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We could not think that a three-year-old could probably learn from a screen says Sneha Rathor, CEO, Sanfort Group of Schools in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. How do you perceive the word new normal as? I think off course after the pandemic new normal is going to be, like we talk about blended learning, talk about bringing more innovation in the classroom and we talk about that the learning would never stop no matter what comes our way in the future. Earlier we used to always say that technology is going to come in the classroom but we as human beings were not able to adapt to it but thanks to covid because of which all of us were forced to adapt the technology and finally full fledgedly every teacher and every child is now very much a technology prone person and that’s going to be the future of education, that’s going to be a new way for learning which is going to make the children great leaders also and great innovators also. As you are seeing that the situation was not favorable especially for the pre-schools and the schools during this time, under your leadership how did you took this as a challenge and sailed off? When the pandemic hit, just like anybody else we were also taken aback because in K-12s we were of course very prompt to start classes because the teachers were technology prone and the children were also able to adapt technology. But specially for the preschoolers, for the younger kind it was a big challenge for us how to continue the education. We could not think that a three-year-old could probably learn from a screen, but yes as a brand as a leading brand of India, Sanfort took this courage of putting everything online so probably within 20 days we made all our pre-schools around India to online mode. We had our own app, we had also recorded the sessions so that children who are not able to attend classes due to their parent’s busy schedule, they can see the recorded sessions also. So, in whatever way that we could go online we tried everything and it turned out to be really well, I’m really proud that the parents really appreciated the school’s effort.

My vision is to educate each and every child and empower children with the right skill so that they would be employable after completing their education says Dr. S. K. Rathore, Founder, Chairman & MD Sanfort Group of Schools in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What does the word new normal stands for you? For me, new normal is we need to do each and every thing now physically by following all the covid protocols. Under your leadership how is your group of schools growing, what is the vision statement and post pandemic how are you prepared for this? The journey of Santfort rather I can say the foundation of this venture was done more than 21 years back by my wife, Kavita Rathore. I joined her later so I am with her in this venture for more than 11 years now. She was running two schools and I expanded it to more than 250 schools. So, my vision is that every child in the country whether he or she is from the socially week background or from the village or from anywhere, that child has the right for the quality education. My vision is to reach out to those people, reach out to small villages, cities and everywhere. I want to share I have a branch of my school in a very small village, its just 100 km from Delhi itself and I tell you the kind of response we are getting in that school is much higher than the response we are getting from other schools in Delhi. So, peoples in villages are also willing to send their children to good school for good education but they don’t have that opportunity in their neighborhood. So, my vision is to educate each and every child and empower children with the right skill so that they would be employable after completing their education. When people were not moving out and the pre-schools were closing up, any special initiative which Sanfort is taking? I’m happy to share that Sanfort was the first pre-school to start virtual classes. We started our session well on time, 1st week of April 2020, all of my schools started their session on virtual platform. When the pandemic started and lockdown was announced, no pre-school in the country was having that kind of setup to conduct the classes and no teacher in any pre-school were trained to deliver classes on virtual platforms. Hatsoff to all the teachers, not only the teachers of Santfort, teachers of all the schools across the country, across the world who made it possible to deliver quality education to the children sitting at home because of this pandemic. I believe we have been prepared now for any kind of challenge and this everybody has seen all the people in the country can face any challenge whether it is covid or anything else. How does such kind of gathering, physical event help the academicians and educators where we see the government, corporate and education fraternity all together? The difference which is there on the virtual webinars or seminars and conferences is when you invited me on your webinars there was a point to point discussion. There is no out of the window discussion which is happening, so whatever question is asked on the screen we educators or education leaders have to answer that but there a lot of things to share in between out of the window. So, in this kind of events, physical conferences, we people from the different groups sit together and share knowledge, share what we’ve done, what we are planning and that benefits all of us.

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.