Interviews

“Skilling will be part of their education so it will be a pre-placement opportunity to be given to the students so that they should be industry ready while coming out, that’s the ultimate aim,” says Dr. M. Jayaprakasan (I.S.D.S), CEO, Naan Mudhalvan Skill Initiative, TNSDC, Govt. of India in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu We would like to understand an initiative under your leadership which has been taken by the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation. Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation first started in the country in 2009. We have several initiatives aimed at skill development. The first one is a short-term training program with a job linkage. The second one is the recognition of prior learning, where we assess and certify individuals who already have the required skills. The third one is the promotion of traditional craft, clusters and traditional jobs with the support scheme called “SANKALP,” which stands for Skill and Knowledge Acquisition for Livelihood Promotion. Lastly, our mission project called “Naan Mudhalvan” focuses on Skilling for all, where students gain skills alongside their education to be industry-ready upon completion. So, Skilling will be part of their education so it will be a pre-placement opportunity to be given to the students so that they should be industry ready while coming out that’s the ultimate aim. Annually, our target is to skill 10 lakhs (1 million) people, and within a year, we have already crossed 13 lakhs (1.3 million). We are expanding to ITIs (Industrial Training Institutes) and polytechnics soon and plan to extend to schools as well. Do you also partner with EdTech companies or how does that collaboration happen which ultimately is for the benefit of academia? When it comes to involving Skilling, we need industrial expertise since our faculties are yet to be trained on the new technologies. Faculty development plays a key role, and we involve industries that require the specific skills. For example, Cisco offers CCNA training, and Autodesk offers manufacturing software. We engage these industry partners and training partners at the ground level to offer training to our faculty and students. We also collaborate with companies like Siemens, Microsoft, and others for English communication and assessment. We aim to interact with global partners to provide recognition and confidence to our students. These collaborations and training programs are provided at no cost, as the government invests in faculty training and provides funding to industries. Ultimately, we want to transform Tamil Nadu into the skill capital of India. We not only focus on skilling but also on the outcome, which is employment. Under the Naan Mudhalvan scheme, we enable placements for students who have undergone training. We have created a skill registry where industries can search for trained candidates. The registry allows industries to access profiles of candidates based on district, sector, college, and specific skills. This way, industries can easily recruit suitable candidates. We also facilitate industry-college interactions and assist industries in recruitment, bridging the gap between industry and academia. You witnessed this event, we have an amalgamation of corporate, EdTech companies, academia as well as the Government. How does such a forum help the community at large? Such a forum enables interaction, experience sharing, knowledge exchange, and networking among various sectors, including corporates, edtech companies, academia, and the government. It allows each participant to learn from one another and stay informed about developments in different sectors. Networking plays a significant role as it provides opportunities for collaboration and upskilling. These types of events are wonderful opportunities to explore, learn, and upskill ourselves. ArdorComm Media is just a 20-month-old media startup. How was your experience, and what message would you like to give to ArdorComm Media? Thank you so much for arranging this wonderful event, connecting educationalists, industries, and academicians in a single platform where everyone can share their experiences. We would like to work together with the Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation and explore future collaborations through these type of programs in future to create awareness among students, industries, institutions, and education.  

“If a student has skill development, they will have an advantage in the job market and can secure employment more easily,” says Dr. Hitesh Joshi, Director of Bhagwan Mahavir University in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling to witness this new normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards? It’s good and very fabulous first time I came in Chennai and I’ve seen your conference. It’s very good, I learned so many things from South India. Basically, I am from North India and we have so much backward in education and background in compared to South India. Today I learned so many things from South Indian people. Thank you, ArdorComm Media, for providing me this opportunity to come here. How are you implementing technology in your institution? Basically, we focus on employment skill development, so we implement ERP processes and SAP processes. We also offer various employment and technical courses such as passion care management, sanitary inspectors, and many more. These courses are embedded in our universities. As you can see in this kind of forums where we bring in the education leaders, the EdTech players, as well as the ministry, the government, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector at large? I think this is so much beneficial. Usually, we do not know about the current scenario in education or what will be the future aspects in higher education. But in this conference, there are so many vice chancellors and founders who have a wealth of knowledge and skills. Many of them have frequently visited the USA and UK, learning from their experiences and implementing them here. It’s highly effective for us. How does skill development play a role in this current era of education? Skill development plays a crucial role in the current era of education. The government, under Modi, has emphasized the importance of skill development. If a student has skill development, they will have an advantage in the job market and can secure employment more easily. Lastly, any message you want to share for ArdorComm Media Group? ArdorComm Media Group is doing a fantastic job. It’s my pleasure to join this conference, and I hope to participate in many more conferences in the future.

“Digitalization is here to stay, but we are aiming for a hybrid model that combines online and offline teaching,” says Dr. L. Mahesh Kumar, Registrar of St. Peter’s Institute of Higher Education and Research in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling about witnessing The New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Chennai? I’ve been here since morning, and it’s been great. I’ve been experiencing both the panels here as well as the upstairs events, and they have all been very good. The event is well planned and neatly organized. What does innovation in education stand for according to you? In my opinion, innovation in education is a constant necessity. Throughout my 35 years of working in the field, I have witnessed continuous innovation, and especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, innovation has made a significant difference. Teaching itself has become completely innovative, and the way we think, conduct exams, and hold classes has changed. Innovation is here to stay and will continue to happen in the future. How are you implementing technology in your institutions? Thanks to COVID-19, Learning Management Systems (LMS) have become a vital function for all institutions, not just ours. Every student now understands the importance of LMS. However, there are some drawbacks. During online exams, we faced issues where some students were unable to upload their answer papers due to connectivity problems. These issues will gradually improve as we work on resolving them. Digitalization is here to stay, but we are aiming for a hybrid model that combines online and offline teaching. We use online classes for teaching, assignments, and tests, which has made certain aspects easier. As we can see, in forums like this, education leaders, corporates, and government representatives come together. How does this kind of forum benefit the education sector at large? Such forums are essential for anyone involved in the education sector. Interacting with industry professionals and government representatives allows us to understand their perspectives and the directions they are heading in. If we stay confined within our institutions, we may miss out on what is happening outside. These programs provide fruitful experiences where we can meet old friends and make new connections. Conferences like these are important for keeping up with the latest developments. Lastly, do you have any message you would like to give to the ArdorComm Media Group? I am very happy with the way you have conducted this event. Now, it is important to think about how you can utilize the network you have created for the benefit of the education community. Take note of the discussions, decisions, and ideas that have been shared here. Find ways for ArdorComm Media Group to address some of the issues and challenges discussed. This is the next level you should strive for.Top of Form

“This approach removes the fear of examinations from children’s minds, which is a boon for the learning system,” says Dr. D. Senthilkumar, Principal of T I Matriculation Higher Secondary School in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling to witness this new normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Chennai? This has been an excellent experience for me because this is not the first time I’m attending a program conducted by ArdorComm. A similar kind of program was conducted by them in Delhi, Gurugram, and this is my second time participating. I also participated in their online sessions. It’s quite exciting to be a part of this program because of the quality of the speakers and the harmonious group that brings a lot of valuable insights. Every time I attend this program, I try to implement something at school. It’s really exciting, informative, and productive too. What’s your understanding of the National Education Policy (NEP) and how are you implementing it in your school? The National Education Policy 2020 has been passed by Parliament and is anticipated to be implemented from the next academic year. The crux of the policy is reflective thinking and learning for children. It emphasizes self-evaluation by students, evaluation by peers, parents, and teachers. The aim is to provide a comprehensive evaluation report, a holistic progress card, without scores or grades. This approach removes the fear of examinations from children’s minds, which is a boon for the learning system. The outcome will be confident children who can enter the workforce without difficulty. Gradually, these children will contribute to the Indian community on a national and international level. How do forums like this, which bring together education leaders, EdTech players, and the government, help the education sector? Our institution has shifted from a state board curriculum to CBSE. We need to embrace technology in the curriculum to enhance the learning process. The traditional chalk and teach method where teachers dominated the classroom is outdated. It’s important for teachers, students, and everyone to sit together and discuss various topics. Technology helps children with visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learning. Multiple intelligences need to be addressed so that children can learn better. This empowers both teachers and students. Collaboration between technology industries and education is crucial for an effective learning process at the national level. What message do you want to give to ArdorComm Media Group? ArdorComm Media has been doing a wonderful job in the education sector. It’s an empowerment for all the leaders and trustees of educational institutions. Being a part of this organization and participating in programs like this empowers and enhances the quality of institutions. It’s a great opportunity for the Indian education system to scale up and make its mark at the international level.

“We have been doing quite a bit a lot on the employment of the latest technology, state-of-the-technology in the field of Education,” says Dr. Chadaram Sivaji, Vice Chancellor of Saveetha Institute of Medical & Technical Sciences in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling to witness the New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Chennai? I think this is a wonderful activity organized by ArdorComm Media. I think this is really a need of the hour. We could meet many important people here, and also this is a kind of dialogue among the disciplines and across the institutions. There are several Edu companies that have joined hands with ArdorComm, and also many industrial educational partners have come. I had the opportunity to visit some of the stalls of the Edu companies, and they are doing a really wonderful job. The main conference is also going on very well, and the eminent speakers we had completed the inaugural session as well as the Honourable Minister of Education Government of Tamil Nadu also came. The message is given by the eminent speakers as of now are really take-home messages and it will be very, very useful for the educational institutions as well as students and faculty and Edu companies also. How are you implementing technology in your institutions if you could highlight? Actually, we have been doing quite a bit a lot on the employment of the latest technology, state-of-the-technology in the field of Education. We have several of that we are not only limited to teaching the theoretical aspects or the text book knowledge but also imparting the practical knowledge also as many speakers have narrated. We have a wonderful unique teaching mechanism called the clap classroom plus elaborated together. So, in the same room, we have the theoretical knowledge sharing by the faculty, and at the same time, we expose the students to the practical exposures of the same thing what is being taught. That’s the uniqueness of our University. How does this kind of forum benefit the education sector at large? These forums, basically, we need to have collaborations across the disciplines and as well as across the institutions. Such are the platforms where we can meet and get to know each other, what other people are doing, so that is very important for the promotion of the educational sector particularly so the teaching methodology is research activities are not the same as one university from another university differs actually. One can learn, and one can share their experiences so that it’s a continuous learning process where education is such a wonderful field. It is actually transforming day by day, year by year, we are improving and India has a huge potential because we have a large number of universities and undergraduate education institutions also have great potential for sharing experiences in this particular field of Education sector. ArdorComm Media as a media start-up started in 2021 and we are close to completing two years of our existence? What message do you want to share for ArdorComm Media Group? I think what you people need to do is keep organizing this kind of activity. This is for sure you will be doing and also connect to the undergraduate colleges in the beginning, of course, you target higher educational institutions and universities also but where the most of the learnings you have to inculcate at the college level. Even high school level also that is where you have to target then if you go on targeting such kind of medium-level sector of educational institutions, then that will be fantastically useful for them in addition to the higher educational institutions. That is the message I can give. I think even now two three years old ArdorComm is also doing very well, and I saw a lot of ads on LinkedIn and other platforms. You people are doing nicely, and still, there is further scope for improvements. Top of Form  

“The initiatives that we have taken is based on our honourable Chief Minister’s guidance, and almost like throughout India, we are doing on a kind of CM flagship program, which is education at the doorstep,” says Thiru Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, Hon’ble School Education Minister, Govt. of Tamil Nadu in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu We are glad and honoured to have you at this event. Yeah, I’m very happy to be part of this event and first of all, I would like to thank Chandan and also Uma Kannan Madam for inviting me for a very good initiative that you have taken. Digitally I think you are managing with some of the employees throughout India. It seems like a good start, and I think you should reach great heights in this one. So, my wishes for you. Can you mention three or four special initiatives which, under your leadership, you have taken in Tamil Nadu, which could be an eye-opener and an example for the rest of the states? Yes, what are the initiatives that we have taken is based on our honourable Chief Minister’s guidance, and almost like throughout India, we are doing on a kind of CM flagship program, which is education at the doorstep. After two years of pandemic situation, students forget how to write, how to read the sentence and everything, and even the basics of reading they forgot. So, now we are just taking all the students, and also, this is one of the iconic, and even Jay Palan from Santiago Universities, they have given appreciation not only here, even in the United Nations, in the topic of education, they praised about our Tamil Nadu’s education doorstep scheme. So, that is one of the pride, not only for Tamil Nadu, this is for India. And the second one is, we are focusing more on the students’ drop percent. Like last year alone, almost one lakh and eighty-eight thousand students who are all went on the drop boards, we again searched them through an app, and we return them back to the education system. So, these are the things like I would like to say. We are just waiting for the results to come, any message would you like to give to the students? You should have self-confidence because honourable Chief Minister like now, he has introduced a Naan Mudhalvan system, and I used to say in all the school functions, like each and every student based on their talent, a chat is waiting for them in the world. So, have the self-confidence. Top of Form  

“It was a huge challenge for us to start an English medium school with moral values at that location,” says Dr. Irfan Mustaqim, Principal, Tarbiyah Cambridge International School in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling to witness this new normal education Leadership Summit on Awards in Chennai? Yeah, it’s been a great experience for me and for many other educators as well. The panel is discussing new things and putting forward new ideas. We have learned many things today. It’s been a fantastic experience. Tell us something about your institution and how it is adapting to technology? We started this institution in 2014 in a rural place in West Bengal, about 350 kilometres away from Kolkata. It was a huge challenge for us to start an English medium school with moral values at that location. Initially, we struggled a lot to make the parents understand the system of modern education. Now things are going a little bit easier, but post-COVID, we are facing different issues, such as students being addicted to technology. This issue is being addressed by the panellists very well, but what we need to focus more on is how to handle these kids who have been addicted to technology. We seriously need to work on this. Parents are asking us not to send homework on their WhatsApp because they will get the phone and spend time on the device. We need to address how to recover from this. School level, at a ground level, we need to take care of this. We need to address this particular issue. That is what we are facing. As you can see, in this kind of forum where we bring in the education leaders, EdTech companies, as well as the government, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector? This is New India, digital India, what I believe. If I talk about five years down the line before or before covid, there was a system that we used to search YouTube and we get materials but this was not very common, now it has been very common. So, things are very accessible on the social medias.  These kinds of platforms will definitely help educators, academicians, and the coming generation seeking jobs. This is a need of power actually. As a media start-up, we began in 2021, and in a few months, we will be completing two years of our existence. Any message for ArdorComm Media Group? You have to come up and support the digital India mission of our nation because we have to serve the nation in the interest of the nation. This is a need of hour actually because you have to come up as media centres and support the educators and all the sectors possible so that we can grow together. As we say if we stand together, we’ll grow; otherwise, we’ll fall together.

“You can say the techniques or the methods which we implement over here, it took a decade to come over there, which I have practically felt,” says Dr. Sushila Chaudhary, Principal of Bhagwan Mahavir International School in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling to witness The New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Chennai? I was very curious to learn new things, so you can say all along from Surat, Gujarat we have come over here, and I have attended many more conferences. I was looking forward to taking a new intake which I can implement in our school. So, that was the main reason why I have come over here. I love to attend these Edu conferences so that these learnings can create one change in the life of the children, those students who are in the north and they can’t come over here to study. So, education over South, as you know, is very, very good. You can say the techniques or the methods which we implement over here, it took a decade to come over there, which I have practically felt. I was teaching in Bangalore, and currently, now, I am in Surat. I have observed that the learning which we had in Bangalore and in Surat, it is implemented now. So, that was the main reason. I don’t want any child to be left behind in terms of education, the learnings, and all that. So, that was the main reason for me to attend the conference. What’s your take on the blended education or the hybrid education? Some students are very shy to speak up in the classroom, but due to this flipped classroom, that barrier has been gone, and now, students, they come up and take the place of the teacher, and the teacher takes their place. It is a drastic change. The confidence level of the students has changed a lot, and the same thing for blended learning and hybrid learning, which we have through Corona only we have seen. And it is a must because only classroom learning or teaching through chalk and book, we can’t make a holistic learning. So, that is why these things need to be included in education. As you can see, in this kind of forums, we try to bring in the education leaders, the EdTech players, as well as the government. So, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector according to you? We come across with many leaders and when we talk with them about their schools, their learning, about what methods they are implementing, what is their vision, what is our vision, so that is an exchange of ideas which is helpful to all the leaders who have attended here. It is not that we have just come to attend the conference. It is learning for a leader that guess what good we can take it from here and what good we can do it for us. ArdorComm Media is a media start up, we initiated in 2021, and in few months, we will be completing two years of our existence. So, any message you want to give to ArdorComm Media Group? First of all, I would like to congratulate, and this is the first time I’ve heard about it, and after connecting with it, I would like to be connected in the future, and whatever conferences or events you will be doing, I will be the first person to register in it. So, wish you a very good luck, and you are doing a great thing that connecting all the leaders, and it is a great thing for the students also.

“Before asking a question or some interactive item, the teacher needs to feed the content to the students’ brain,” says Arunkumar G, Director and Founder, Newton’s Apple Public School in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, Content Writer, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2023’ #ELSAChennai #ELSATamilNadu How are you feeling to witness The New Normal Education Leadership Summit and Awards in Chennai? Yeah, I enjoyed a lot and from other speakers, got some input as well. It is very useful, and this kind of summits need to happen at least really once. Can you tell about your institution, how you are implementing technology in terms of educational pedagogy? Let me introduce my institution. It is Newton’s Apple Public School situated in Malayanur near Dharmapuri. We follow Chrysalis, and we are using it. Now we are kind of looking for new platforms, basically. So that’s one of the reasons I came for this summit and visited all the stalls and pretty useful. We’ll discuss with the board members and design here. What’s your take on the Blended Education concept and the flipped classroom model which is coming up? Blended education is nothing but you will have both offline and online. So, you will have an offline classroom that will stay, but, end of the day, teacher can give an online access course or online material which students can use. So, that too, kind of, the teacher might, if possible, they can give some personalized content for students, but it’s not the must. But they can give some online materials to continue the learning at home. That is Blended Education. Flipped education is kind of you are giving some content pre-content right, it may be full content or whatever right to the student and next day classroom, students will come prepared. Okay, prepared or they know what is going to get taught. So, the main advantage of flipped learning is that classroom time is in-person time. That is very crucial, and we need to use the most out of it. Mostly, it should be spent for interaction. So, teachers should not be spending time to teach something or some content. So, before asking a question or some interactive item, the teacher needs to feed the content to the students’ brain. So, they will be spending most of the time for that. So, the actual interaction or participation or collaboration, that is very less usually, but this flipped education enables that. Teachers can spend more time on this, so that’s a very advantage. That’s why when the moderator asked me if you become an Education Minister, what do you do? I will Implement flipped education, so we’ll enable them. As you can see in this kind of forums where we bring in the education Leaders, the EdTech players as well as the government. So, how does this kind of forum benefit the education sector? Yeah, the first thing is you will get to know the latest trends, what’s happening in our school. So, usually, schools operate in isolation, and there is less collaboration opportunity for collaboration is very less. So, these kinds of summits enable them to collaborate with others, and they will get to know the latest trend and technology whatever available. And participation from the government also enables us to kind of they will also understand what is the trend going on. What message do you want to share to ArdorComm Media Group? Yeah, it’s a nice preparation. I would say it’s perfect, and well-organized, and will expect more Summits like this at least early once.

“We are working in video engineering and there are a lot of concepts related to videos that we are coming up with,” says Deepak Joshi, CEO, Phando in an interview with Chandan Anand, CEO & Group Editor, ArdorComm Media Group at the ‘ArdorComm New Normal – Education Leadership Summit & Awards 2022’ #ELSAJaipur #ELSARajasthan Would like to understand more about Phando, your mission, vision and what you are doing at Phando? We started Phando in 2013 as a video streaming technology platform and with a vision that we wanted to provide a cost optimized video solution for all the EdTech, OTT and media industry. We started with a lot of media houses, we’re working with hundred plus media houses and cable TV operators, ISPs, broadcasters. So, I think it’s been a great journey in the past 10 years especially after pandemic there was a surge in OTT and IPTVs so we are tapping that industry as well. I think it’s going well and the future is good for video. We saw some good initiatives here related to videos and EdTech industries is also going towards video-led learnings now. I mean earlier it was more of texts-based learning, quiz assessments but now we see that Coursera, Udemy, UpGrad a lot of EdTech platforms are coming with the vision of video-led learnings, so video is definitely the future and that’s why we are working in video engineering and there are a lot of concepts related to videos that we are coming up with. Do you also provide training to the people who will be buying this or implementing this in the curriculum? No, we are not an EdTech platform we are a back-end technology partner of any EdTech. So, we help universities, schools to set up their own EdTech. As we have all gathered at New Normal Education Leadership Summit, according to you what is the word New Normal stands for? We are hearing this word a lot after pandemic when kids started coming to school in April 2022 we had fear with our kids also that whether this is going to work what will happen uh in a post-pandemic the covid situation and all but I think we are picking up fast and it’s been a great transformation after pandemic they are a blend of offline and online learning now and earlier they were just on physical education and all this but now they are very well comfortable with laptops and online learnings as well. So, I think the new normal is going to be a hybrid model of offline and online learning and that’s what it is. I think for me New Normal is the hybrid model. During pandemic definitely the hybrid or the blended learning was much adopted, are you seeing the same growth post pandemic? Yes, definitely we see a surge, the number says itself there are a lot of surge in the user consumption. We saw a lot of EdTech, Byjus and other they’re growing rapidly and that’s because of this online learning space and also the penetration of Internet is booming, 5G is coming, there are AR, VR possibilities. There are new things coming up with metaverse also things will move faster because it will feel the students that they are there itself. So, of course I see a lot of potential there and it’s growing. How does certain kind of forum help when we see the technology partners, start-ups, EdTech, academia and even the government at the common platform, so how do you experience this event as? This is always helpful, whatever we are doing we are doing that but we also learn a lot with other start-ups, other people from the same fraternity and when we hear principles and educators and EdTech owners so we come to know what’s going on actually in the grassroot. We’re from Delhi and generally we hear a lot from Delhi people but then when we are talking about so for example Jaipur or any regional places it’s very helpful because we probably do not know what’s going on there in tier three, tier four cities so that it’s very important and of course the other companies also, so we learn a lot and I’ve seen multiple solutions here also. I’m glad to share that recently ArdorComm Media celebrated it’s one and a half years and we celebrated our anniversary doing multiple forums, webinars, events, any message or any advice for ArdorComm Media Group? Congratulations, I’ve been following you for the past one year, Ashish was in touch also so we saw you did some fantastic events and Ashish was chasing us and because Jaipur was nearby so we thought that let’s participate this time, but amazing coordination and everything was superb. So, congratulations for all this and I wish you all the best for your future.