ASMA’s School Education Leadership Forum Witnesses a Stellar Gathering of IB, Boarding & CBSE School Leaders

ASMA, a leading community in academia hosted a power-packed webinar on 28^th May 2021. The webinar saw a blend of a wide range of schools from all over the country. Various IB, Boarding and CBSE schools came shared a platform to share their views on ‘Integration of Technology in Inter-Disciplinary Teaching’.

The event was divided into three panels for IB, Boarding and CBSE schools respectively in order to encourage a wider set of views and opinions.

Panel one consisted of IB Schools and was about ‘Imparting soft skills along with the help of concept and knowledge-based technologies to propagate global intelligence’.

The moderator for the session was Annabelle Villamarin, Primary School Principal and PYP Coordinator, Lancers International School, Gurgaon and comprised of other eminent speakers like Anvita Gupta, Head of School, Sancta Maria International School, Faridabad, Dr. Sarvesh Naidu, Executive Vice President, TRINS Institutions, Thiruvananthapuram, Dr. Jayshree Periwal, Chairperson, Jayshree Periwal Group of Schools, Jaipur and Dr. Neeta Bali, Director Principal & Head of School, GD Goenka World School, Sohna.

The panel was opened for discussion by a brief introduction of the topic by Annabelle Villamarin, Primary School Principal and PYP Coordinator, Lancers International School, Gurgaon. She said, “Families spend time to promote students to study in the global market. These few years have seen an increase in communication, knowledge-based technologies and soft skills.”

The first speaker in the panel Anvita Gupta, Head of School, Sancta Maria International School presented her views and said, “Data analytics has become an integral part of our lives. In schools, we collect data of the students. We collect it to promote learning and analytical thinking in students. Technology fastens data analysis and literacy.”

Dr. Jayshree Periwal, Chairperson, Jayshree Periwal Group of Schools, Jaipur opined, “Data analytics is important to assess students. It can help us to determine easily what questions were difficult for students and how much time they spent on each question. All these things will help us improve learning and education. Instructional data and AI also helps in determining eye gaze span of the students.”

Talking about the paradigm shift in the education scenario, Dr. Sarvesh Naidu, Executive Vice President, TRINS Institutions, Thiruvananthapuram said, “Data has encouraged us to venture into the field of data literacy and the meaning of it. We’ve been working too long on memorizing things and now, we’ve moved on analysing, creating, constructing and communicating with data and technology.”

Dr. Neeta Bali, Director Principal & Head of School, GD Goenka World School, Sohna opined, “Data is now used very effectively in education. It is being used beautifully to track the progress of the students, drop-outs, graduates and how many students have gone through at least, the minimum level of learning. With the help of data analytics, all these things become easier. At a macro scale, data analytics can also help in knowing how small schools have fared and what resources they need.”

With the ideation and exchange of opinions, this panel discussion came to an end and paved the way for panel two.

Panel two comprised boarding schools and was about ‘Marketing & Technology Education: Fostering entrepreneurial innovation in students’.

The moderator for the session was Dr. Vidhukesh Vimal, Headmaster, The Assam Valley School and comprised of distinguished members like Sanjay Srivastava, Principal, Birla School, Pilani, Nishi Misra, Principal, Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya, Skand Bali, Principal, The Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, Madhur Gupta, Principal, Genesis Global School and Lt Gen Surendra Kulkarni (Retd.), Director, Mayo College, Ajmer.

The panel moderator Dr. Vidhukesh Vimal, Headmaster, The Assam Valley School opened the panel for discussion by giving a brief about the topic. He said, “In the 21st century, what kind of parental aspirations exist and have they changed? We need to discuss this in order to understand how to foster entrepreneurship in students. We need to understand the service sector properly.”

Nishi Misra, Principal, Scindia Kanya Vidyalaya said, “The demand of the next generation is that they have to be capable leaders and have wide world views and most importantly is to create change and make a difference. Education has to make this the top priority. We need to focus on enterprise, skills, research and creativity to generate a holistic approach to foster entrepreneurship.”

Lt Gen Surendra Kulkarni (Retd.), Director, Mayo College, Ajmer opined, “Parent aspirations have now changed with time. The sense of insecurity is now changing and the way to watch the government sector as a place for endless employment is now changing. Kids are getting aware and are adapting and upgrading themselves for a better future. They are becoming risk-takers.”

Skand Bali, Principal, The Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet talked about the shift in the approach of parents and their aspirations. He said, “The aspirations amongst parents are increasing and some are becoming overbearing. In some cases, some parents are also realising that other career avenues are opening up. Entrepreneurship means thinking out of the box and the dialogue between educators and parents has now changed for the good.”

Madhur Gupta, Principal, Genesis Global School talked about how entrepreneurship is taking the fore in school education. She said, “Some parents still focus on getting their kids to focus on competitive exams. But entrepreneurship is slowly gaining momentum. With the advent of technology and social media, students are now searching for various different avenues. We need to make sure that students not only focus on glamorous examples around them but also focus on the journey many famous people had to undergo before reaching there.”

Sanjay Srivastava, Principal, Birla School, Pilani said, “As far as today’s child is concerned, certain skills like collaboration, ethics, communication, accountability and problem solving are some of the major things to look at. The world is changing every day, the new generation learners like to be challenged and want to readily learn about technology and upcoming skills.”

The panel two discussions came to an end after a thorough exchange of views and the enforcement of panel three came to the forefront.

Panel three comprised of CBSE schools and was about ‘Emphasis on mental health awareness & programs to foster inter-disciplinary skills to shape socially conscious future leaders and professionals’.

The moderator for the panel was Harish Sanduja, Director – Schools, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Schools and comprised of speakers from prestigious CBSE schools like Yatharth Gautam, Director & Chief Marketing Officer, Birla Open Minds, Anjali Razdan, Dean Education – Rockwoods Group of Schools; Director Academics, Solan Public School, Anirudh Gupta, CEO, DCM Group of Schools and Seema Handa, Managing Director, Eklavya School, Jalandhar.

The panel discussion was opened by the moderator Harish Sanduja, Director – Schools, Seth Anandram Jaipuria Schools with an introduction of the topic. He said, “Because of these turbulent times, the mental wellbeing of the students has been disturbed. The mainstream curriculum delivery amongst schools is still going on and the emphases on Inter-Disciplinary skills have reduced.”

Yatharth Gautam, Director & Chief Marketing Officer, Birla Open Minds opined, “Culture and upbringing play an important role in the development of a child. Family, school and social interactions are the way students learn and it helps them to deal with their insecurities. Collaboration and communication are important aspects and the focus on them has to increase.”

Anjali Razdan, Dean Education – Rockwoods Group of Schools; Director Academics, Solan Public School discussed the interconnection amongst all subjects in school education. She said, “Inter-Disciplinary learning is very important and it shows how many subjects are connected to each other. It’s a broad umbrella and it connects other areas of interests in the students. It helps them to explore themselves. Creativity lies at the peak of everything. In today’s 21^st century, schools should help students interconnect and help them excel at things they like.”

Anirudh Gupta, CEO, DCM Group of Schools said, “While we are trying to ensure the continuity of virtual education, it is important to ensure the physical and mental wellbeing of students. We must make sure that in these times, students are not subjected to stress. India is a diverse country and full of various cultures, it’s important for us to sensitise them.”

Talking about mental health and different approaches for mental wellbeing, Seema Handa, Managing Director, Eklavya School, Jalandhar said, “Our approach to mental health is reactive when it should be more proactive. The cognitive and informative ability of the brain comes through education but proper mental health & development comes through emotional and social adjustments. When a child has grown up, his skills come to the fore. We don’t have to focus on white and blue-collar jobs always. We have to focus on yellow-collar and ensure the attitudes of the students.”

With this, the event came to an end and ASMA proved to be a mediator and a successful platform for revolutionizing education and bringing forth ideas for change.

Stay tuned for future events of ASMA.