Academic Excellence

We have an esteemed educationist with us, Mr. Arvind Mahajan. He’s the Chairman and MD of Spring Dales English School, Kathua. We welcome you to today’s event. Thank you so much. And at the outset, I would like to heartily congratulate you for organizing such a wonderful event which is a platform for networking for all of us. Not only networking, but we get to learn so much and we collaborate with other co-educators. It’s a wonderful initiative you have started, and kudos to you and hats off to you. You’re giving certificates of achievement here, but I think you deserve the best achievement award for organizing such a wonderful event. I’m pleased and honored to hear that from you, Arvind. We’d like to know more about your schools. What are the key highlights? So we started in 1991 and we’ve been ranked among the top 10 state board schools of the country for four years by Education Today. The school is known as Spring Dales English School. We have a strength of around 1,100 students, and we have an Atal Tinkering Lab by NITI Aayog. We’ve produced state board toppers, IIIT-JEE 99.99 percentile scorers, and the like. The school boasts of excellent academic results. Recently, we also had a collaboration with Woosong University, South Korea, wherein students have a chance to study for their degrees online in India with opportunities to go abroad—multiple pathways across the US, UK, Canada, Australia, South Korea, etc. In terms of NEP implementation, what are the initiatives you are taking in your school? So one initiative came even before NEP—we got the gift of the Atal Tinkering Lab where project work, collaboration, and brainstorming began. Our students started preparing projects. One of our students got selected in Toycathon as one of the top 10 finalists of J&K and received an award from the Lieutenant Governor for creating a state locator game. Then our students went to IIT Delhi after winning the Budding Scientist McMillan Program. We also had Bhumika representing the Atal Innovation Marathon—her project was on a smart shopping cart. There are many achievements—many of our students have started creating innovative projects in school, and they’re getting highlighted. They’re presenting at exhibitions like IIT Jammu, National Startup Festivals, and more. How do events like this, with representation from KG to PG and from both government and corporates, help the education sector? I think it is very insightful. For example, the Ministry of Skill Development’s IAS, C. Ravi Shankar sir was here and gave a great insight into what the outlook is for the coming years. Connecting with universities—like Sunil Sir shared his view that education shouldn’t just stay in the institutions but must reach the student. That struck a chord with me. When we connect with such eminent educationists and learned persons, we also get many ideas that we can take back and implement at our schools. So I think you are creating a platform where educators are not only sharing their knowledge but also learning from others—and going back to implement that learning. It’s a learning opportunity for all of us. Though I’ve come here as a panel speaker, I treat it as a learning opportunity. I’m getting so many ideas and so much exposure to take back and implement for our students. ArdorComm Media recently completed its fourth year of existence. It’s our fourth anniversary. Any message or good wishes for the ArdorComm Media Group? I think you are doing a great job. Keep doing what you are doing. Your team is excellent—I’ve seen regular follow-ups from your team, educating me and guiding me. I think you guys are doing a brilliant job. Keep doing it. My best wishes are with you, and I hope to see you growing big—maybe at the international stage, going abroad and expanding. I wish you all the best for that.