2021

Because of putting so much of hard work during the first three months, now we are seeing the benefits of it said Kanak Gupta, Director, Seth MR Jaipuria Schools, Delhi in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What does the word new normal stand for you? New normal for me essentially mean that we are going to move ahead with hybrid learning whereby there is going to be a good mix of online as well as in-person learning. For that there is going to be pedagogical improvements happening and there’ll be more collaborations happening across schools, across education leaders that’s what I feel as a new normal. When the pandemic hit and we were imagining how to sail off, how did you think of the teacher training, lecture delivery and sailed off? As an educator and as a leader you have to be predictive and this is very important. I’m glad that we were and we started working on it very early. If you went by the general sentiment everyone thought that in two weeks this pandemic is going to be over and in three weeks we are going to be back in our offices and schools. So, we were fairly early on this, we were running smoothly, now we have 37 schools in tier one and tier two cities so we are well versed with supporting the schools with technology. It took a lot of overnight efforts by the team to put everything together and we ranked ourselves. We said that till the school becomes better equipped we are going to do everything to achieve it and that helped. We created lesson plans we created videos, assessments and everything. First three months because we were putting so much of hard work, now we are seeing the benefits of it, where our teachers are well equipped and the schools are running wonderfully. As we can see that the clouds are clearing now and there is a mandate that there’s an opportunity for the schools to reopen, so how are you prepared? We are following all government norms, I think that very important. We follow very simple premise of SMS, social distancing, mask and sanitization. We are making sure that students are made aware of it. We also understand that students will have anxiety, introverted, we understand they might have forgotten writing, they are not used to sitting and like that but we are paying attention to that. We have tied up with hospitals, we ensure that all covid norms are followed and we are waiting for government to give us more guidance and we are looking forward. How does this kind of gathering and knowledge sharing platform help the overall education fraternity? I think its great and I have been bubbling like a small child all over the places since the morning that I’m so happy to see all our friends from the education fraternity and I think its important that its sending across a message not just to the fraternity but also to all stakeholders, be the parents, be the teachers, be the children that we are back in person and probable hybrid because you know if the third wave comes, I think we are ready. No matter what happens, learning will not stop, India is going to progress. You being in the top leadership team of one of the finest brands of schools, any message to the students from you? My message to the students is that, yes there is a lot of negativity with covid and we feel very apprehensive.  But always remember communication, compassion, keeping calm and keeping clean can help you get sail through all of these. Keep yourselves safe, study hard and don’t worry about only content, think about what you want to do. The world is your oyster go ahead and paint your pictures and you are going to do well in life.

On 20th it was announced and on 26th we were with full setup for giving education and getting connected with our students says Anita Gupta, Principal, Raman Munjal Vidya Mandir in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What does the word new normal stands for you? Actually, the word new normal is nothing new, it is what you can say breathing differently in a setup where earlier we have forgotten about how life is with the family or with everyone. So now being in this pandemic situation it has shown us the life differently from different angles, being with the family members not within the same circumstances and premises but also actually going beyond. Beyond reaching to the parents of our students and understanding them and their understanding of ours in this setup. So, in that way I consider new normal is as the blessing in disguise.  Under your leadership how your school is growing and what is the vision you are looking forward post pandemic? I think we are already in post pandemic stage because when it came last year as a shock, so though it was only for a while you can say because on 20th it was announced and on 26th we were with full setup for giving education and getting connected with our students. For me and specially for our school the vision is getting connected with our students, with our stakeholders in such a manner which breaks all the barriers, i.e. logical, emotional, reasonable, and whatever help they need. So, we should be available to all of them and that is what we work into 24/7. Any initiative which your school has taken in the teacher training aspects? Yes, our management believes in skilling our teachers since the beginning of its setup in 1992. As it’s a rural development project so our students are from a setup, like from the cities and they are skilled, they are highly qualified and whatever is needed on day to day basis or whatever is coming up new, our management gives the training or appoints such kind of agencies which can train our teachers in the latest perspective. So, our teachers are getting the trainings from the private corporates or from CBSE and from whatever is possible. They enthusiastically do it and implement the same in the school. How does such kind of event where we have the representation from the government and the private association of the schools and a knowledge sharing platform helps the academicians and the education fraternity? It’s actually wonderful because unless and until we leave our own boundaries and we don’t connect with such kind of events then the gap cannot be bridged which is there into K-12 and the higher education system and the industries because each sector has to work together. It is after all the children, they are the leaders for the future, so we have to work together and for that these kinds of events are very important, bringing us together, sharing our vision and finding out that gaps and then brainstorming the different ideas to overcome whatever problems the schools are facing.