?
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JKG is always at the forefront in fostering innovativeness in its students. Our students presented two innovative models based on the challenges faced by the global community daily.
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Core Values are an integral part of school curriculum. We, at JKG, go beyond the confines of narrow learning process and aim for the essential learning outcomes for professional success. The school has developed and integrated various programmes into its curriculum to nurture skills like creative thinking, social responsibility, leadership and communication among students. For inculcating such skills, we have full time counselling facility, career guidance tests, Workshops and seminars on social media uses, stress management, problem solving etc.
What are the various teachinglearning approaches that cater to different needs of individual child? At JKG, technology is being used in every aspect of education. We have a comprehensive infrastructure for learning that enables us to move beyond the traditional models of teaching-learning processes. A co-educational system with well-qualified, experienced and vibrant faculty makes learning a joy for children of all ages. Other than that, the school has low student teacher ratio and a plethora of curricular and co-curricular activities to provide a conducive atmosphere to instill a passion for learning among students. Our initiative EDUCATION 3.0 LEARNING is India’s first ever programme that establishes a state of the art experiential learning lab in the school premises, along with grade specific experiential learning programmes for Nursery to class VIII.
Being a part of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), how the school
fosters curiosity, creativity and imagination in young minds along with inculcating required skills? JKG is always at the forefront in fostering innovativeness among its students. Our students presented two innovative models based on the challenges faced by the global community daily. In order to encourage inventiveness among students, Atal Tinkering Labs (ATL) under AIM conducts different activities ranging from regional and national level competitions, exhibitions, workshops on problem solving, designing and fabrication of products, lecture series etc. at periodic intervals.
What is the vision and mission of your school for upcoming years? Mission: In coming years, the school will be able to instill civic sense in students and train them how to face natural calamities. The scholars will also make the community aware for the same. Vision: THE PEDAGOGY – Pedagogy is the science of educating or more precisely guiding a child. We, at JKG, believe that the true purpose of education is to stimulate the creativity within the student’s mind and body, give them wings, allow them to think freely, to inculcate inquisitiveness, and encourage Innovational skills.
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Thousands of Happy Students. Hundreds of Honours. One legacy of 30 years! A journey this inspiring deserves a celebration that lasts for 365 days.
Celebrating Three Glorious Decades In Education. CHIREC INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL, 1-55/12, CHIREC Avenue, Kondapur, Kothaguda (PO), Hyderabad - 500 084, Telangana, India. Email: office@chirecps.ac.in, Web: www.chirec.ac.in
Tel.: 040 44760997-999, Mob.: +91 9866461201 Awards & Recognitions
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CAMBRIDGE MONTESSORI PRESCHOOL: INCUBATING LEADERS FOR TOMORROW
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ambridge Montessori Preschool is headquartered in Delhi with more than 70 schools pan India. This is considered as one of the best in preschool education sector that offers one of the most profitable franchises in India. It is poised to create a learning environment for tiny tots based on internationally renowned Montessori philosophy propound by Dr Maria Montessori. Cambridge Montessori Preschool and Day-care ensures an environment of love, compassion, harmony to make its students independent. Our learning through play teaching methodology with a blend of diversified cultures makes it unique and modern. This process is very well calibrated by sincerely involving international Montessori experts, well
Shikha Saxena Academic head Cambridge Montessori Preschool
trained trainers, teachers and parents for holistic development of students. “The first thing his education demands is the provision of an environment in which he can develop the powers given him by nature. This does not mean just to amuse him and let him do what he likes. But it does mean that we have to adjust our minds to doing a work of collaboration with nature, to being obedient to one of her laws which describes that development comes from environmental experience.” - Dr Maria Montessori Learning and Pedagogy In Cambridge Montessori Preschool children are respected as capable and competent thinkers as well as lifelong
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learners. The environment of our schools provide stimulating learning experiences that respond to individual’s unique characteristics and learning styles so as to reach their full potential – cognitively, socially, emotionally and physically. Our Curriculum includes math, language, life skills and sensorial activities where children manipulate objects and use all their senses to perceive better and become attuned to their surroundings. Geography, History, Zoology and Botany being various components of cultural studies are also a part of the curriculum where we inculcate all about general awareness through learning with fun. We acknowledge that children are sophisticated thinkers and communicators and encourage them to express themselves by giving them
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various exposures through movement, drawing, designing and music. Our classrooms are peaceful, beautiful, and thoughtfully arranged embodying each element of Montessori approach to meet the developmental needs of each child in every stage of life. Our integrated curriculum is a promise to produce confident, curious and socially conscious graduates with a lifelong love for learning. Hereby our focus is to develop a repertoire of social skills, daily life skills and a strong academic foundation to facilitate the needs of holistic development and equip young learners with a capacity to be a responsible citizen of society. Our Offerings Cambridge Montessori Preschool offers various programmes like infant, toddler, day – care (12 months -6 years) and mind lab (4-14 years) to support child’s growth and development with focus on development of individual’s fine and gross motor skills, eye hand coordination, concentration. It helps in developing the grasping power, dexterity, encourages independence, and boosts confidence.
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Whereas the innovative workshop – Mind lab instigates young mind to think beyond and expanding their horizon of learning. Our Distinct Values “The Hands are the instruments of man’s intelligence.” – Dr Maria Montessori One of the things that distinguish our school from conventional approach is the way children are encouraged to learn by touching, feeling and doing. Children when work with their hands gain a very concrete understanding of the materials. The key components which fairly and accurately represent the environment of Cambridge Montessori Preschool are Respect for the child, carefully planned environment and auto education. Our Learning centres stimulate the child’s development in all areas: physical, intellectual, social, emotional and aesthetic. One of the advantages of the centres is that the teachers through various activities inculcate skills among the students. Each centre is designed keeping in mind aspects like locality and culture. Lastly, the organisation which
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suggests how to arrange the centre and sample activities that might be used further to observe that students feel happy in learning to master their environment that further lead to sense of competence necessary for independence. The children get benefitted from the learning materials that are intrinsically interesting, reality oriented and designed to facilitate self-correcting and refinement of sensory perceptions. The educators take time to work with children individually, in small groups, and sometimes with the entire class to help them develop cognitive and social skills, language abilities, and interest in learning new things about the world. Our belief in faith based education develops a strong foundation for character development; nurture leadership qualities by developing confidence, respect and moral integrity. Cambridge Montessori Preschool and day-care is dedicated to give the best possible start to the kids for school life. Our mission is to provide a rich environment, allowing children to explore the world around them with limitless learning opportunities.
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BENQ INVESTS IN RELIABLE EDTECH HARDWARE Why it’s time to safeguard the future of India’s education? India’s education system has changed and revolutionized in recent years. Technology has played a huge role in bringing a revolution in the education sector. Laptops, interactive displays, e-readers, and even e-learning apps are now part of everyday education. However, with the alarming level of pollution, there is a major need for schools and educational institutions to invest in reliable edtech hardware. It is a well known fact that seamless and interactive learning helps in increasing the retention and assimilation of information in students. Indian schools have implemented smart solutions to offer an affordable yet effective education to the masses. In fact, the education sector is one of the biggest adopters of projector as they form an integral part of the modern, technology driven education sector in India. Since 80 per cent of India’s school teachers feel positive about smart classrooms, projector has become one of the most popular education technologies across India’s classrooms. However, due to the rising costs of maintaining them, there is a major threat to the quality of education in India. And dust is the key factor to the rising maintenance cost. Over time, with dust and smog increasing in India, a projector can gradually accumulate dust particles in it, which may result in overheating, equipment malfunctioning, breakdowns and unnecessary maintenance costs. Based on the latest WHO list, India has a definitive probability of being home to 22 of the 50 most polluted cities globally. Indian schools have open playgrounds with sand pits, and most classrooms are subjected to no windows or open windows. Adding to this, the AQI (Air Quality Index) levels are higher inside than outside, meaning that the level of harmful particles in indoor environments is higher than that of outdoor environments. With around 100K units of projectors being installed annually across India’s classrooms, the potential threat posed by harmful dusts in the environment is imminent.
What will dust do to your projector? With air contamination at its crest in India, there is a great need to concentrate on damage control. Recent studies show alarming numbers of dust pollution, and hence, classroom projectors have been adversely affected by dust. Maintenance and proper dust-
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proof technology will help greatly with broadening the lifetime of projectors. They will not even reduce the maintenance costs but will significantly lead to a decrease in unnecessary expenses. In the absence of dustproof technologies, projector’s performance could experience the following: l Picture Quality Deterioration– Due to dust accumulation on internal parts, it could lead to the deterioration of image quality, image blemish, and color decay. Ultimately, this can affect the overall learning experience in classrooms. l Thermal Issue- If certain amount of dust is accumulated in the filter or the ventilation system, it will lead to projectors’ airflow being considerably reduced, resulting in overheating and undesirable maintenance costs. l Total operational breakdown- When dust accumulates on color wheel of projectors, the projection will result in abnormal colors, flickering and may eventually cause shut down without warning
Dust-proof Technology to Safeguard the Future of India Education Sector Investing in dustproof technology can protect the health of faculty and students while creating a new learning experience for the students. BenQ’s Dust GuardTM Series has passed testing in a simulated environment with large amounts of fine dust, soot, and milled cotton lint. It filters out large amounts of harmful dusts, and allows projectors to become invulnerable to them. Also, with the sealed optical engine design, the anti-dust accumulation sensor and dust filter, the dustproof mechanism enhances the safety of the projector. BenQ delivers comprehensive interactive solutions for the classrooms containing features that help prevent eye-strain, fatigue and reduce the transmission of germs by touch. The dustproof solution ensures optimal reliability and performance by extending projector’s lifeline, reducing maintenance frequency by ⅓ and ensuring high image quality without color decay. It also blocks out 90 per cent of particles and PM 2.5. The Dust Guard series is also equipped with smart eco technology, which further ensures reliable and eco-friendly operation in classrooms. The edtech industry will continue to witness significant growth in the next few years. There is a need to invest in technology aided teaching methods, which help transform the classroom and improve educational content being taught to students.
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SCHOOL PERSPECTIVE
EXTENSIVE CURRICULUM & DYNAMIC TEACHING NURTURING FUTURE LEADERS At Chaitanyaa, we have created a unique blend of world-class curricula, contemporary teaching methodologies, and equal focus on intellectual, physical and personality development, resulting in future leaders who are ready to take on the world, says Rajith Rajiv Gowda, CEO, Chaithanyaa International School, in conversation with Elets News Network (ENN). Tell us about the initiatives taken by Chaithanyaa International School to boost skill-based education.
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In our school we have introduced a unique system of teaching-learning that inculcates inquisitive approach and problem solving confidence in children. It is 5-Step experiential learning approach where skills are inculcated among children in their initial years of learning.
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With a proud gesture I can state that Chaithanyaa International School is committed to impart quality education. Our modern education is subject oriented and only utilitarian in concept, but does not stress on the human side of personality. At this juncture, it is essential to teach children subjects directly linked with real life in an attractive mode. To fill this gap it is very much essential to impart skills, like soft skills, life skills etc. Therefore it is imperative that any attempt at imparting real education should invariably cover all facets of such education directed towards the good of all in society. In this direction any future programme should also imbibe in the aspirants a true spirit of it so as to include moral and ethical foundations. Such education will equip students with the skills to face the challenges of life. In our school we integrated these skills with the curriculum through various methods and sources.
What best practices in curriculum and teaching - learning process are implemented by Chaithanyaa International School to nurture future leaders? In our school we have introduced a unique system of teaching-learning that inculcates inquisitive approach and problem solving confidence in children. It is 5-Step experiential learning approach where skills are inculcated among children in their initial years of learning. It involves experiences like trying on their own, failing, getting feedback and then trying again in order to succeed. It makes children believe that learning is a life-long process. We give more importance to skill development. We developed and implemented a practi-
cal approach which is yielding good results in terms of bringing out creative thinking among students.
What is your opinion on the current scenario of private school education in India? Private schools are doing well in achieving our Government’s vision of “Education to All”. The competition between private schools is notably high but I wish the competition should be healthy and not to aspire for commercial gains. One concern of mine is the entry of corporate and multinationals in the field of education. Many educational institutions and government schools which have adopted education as a service are at stake and under great threat.
What is the vision and mission of Chaithanyaa International School for upcoming years? Our vision is to generate youth with lots of wisdom, thinking beyond themselves i.e. about society, community, country and the world & thereby creating a society with concern for human welfare, social consciousness and a sense of belonging. To make our vision true we provide quality education through creative and innovative practices in teaching and learning. The mission of Chaithanyaa International School is to make children the most Competitive - to face any challenge Successful - to achieve the desired Deserved - to get rewards & awards Respectful - to be an asset to the society.
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CONFERENCE REPORT
Dr MVV Prasada Rao, Director - CTET, JNVST & Misc Exam, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), inaugurating 6th School Leadership Summit in New Delhi with Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan Group of Institutions; Dr Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD & CEO, Kalorex Group; Sandeep Gulati & Kumar Chandan Anand of digitalLEARNING Magazine
6th School Leadership Summit: Innovation through Collaborations In a bid to encourage and facilitate innovations through collaborations and exchange of knowledge among policymakers, educators, industry leaders and key stakeholders related to school education, the 6th School Leadership Summit (SLS) was organised in the national capital. It was also intended to highlight and share finest practices, ideas and latest trends about school education among those who matter for overall growth of the Indian education landscape. The special summit was justifiably themed ‘6th School Leadership Summit (SLS), New Delhi’ as it witnessed congregation of edu-leaders of Indian education system. Key persons from education space of the country such as government officials, school owners and principals, and ed-tech corporate leaders deliberated upon the best and latest educational practices. The summit was inaugurated by Dr MVV Prasada Rao, Director- CTET, JNVST & Misc Exam, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE); Dr Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD & CEO, Kalorex Group and Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan Group of Institutions, on 24 February, 2018, in New Delhi. A special edition of digitalLEARNING magazine was also launched by Dr Rao, Dr Shroff and Ryan Pinto at the summit. The edition showcased the critical role of schools in shaping up students’ personalities and influencing their career choices and “Top Private and Deemed to be Universities Ranking 2018”. During the Summit, eduleaders shared their thoughts in panel discussions on topics like Importance of Inducive Policies to Build Effective School Education Ecosystem, Collaborative Approaches for Redesigning of Schools, Nurturing Early Childhood, Encouraging Establishment of Preschools: Innovate, Invest and Collaborate and Future of Boarding/International Schools in India. The day-long summit also witnessed participation of educationists in a roundtable on How Technology is Transforming Teaching-Learning Process in the Schools of Tier-2 Cities. Top Schools in Uttar Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana along with prominent preschools from different parts of India were felicitated during the summit. The industry presentations during the summit highlighted the scope of technology and its comprehensive effect in the school education sector. A few glimpses of the summit:
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CONFERENCE REPORT
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ANIL SWARUP
Secretary, School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Human Resources & Development (MHRD)
When I first joined the Ministry, I decided to go around within India and find solutions. We collected about 110 modules from various schools — private sectors, public sectors, and public private partnership sectors — in about 23 to 24 states. We then conducted a workshop in Delhi wherein, for six days we tried to understand the ‘why’ of these successful projects. We selected 24 out of it and through state and regional workshops, we told the State governments about the good work happening in private, public and ppp domains, and asked to replicate them. The good use of it is that it is getting replicated. We have created what we call ‘nexus of good’. Don’t limit yourself to criticism. Our eyes and ears should also be at good works happening around which needs to be noticed, understood, recognised, replicated and scaled. But the problem with good work is, it gets restricted to few places. My challenge and attempt are how to expand these good works. We are preparing a new education policy. As far as I am concerned, policy should be only of one line: providing quality education to the children. Thereafter, there has to be an action plan -- what needs to done? how it needs to be done? who will do it? By when will it be done? Once you have a monitorable action plan, things will start happening on the ground, which matters. The solution to the problem will not purely come from public or private sector, but it has to be the combination of two. Quality will come from the private sector and scale will come from the public. Every idea has to be politically acceptable, financially viable and whether it is administratively do-able.
SESSION: - INNOVATION THROUGH COLLABORATION: MEETING OF LEADERS OF SCHOOLS AND INDUSTRY
DR MVV PRASADA RAO Director - CTET, JNVST & Misc Exam, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
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Leadership in the school education is very challenging and different than the leadership in the higher education. The change is possible in the school education who are going from preadolescence to adolescence. There is a lot of difference between the children of today and the children of yesterday. Technology has revolutionised but there is a big link missing between its interpretation and implementation in the school education. We are only teaching children how to make use of technology but we are not teaching its negative aspects and how to restrict them. Total Quality Management has to be implemented in the school education. Unless you take everybody along, the quality aspects cannot be achieved. We have qualified teachers but not the quality teachers. Every school leader, teacher, principal should have a PHD in education — Passion, Hunger and Discipline.
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SPECIAL DELIVERY ON SKILL TRAINING OF YOUTH AND TEACHERS
Director -Vocational & Training, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
CONFERENCE REPORT
DR BISWAJIT SAHA
At present we are offering 13 vocational courses at secondary level and approximately 37 courses at senior secondary level. Many of the stakeholders are not aware of the arrangement of what board is offering. If we honestly, life skills requirement then vocational training should be offered as a mandatory subject in schools.We give prescriptions but everytime it should be converted into an enquiry model. Then, specific skill areas should be nurtured in the school so that students of this generation can face the challenges of the future. Our basic concern is how to upgrade the quality. In case of CBSE, we do not have entry mechanisms, rather we test students at two gates: grades 10 and 12 and the criteria is 33 per cent. The board is giving complete freedom to the schools To ensure the quality, appropriate teachers should be appointed with more responsibilities vested unto them to ensure a minimum level of benchmark. We have to divert our thought process form result orientation to bringing real quality to schools. CBSE is holding massive trainings for assistant head examiner, evaluator and chief nodal supervisor. We are planning to crosscheck each and every answers script by two evaluators so that accuracy can be ensured.
INDUSTRY PRESENTATION MAHESH SHETTY
JAGDISH RAJPUROHIT
Founder & MD MT Educare
Director Cloud Walker
Higher secondary schools have a completely different need. Expectations are built, pressure on the child is very high because there follows a board exam and that three hours determine their future. Whatever they do in the whole year doesn’t help. I request all of us to look into it. What is required in the High School learning is the personalised learning, personalised effort.
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We are a technology start-up that began operation about four years ago to cater into the business of providing good user-interface and good user-experience in the business of entertainment, providing embedded content available from the internet on TV. It is a brand working with more than 100,000-150,000 customer base across India, including Facebook and Amazon.
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SHREEVATS JAIPURIA
CONFERENCE REPORT
Vice-Chairman Seth MR Jaipuria Schools & Jaipuria Institute of Managements We may blame teachers for not being a quality teacher, but the reality is that teachers are not getting learning opportunities; either not getting time, resources or the direction to what they are teaching, how they are teaching and how should it change from the way they were teaching 5 or 10 years ago. A minimum teaching-learning standard is needed. A research team is needed who does curriculum design, delivery and pedagogy assessment.
SESSION - IMPORTANCE OF INDUCIVE POLICIES TO BUILD EFFECTIVE SCHOOL EDUCATION ECOSYSTEM
SESSION - Importance of Inducive Policies to Build Effective School Education Ecosystem
RYAN PINTO
CEO Ryan Group of Institutions Educators need to stand firm as long as our hearts are clean, focused and passionate. We are here to educate and empower children. I think, everyone in the education sector has awoken and realised that we are teaching our students the things at a time when something else is happening around. Holistic approach is equally important. We need to ensure that we encourage, impart good values and ethics to our children continuously. I encourage every educator not to let anyone rob you of your joy of teaching because our efforts are shaping and impacting the future.
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DR MANJULA POOJA SHROFF
RAGHAV PODAR
MD & CEO Kalorex Group
Chairman Podar Education
ABHA MEGHE
The dominant education culture in our country and many of the south-asian countries have become about testing, grades, scores based on how well you memorise. It’s a memory retention tests. Is that the skills students are going to need? The world economy is not going to reward on the basis of how much you know but on the basis of what you can do.
ROSHAN GANDHI FOROUHI
Director Meghe Group of Schools
Director of Strategy City Montessori School
We should have an ecosystem and work in a synchronised manner. We should not be afraid of anybody, we should have a proper communication, and we should have an involvement of every factor in the system. We (schools) are preparing the generation. We should involve parents in the school activities to have the transparency to maintain the ecosystem of the school.
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CONFERENCE REPORT
Education as we all know today is completely in transition. The kind of education we were providing two decades ago is no longer relevant. The kind of relationships we shared, the element of trust we shared with the parents and students is no longer existent. We have to reengineer and regrow and somehow come on tops of it. I think, conferences like this are a great place to learn because learning is no longer sequential, it is lateral.
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One common thing a lot of schools in India and abroad are doing is linking the whole concept of performance related pay not based on the results of students but the way the teachers involve themselves in professional development, the enthusiasm they show to develop and implement new practices. Human resources are managed in terms of how they proceed.
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INDUSTRY PRESENTATION VANDANA VARANJANI CONFERENCE REPORT
The Ultimate Knowledge
We know that children are full of curious questions. They are inquisitive in learning to know whys and whens they have in their in mind. But what happens if their questions are unanswered. Ultimate Knowledge is a dynamic knowledge portal for students where we are creating a need for general awareness and general knowledge for the students.
SANDEEP SOLANKI CEO Edulift Solution Pvt Ltd
We need to understand the brain language of each student. It would be challenging for us to find out how students understand or if he or she is left or right dominant, which is a proven scientific theory that students are dominated by either of the brains. Left brain says words, numbers, lines, lists, analysis and right brain says rhymes, colors, shapes, imagination and day-dreaming. Mind Maps, which we have created, consists of all these languages in one page.
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DR WISHWAS JULKA President Unyde Systems Pvt Ltd
We provide schools a preventive solution. We try to bridge the existing gap between the real world and the digital world by the use of technology which are censors, software to put it into operation in various industries as well as schools.
JITU THOMAS
Senior Manager Business Development, Entab Infotech Pvt Ltd We are an 18-year-old company associated with more than 1,000 top schools across India. We provide school management systems divided into two parts: School ERP module and the communication tools, which help in enhancing leadership skills.
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SESSION: COLLABORATIVE APPROACHES FOR REDESIGNING OF SCHOOLS; HOW CAN SCHOOLS WORK WITH OTHERS FOR DESIGNING TOMORROW’S SCHOOLS
MADHVI CHANDRA
ANAMIKA ANJARIA Director Rangoli Group of Institutes
We do need to keep changing with the time. Needs of society, industry is changing and bring in a lot more into our education system without losing good things of the system. The four ‘C’s of education — collaboration, creativity, communication and critical thinking — can be developed in students through collaborative activities in the classroom.
It is not only schools that can do 100 per cent for the child as the collaboration of the community and the parents play an equal role. Every three years, the generation is changing and it is important for the teachers to change their teaching-learning process by balancing the tools and technologies available in the market.
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Associate Director Gitanjali Group of Schools, Hyderabad
PANEL DISCUSSION: NURTURING EARLY CHILDHOOD, ENCOURAGING ESTABLISHMENT OF PRESCHOOLS: INNOVATE, INVEST & COLLABORATE
AMOL ARORA
SNEHA RATHORE
Vice Chairman & MD Shemford & Shemrock Group
Vice President New Initiatives, Sanfort Group of Schools
Shemford & Shemrock Group of Schools Fortunately or unfortunately, the preschools are not regulated. We don’t know under which department we are under. That is the reason why we often hear ‘mushrooming of pre schools’ happening which is talked about in a negative connotation.
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Preschool sector has not been regularised in India. The Government authorities have been visiting preschools, Basic Shiksha Adhikari are sending letters, and most of them (preschools) have been asked to shut-down citing commercial reasons. We approached the office of the Basic Shiksha Adhikari instead they responded saying they haven’t sent any such letters.
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PRAHAR ANJARIA
KOPAL MAHESHWARI
Director Rangoli Group of Institutes
Director Little Einsteins
CONFERENCE REPORT
Every department wants to become a father or a mother of preschools. Regularisation of preschools is very essential. Education should not be a profiteering activity. However, In various judgements, it has been mentioned that feasible profit is okay to carry-on future activities. In the next 3-6 months, things are expected to streamline.
I’ve noticed that technology plays a crucial role in the preschool education. The challenge is not to expose technology to the preschool children but the challenge is to teach them what to think not how to think. The base of education cannot be run purely on technology. We should understand the learning style, uniqueness and combination of intelligences of each child.
MUKUL TYAGI
Director ICON Group of Schools The quality of teachers is going down. I don’t see passion of teaching in them. Unlike previous years, there were no such practice to encourage tuition for students.
Panel Discussion: Nurturing Early Childhood, Encouraging Establishment of Preschools: Innovate, Invest & Collaborate
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PANEL DISCUSSION: FUTURE OF BOARDING / INTERNATIONAL SCHOOLS IN INDIA - PLANS AND CHALLENGES
NEETA BALI
JYOTI THYAGRAJAN Director (Development), The RD Schools
Looking at the number of international schools that have grown phenomenally in the last 10 years, we have almost 137 IB (International Baccalaureate®) accredited schools and 430 Cambridge International accredited schools. This growth is essentially parent-driven, looking for flexible curricula acceptable across the globe. In a rapidly changing globalised world, it is obvious we need to move forward and that is what international schools have to offer.
DR JAGRITI GAUTAM
Head of Science Department Meenakshi World School, Gurugram
The first challenge for the international schools is the curriculum itself. Parents ask: How is your curriculum different than CBSE? Would the curriculum you provide help students get admission anywhere in India and overseas? These are the kind of questions that I have to answer to parents who wants to move from the local CBSE system and is still afraid to move, as they don’t know the way forward. Education is the fastest changing scenario in the world.
SUNITA JAI SINGH
National Academic Head Global Indian International School
Recruiting trained teachers is always an issue for an international school. We get qualified ones but not the quality ones. Even if we get them, special training is not there for international curricula. We train them with IB training, however, retaining them for a longer time is a task.
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Director & Principal GD Goenka World School, Gurugram
There is a plethora of options available to parents and students. Parents have the right to choose the best for children. We have to introspect what we are offering to our students. Is it equipping them? Is it something that will make them stand apart. The skills like problem solving, critical thinking, global citizenship, collaboration are the need of the hour today. If we don’t get into competitor analysis, parents definitely will.
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DR SANJAY KUMAR MISHRA Principal Army Public School, Dagshai
CONFERENCE REPORT
Army Public school is a purely boarding school with 90 per cent student’s parents posted in the LOC. Our main priority is that the children admitted in the Army Public School should be able to qualify in the NDA exams.
AMIT SHARMA
Director ICON Group of Schools I am a strong votary of residential education, boarding education, and international boarding schools are providing a wonderful platform of cross-cultural exchange. Education and awareness would bring a difference. I believe, the day is not far when big groups will starting barging into J&K. I assure you that J&K is as safe as Delhi or any part of the country. The only thing is you have to channelise properly.
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CHANDRA SHEKHAR YADAV Deputy Head Kasiga School, Dehradun
I must say, the future of boarding schools is very bright because society is very competitive, challenging and the skills are changing dynamically. Along with reading and writing, communicating effectively, social networking, connecting, risk taking, independent learning, personalised learning, independent decision making are possible when students are given freedom, space and environment.
INDUSTRY PRESENTATION SANJEEV BAJAJ
Director Alba Smart Automation Pvt Ltd There are no background checks for drivers or attendance who ferry our children to-and-from home and school. We have introduced a technology for schools, which monitors the uptime of the systems installed into the bus. It provides all facilities like bus route planning, route optimisation, responsive communication and action and driving behaviour performance.
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EXPERTS SPEAK GURPREET SINGH
ANKUR GUPTA CEO Campusmall
Campusmall is working with the schools and colleges across India to set up an end-to-end uniform and merchandise programme. So from a time a student enters campus to the time they graduate and become lifelong alumni, our intent is to support the uniform and merchandise for the entire ecosystem.
Coming to School Leadership Summit in itself is a big leaning. On such platform where like-minded people gather help us to be familiar with the latest and best practices. Here we also came across that it is very important to impart practical learning along with theoretical learning to students.
CHANDRA SHEKHAR YADAV Deputy Head Kasiga School, Dehradun
CONFERENCE REPORT
Principal Scholars Home International School
DALJEET RANA
Principal The Divine International School While imparting education to students, we treat each one of them as an individual. We remain in touch with parents by sending them details of their wards’ academic progress which help us to make students learn at a good pace.
Across the world, educators are talking about creativity in education and one of the finest things in our school to boost creativity is Design and Technology Lab. In the lab, students with the help of technology are doing 3d printing which I have yet to see in any of the schools across India.
DR JOHN HARRISON Director The Venkateshwar School
School Leadership Summit is a wonderful opportunity for educationists, directors, principals and all the people who are in K-12 education to connect with each other. Moreover, it also help every attendee to know the best practices not only across India but also across the globe.
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K RAGHVENDRA Stemrobo
CONFERENCE REPORT
We are trying to bring STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) related technology to Indian schools. With the help of technology, our vision is to ensure that the students focus on various other aspects of learning along with learning through gadgets.
NIMRAN GREWAL The Ultimate Knowledge
The Ultimate Knowledge (TUK) is an online portal for education to solve the queries of students. The answers to questions are available as per the learning level of students. The portal also helps students to enhance their vocabulary and reading skill.
NEHA SETHI
Director and Founder Impart At impart, we believe that communication forms the core of all relationships and communication is a process which deliberately needs to be taught to the students. SLS is a great platform to meet like-minded people from the field of education.
PRITI SATPUTE
Manager-Marketing and Admissions, and External Relations Coordinator We are one of the oldest IB schools in India. We have been doing the primary and middle education since 1998 and the diploma programme since 2006. We are a school that was started by then Daimler Chrysler now mercedes-benz India Limited.
Magazine Launch (L-R): Kumar Chandan Anand; Dr Ravi Gupta, Editor-in-Chief, digital LEARNING magazine and CEO, Elets Technomedia Pvt Ltd; Dr Manjula Pooja Shroff, MD & CEO, Kalorex Group; Dr MVV Prasada Rao, Director - CTET, JNVST & Misc Exam, CBSE; Ryan Pinto, CEO, Ryan Group of Institutions
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FELICITATION CEREMONY TOP SCHOOLS OF INDIA In recognition of the inspiring works and innovative practices, a few top schools were felicitated during the 6th School Leadership Summit, New Delhi
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Top schools felicitated during the 6th School Leadership Summit, New Delhi
ODM Public School, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
Calcutta International School
Gurukul Baramati, Pune
Mata Jaswant Kaur Memorial School, Badal, Punjab
Army Public School, Birpur
Dwarka International school, New Delhi
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Mussoorie International School, Uttarakhand
Kisan Vidya Prasarak Sanstha, Dhule, Maharashtra
Kasiga School Dehradun, Uttarakhand
Jammu Sanskrit School, Jammu & Kashmir
Mahavir Public School, Sunder Nagar, Himachal Pradesh
Pathshala School, Rajasthan
Army Public School, Lansdowne
Mother’s Public School, Bhubaneshwar, Odisha
Maharana Mewar Public School, Udaipur, Rajasthan
Cambridge International School, Dasuya Punjab
BCM School, Ludhiana
Vibgyor High, Kolhapur, Maharashtra
AP International School, Bathinda Punjab
Delhi Public School
Cambridge International School, Dasuya Punjab
MARCH 2018
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Bal Bharati Public School, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Bunts Sangha’s S. M. Shetty High School and Junior College, Mumbai, Maharashtra
Scholars Home International school, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh
Modern Defence Sr Secondary School, Jaipur, Rajasthan
Seth Anandram Jaipuria School
Ryan International Public School
Sharada Public School, Solapur, Maharashtra
Takshila School-Barnala, Punjab
The Divine International School, Himachal Pradesh
Schools felicitated during the 6th School Leadership Summit, New Delhi
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FELICITATION CEREMONY - TOP SCHOOLS & PRESCHOOLS OF INDIA (UTTAR PRADESH, DELHI, HARYANA & ALL PRESCHOOLS)
Children’s nook Gamdevi
ICON Group Of Schools
The Idiscoveri Preschool
Maple Bear
Aspam Group of Schools
Salwan Montessori School, Gurgaon
Smart kids, Maninagar
Maharaja Agrasain Public School
Makoons Preschool
Klay PREP School & Day Care
Sanfort Group of Schools
Salwan Montessori School, Rajendra Nagar
Little Einsteins
MARCH 2018
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EXPO The EROS Hotel
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social footprints
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Insightful Sessions, Power-Packed Deliberations & Networking Elets School Leadership Summit in New Delhi on 24 February gathered educators, policy makers, industry leaders and key stakeholders for exchange of ideas, best practices and latest trends for innovation in education sector. The summit also had power-packed discussions on key challenges and growth opportunities in the sector.
“A very useful interaction with school leaders occurred at Elets School Leadership Summit. Public-Private partnership rightly emerged as the key to transforming school education in the country. It is in events like this (School Leadership Summit) where solutions emerge.” Anil Swarup
Secretary Department of School Education & Literary, Ministry of Human Resource Development
Dr MVV Prasada Rao Director- CTET JNVST & Misc Exam Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
digitalLearning Magazine Launch
Dr Biswajit Saha, Director-Vocational & Training, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)
SCHOOL PARTNER
KNOWLEDGE PARTNER
An Engrossed Audience
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MEDIA PARTNERS CONFERENCE | AWARDS | EXPO
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Chandan Anand : +91 8860635836 | school@digitallearning.in [ dl.eletsonline.com ] The Largest Portal on Innovation in Education in Asia and the Middle East
LEARNING WITH VODAFONE
As the Head of Vodafone India Foundation, what vision derives your role? What kind of initiatives have you been effecting in the overall ecosystem of the organisation all these years? My vision is to ensure that the power of mobile technology is effectively used to address some of the most pressing challenges that our country faces today. At Vodafone Foundation, we are committed to enable people and technology to drive innovation, disseminate knowledge, and create shared value to improve lives. Currently, our initiatives are clustered around three large thematic areas – equality, access and education – as we believe that these are critical for development of any society. As Vodafone’s reach continues to expand, moving from mobile to connectivity, there are greater opportunities for Vodafone Foundation to harness these advancements for the benefit of society.
What are the initiatives so far undertaken by Vodafone Foundation in India’s education sector? Are your focusing on some specific areas in near future? Vodafone India Foundation is committed to education for all in line with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Our flagship programme on education ‘Learning with Vodafone’ addresses some of the key challenges the sector faces in India, be it poor learning outcomes, school drop-outs due to financial constraints and widening gap between academics and job market. Our initiatives are helping improve education experience for school students, connecting deserving students with available scholarships, and reducing gap between professional education and jobs.
Tell us about some of the steps undertaken by Vodafone India Foundation in supporting the Government of India’s key initiatives, including Startup India, Skill India and Digital India.
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Several of our activities are aligned to Government of India’s key initiatives. For example, college component of our flagship programme on education – Learning with Vodafone - is working on improving employability of young graduates; our programme on financial literacy aims to make 1.3 crore Indians more aware of about managing their finances efficiently through digital means; more than 350 young people received training in skills such as retail, ITES, mobile-repairing etc as part of our pilot programme on skill development.
INDUSTRY INITIATIVE
Our initiatives are helping improve education experience for school students, connecting deserving students with available scholarships, and reducing gap between professional education and jobs, says Sonia Shrivastava, Head, Vodafone India Foundation, in conversation with Dipen Pradhan of Elets News Network (ENN).
How Vodafone India is focussing on providing highquality education to India’s urban poor through mobile technology? How are you addressing the challenges you must be confronting? As you are aware, poor training methodology and lack of innovative content, often leads to drop-out amongst several school students. The problem is even more compound for subjects such as Mathematics and Science especially standards 6 – 8, when level of course curriculum significantly increases. At Vodafone Foundation, as part of our focus on education, we addressed these issues by developing innovative content and an interesting delivering mechanism. While most interventions have provided tools and content to students, there has been limited focus on teachers despite them being central to the education ecosystem. Our programme focuses on enhancing the capacity of the teachers and provides digital content which helps students understand concepts better. The program has made significant contribution in introducing technology in classrooms and empowering teachers with the skills to use technology in combination with participative pedagogies.
What suggestion would you give to aspirants wishing to make a career in your field-of study? Never lose sight of your goal and remember that consistency and perseverance always pays.
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UNIVERSITY INITIATIVE
NURTURING ETHICAL LEADERS THROUGH DIVERSIFIED LEARNING Ashoka University is setting examples of innovation in India, and most programmes that we are creating is cutting-edge for transformation, says Vineet Gupta, Founder and Trustee, Ashoka University, in an interview with Ritika Srivastava of Elets News Network (ENN). What is Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates programme (CMGGA)? Please explain about it.
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CMGGA is a very unique educational programme where students get an opportunity to work on the ground in districts, be able to create an impact and in the process also learn.
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Government of Haryana in collaboration with Ashoka University conducts the CMGGA programme. Under the programme, 22-25 associates are selected to work in each of the districts of the State implementing the Chief Minister’s development programmes. The associates are recruited on full-time basis, get stipend, and work under the supervision of Chief Minister’s office. Ashoka University’s role includes recruitment of associates, conducting and managing the programme, and for tranining and monitoring of the associates. It’s a unique experiential educational programme where students get an opportunity to learn while working at grass root level in districts.
What initiatives have been taken by Ashoka University to deliver the education digitally? We don’t offer programmes in online or digital mode. Till now, most of the programmes are classroom-based. Private universities in India are allowed to offer online programmes after a certain period of time since their inception. Ashoka University supports digital content and education in a big way. Some of our classes are conducted online where faculty from abroad teach our students. EdTech plays a key role in the delivery of lectures at Ashoka University. I think, it will take some time before we start online programmes.
What major policies have been introduced for the overall development of the students of Ashoka University? Ashoka University has a unique model where students are supported through initiatives like an intensive writing centre, entrepreneurship opportunities, lead-
ership, to be a part of research centres for innovation, and opportunities to participate in programme such as CMGGA. Ashoka University is setting an example of innovation in India, and most programmes conducted at university are cutting-edge for transformation.
How is the university focusing on student’s academic growth? I feel, academic standards are defined as per the quality of faculty. We have outstanding scholars in each discipline, Humanities, Social Sciences, Pure and Applied sciences. Our faculty members are from renowned institutes across the world. According to me, theses faculty members have chosen Ashoka University because of research opportunities available here, credentials they take, which are the real testimonies to the academic standards at Ashoka.
What heights do you see Ashoka University scaling in the coming years? Ashoka University is expected to set new benchmarks on many things as firstly, the university has created a new model on how a private university can be set up. A good number of people are involved in establishing the university and our network continues to grow. This spirit of elective philanthropy promotes excellence. Secondly the excellent academic standards, the quality of faculty, the innovation in curriculum, are itself a benchmark. Lastly, the spirit that we imbibe in students, the spirit of wanting to give back to public service and contribution to society, are unique for an educational institution.
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