Interviews

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. 

We are moving towards a hybrid model but in months to come I think gradually the online model will fade away and we’ll switch back to our physical education says Dhaval Gaud, Director Marketing, Operations and Business Development, Parul University, Ahemdabad in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. What is your take on the concept of new normal in education and how you are implementing that in your University? According to me this new normal concept has brought us lot of concepts, online teaching concept is there, online meeting concept is there and now we are doing physical events like this with limited numbers so actually we are moving towards a hybrid model. But as we are anticipating a third wave in the country we are very cautious but if it goes without any third wave then I feel that gradually the schools will open, the markets will open and eventually people will shed off from appearing online, because online doesn’t have that kind of effect, if I have to explain anything we can just wrap it up in 2 minutes but if I’m online I’ll have to speak 20 minutes for the same. So according to me online or virtual mode has a limitation so we should explore the opportunities with the limitations only. But eventually these things are going to unfold and I’m very sure that we’ll see these kinds of events happening more and more and people would love to come back to the way we used to work earlier. What are the benefits of this online or hybrid model of education? This online model is very much successful in remote areas if you exclude the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. If you want to take education to the remote areas, this is one of the fantastic medium. If you want to take education to the working people like work integrated programs or just like many popular platforms like upgrade are coming up so if you want it for working professionals or for people who cannot move, people who want to upgrade their education but are unable to do it because of their one or other responsibilities, this medium is going to be really helpful for them and obviously it has opened another dimension, another horizon which is going to grow in these coming years but with limitations as I mentioned earlier. How did your university adapt to the online mode of education when Covid 19 just hit the world? Our honorable President Dr. Devanshu Patel of Parul University is a very dynamic leader, I still remember last year when this Covid 19 situation came, he drove himself to my home to discuss the matter. We went with the other stakeholders and he arranged a meeting and he implemented to conduct the online exams using a WSE platform and the amount that was being quoted to us he just spent in five minutes and the decision what he took really helped the university. So as a leader Dr. Devanshu sir has done a great job and because of his vision I think Parul University is doing a commendable or an exemplary work and in years to come I feel as a university stakeholder we are taking right decisions and we want all our students to adhere to the hybrid model. We should not forget that practicals require physical presence so the university first started with online approach but currently the university as per the Government norms are conducting both the modes. We are having physical education also and we are having online mode also, so we are moving towards a hybrid model but in months to come I think gradually the online model will fade away and we’ll switch back to our physical education.

There is a continuous need to upgrade the teaching pedagogy says Dr. R.D. Patidar, Vice Chancellor, OP Jindal University, Raigarh in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What are the initiatives under your leadership which your university has taken during the pandemic? OP Jindal University, Raigarh is basically sponsored by Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. Raigarh and the initiatives we have taken during this covid period is that immediately we shifted from offline teaching to online teaching. This was one of the new normal which is adopted across the country and during this covid period the entire sector in India as well as the world was impacted highly and education sector was also on the same plate but we came out stronger, superior and better during this pandemic because of our legacy and robust IT infrastructure and the extensive use of the digital platforms. I would like to tell to the education community that there is a need of more investment in the field of digital platforms, to create the digital infrastructure. There is a need to train the trainers, there is a need to train the faculty members and the faculty should be just like a co-learner. There is a need to completely revamp the assessment system the examination pattern, it should be a continuous evaluation system rather than the end term examination. The important thing is that there is a continuous need to upgrade the teaching pedagogy. The most important thing is that we should use the experiential learning, that is learning by doing and the case-based learning. How to bridge the gap between the industry and academia so that we can make the students industry ready, that should be the aim. What message would you like to give to students specifically during these difficult times? I would like to tell the students that they should not panic, this was not only in our country but the entire world is facing this problem. India has already come out from this problem and hopefully as our Prime Minster said, that we need to make this India as “Atmanirbhar Bharat” and one of the most important pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat is the technology driven ecosystem, we have to create and I think the students, the future leaders of this country can play very important role to make this country one of the self-reliant countries.

Digital education has a future in coming years says Dr. Gajendra Singh, Vice President, ICRI Group, Delhi in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. During the pandemic there has been a huge shift in the mode of teaching and learning, what’s your take on this? Based on my experience, I’m pretty much clear that in coming 10 years’ time you will see digital education is moving ahead, though we are habitual of these normal learning methods but now corona has taught us a lot, that we are going to move into digital era. We are adapting those technologies and of course this digital education has a future in coming years. What according to you are the difference which the students face in online education compared to the physical mode of education? When we are trying to learn in physical environment specially when it comes to practical sessions, those are more interactive. People have more learning environment but when we are talking of digital environment now there are so many ed-tech companies which are coming up and trying to bring such platforms which brings easy environment. Though it will take time because we are still learning, still we are doing practices and still we are yet to learn from this platform. I strongly believe that traditional training was wonderful but gradually you will see that students will be habitual of online platforms and it will save their money, time and it will bring more effectiveness.

Going forward the new normal is going to be blended learning where physical togetherness is going to complement the content and the skill part which could be delivered through the digital mediums says Dr. Kamal Kishore Sharma, Director General, Taxila Business School, Jaipur in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. What’s your take on the new normal education? While the new normal boarders on digitization and blended learning, my firm take is that the learning really happens in a physical environment. So while the new normal will bring in more technologies, more options for the students to learn their skills but there are certain skills in life for example how to analyze, how to understand a behavior in a certain context, interact with people, how to communicate, how to spread across your thought process and argue around it, what you have been able to think in your mind all of that happens during an interaction process and that requires a physical togetherness of students. So, to me the new normal is about a new realization of how important it is to look at this development of the software aspect of students. Now that most of the content is being able to be provided by technology and Google so going forward the new normal is going to be blended learning where physical togetherness is going to complement the content and the skill part which could be delivered through the digital mediums. How did your institution adapt to the online mode of education when the pandemic hit the world? The first thing that was required was to engage the students because each student as well as the faculty and the whole ecosystem was in a state of stress induced by the pandemic and the lockdowns. So, the very first thing that the institution could do was to reach out to the candidates, second was in order to keep the learning process going on we had to bring on technology in order to reach out to the students. So, simultaneously there were lot of options in the zoom, meets, BlueSky and everything that came in. The other part of it one, the local infrastructure of how you could use those web technologies, so we brought in the best of cameras, mics and everything and we created a studio in the college itself where the least of noise interference would happen so that was important. Two, was to create multiple platforms together in that studio so that on one hand while you will be able to show what you want to show as a content, you’ll also be able to interact with the students face to face. So, there were two mediums working on simultaneously. Third, was to get into a faculty development program wherein we had to imbibe everything else that was happening around the world in terms of how to engage students in an online classroom. So, those regular inputs on that front, together these three saw us through the most difficult period during the pandemic. Going forward these things will stay with us, the technology will stay with us, the infrastructure will stay with us but clearly we have been able to identify that digital can only go to a certain extent, that is being talked about as new normal but the importance of physical togetherness and interaction and the values, the human soft skills that you learn from it, there is no other way to do that even in a new normal.

In digital platforms we were able to deliver much more than the physical classroom, says Prof. Dr. Daviender Narang, Director, Jaipuria Institute of Management, Ghaziabad in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. What is your take on the new normal mode of education and how has your Institute implemented the same to impart education during the unprecedented times? Well during the pandemic, to teach the teachers how to use the new platform for teaching, how they should use the tools for creating the content, for delivering the lectures, for engaging the student was very important and on the same side for student also, we trained them, we made them ready for how to use these tools. So, within a very short span of time everybody was on the same platform so that they can learn from each other. We are very happy that in the whole pandemic we didn’t lose any time or any curriculum which we couldn’t deliver. In digital platforms we were able to deliver much more than the physical classroom, so that was our experience so far. How does education events and gatherings like this helps the education fraternity? In the new normal event everyone is talking about the digital transformation, digital content, the tools and about the challenges so there is a deliberation of all the experts and we are learning from each other. While listening to the discussions there was some new experience they shared with new pedagogy which they experienced, which they delivered in their respective universities and institutions, so that is our takeaway. So, by deliberation of all the people, a new knowledge is creating and everybody is getting that knowledge so when they get back to their own places they will implement this and that’s the important thing.

Dr. B. Sendil Kumar, Dean and Director, School of Allied Health Sciences, Vinayaka Mission’s Research Foundation (Deemed to be University) tells about how they transformed education from physical to digital in an interview with Pratik Ghosh, ArdorComm Media Group. How did you transform the education in your university during the pandemic? Covid 19 is a pandemic and nobody expected that it would shut everything and the education sector as well. What we exactly did is that we switch over all the education to digital mode because we had already started with the digital mode with the use of software which is LMS platform (Learning Management System) where everything is through that portal. We had started taking that online mode to all the students because already we were trying the faculties and students to get into that, through Microsoft Teams we have started doing that. Apart from that we have asked our students to take up courses like Coursera, edX where they can take up courses which is available in the curriculum. So, by the time students start writing their examination, we have incorporated that in our curriculum so everything is settled properly. How does this kind of conferences and education summits help the entire education fraternity? This is a platform where you can meet all the eminent persons and get to know their thoughts and views. Since this is a Covid 19 pandemic so you get to know the information like how other universities and institutions are taking up the challenges and how they are implementing all these things. It’s a good event where we can learn a lot of things, so the takeaways are like we can take a lot of information and we can implement them in our institutions so it’s a great opportunity actually.

It is important that they learn how to learn, so we are working in that direction says Prof. (Dr.) Vikas Singh, Vice Chancellor, ITM University Raipur in an interview with Chandan Anand, Founding Editor, ArdorComm Media Group. What does the word new normal stands for you? As we both are acquainted for such a long period, we have participated in the events together before the pandemic as well, it was a pre-pandemic normal and now we have different settings all together. Before the pandemic only 3% of education was online and during pandemic all 100% higher education is online. All thousand plus universities, 50,000 institutions, 25 lakh teachers, they have all started using online as the learning platform. Now we are not going to go back to those 3% levels, we are going to stick somewhere in between, this is the new normal now. Students have been exposed to some of the best teachers I would say, not only the teachers of their own universities and institutions, they are been exposed to some of the international teachers, they have done lots of courses on Coursera, Udemy, edX so that exposure has built their personality now and this is going to bring a challenge to higher education leaders like me that our teachers should also be trained, motivated and they should be geared up to face those challenges and be as inspiring as those international professors and teachers so this is the new normal, challenges are going to be many but I’m quite confident that Indian higher education system is going to lead from the front. I would also say that Indian higher education system also has proved its metal, as on today more than 50 International MNCs, large MNCs of fortune 500, they are headed by Indian students, students from Indian institutions, it can be IITs, IIMs it can be Manipal. So Indian students are already leading world class organizations in overseas. So, we have proved the metal in this new normal also, Indian higher education system is going to excel I’m very much confident about that. Under your regime and leadership what is the vision of ITM going to be like? In ITM University we are focused on two aspects, first aspect is that we want to work on the learning skills, learning abilities of our students. What I believe you can make them employable once, but once they have joined an organization in two years or three years’ time that learning is going to become obsolete. So, the learning ability is very important, it is important that they learn how to learn, so we are working in that direction. Second is that we are trying to make the classroom teaching learning process very outcome based oriented. So, we are actually following outcome-based education at our campus. All small activities, the way we engage students, the way teachers inspire the students, this is something you must come to see and believe it. Our faculty members are putting a lot of efforts in that direction so outcome-based education is going to be our forte, inspiring and engaging the students is going to be our forte and in that direction my university is taking efforts. How does such kind of gathering, education events or a networking platform helps overall education fraternity and academicians? It almost two years now since we have met physically in these kinds of events, this is something which is very essential. We have been interacting online, we have been interacting on digital platforms but still meeting one to one, face to face, holding hands together, shaking hands, so that gives a different dimension to the networking so this is very essential and I’m very happy that you have invited some of the leading higher education leaders here and you are giving a platform to all of us to interact with each other and to interact with these new age education technology companies, they are showcasing their software, products and I’m very happy to learn about these new developments.