Mentor - India - Vol. 13| Issue 11

VOLUME 13 | ISSUE 11 | AUGUST 2020 | ₹75

LXL.IN/MENTOR

‘MAGIS’ -

A LIVING TRADITION

How a Leader is Striving for More Dr. Fr. Francis Anthony Swamy S.J. Principal St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. Mumbai

BRING YOUR

WORDS TO LIFE Share with us your best practices about the following:

1. Does the current evaluation system promote rote learning or meaningful/conceptual learning?

2. The role private schools can play to ensure quality education to underprivileged students (provide teaching materials to these schools, use of school facilities by NGOs on weekends, etc.)

3. Shifting from STEM to STEAM approach of learning - the challenges, the benefits and the way forward. and we'll publish it in Mentor!*

Word Limit: 1300 Words Email: info@lxl.in Submission Deadline: 5th September 2020 E-mail Subject: “Mentor Magazine�

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* inclusive of courier & GST charges

*Subject to Editorial Discretion

Contents

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Mentor Thoughts Letter from the Editor

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What’s Trending

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Sultan Speaks

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in Their Life

Museum Pedagogy

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Pedagogy Helping Students Apply Self-Awareness

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in Schools

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All Rights Reserved ���� EduMedia Publications Pvt. Ltd.

Cover Story ‘Magis’- A Living Tradition

Finding a Balance

and School Education

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Governance National Education Policy-����

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Outstanding Leadership

Publisher & Owner: Syed Sultan Ahmed Editor: Kalpa Kartik Sub Editor: Devina Wallang Content Developer: Farah Javid Layouts : OneAndOnlyDesign.in Production: Praveen U. M., Sathish C., Guna V. Printer: Elegant Printing

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Leadership Mindfulness and Consciousness

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Home Learning

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Innovation The ABCs of Youth Skill Development �� Balanced and Thoughtful

Implementation of Technology

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Notice: The contributions in Mentor Magazine are solely the views of the author and are in no manner to be directly associated with the views of the editorial team or LXL Ideas. Authors/contributors are responsible for the authenticity of information they provide in the article. The publishers do not accept liability for errors or omissions contained in this publication. By submitting letters/emails or other publication materials to Mentor Magazine the author/contributor agrees that it is the property of Mentor Magazine. All communication to Mentor Magazine must be made in writing. No other sort of communication will be accepted. All decisions regarding publishing of a contribution is the prerogative of the publisher and editorial team of Mentor Magazine. Mentor Magazine is owned and published

by EduMedia Publications Pvt. Ltd. for and on behalf of Mr. Syed Sultan Ahmed. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the competent courts and forums in Bengaluru City.

Editorial Committee: Ismat Ahmed, Amrita Burman, Jawairia Saleem, Jaya Narayan, Leena Satuluri, Manjula Raman, Prsahant Muley, Pria Pillai, Rama Krishnamurthy, Sandhya Nair, Shahista Ismail, Skand Bali, Stella Punitha, Swapnali Deore, Vijayam Kartha, Dr. Shweta Gaur & Aaparjita Dasgupta

Mentor | August ���� | www.lxl.in

3

letter editor

from the

In this issue of Mentor, we feature St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. through the vivid words of principal – Dr. Fr. Francis Anthony Swamy S.J. – who believes that intellectual success is vital in students’ lives, but it has to be complemented with life skills to create individuals who can transform societies on a social, spiritual, personal and intellectual dimension. With the introduction of ‘Adopt a Child Programme’, the school’s teachers adopt one or two children with academic or emotional problems. The teachers accompany the children through all their ups and downs. This scheme has worked miracles to include every child into the mainstream.

The need to prepare a student for life has never been so evident as it is today. Counselling, coaching, and mentoring by educators is essential to build skills and make the youth future-ready for employment and innovations so that they emerge as an empowered community of techno-savvy, strongly-motivated youth with skills to excel! The 21st century is an era of technological changes. We cannot deny the benefits of utilising technology in our daily routine. Using it to get children to learn experientially allows students to engage intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically. The new National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) replaces a 34-year-old National Policy on Education, framed in 1986. The NEP-2020 provides glimmers of hope in rejuvenating school education recommending significant reforms in school curriculum and pedagogy, school administration/governance, and teacher education.

Speaking of preparing for life, self-awareness is one of the most essential skills.

Practised with activities planned around reflection, journalising, understanding immediate family personalities, finding out character strengths, becoming your best friend and living with who you really are seems to be trending conversations given the current scenario of the world pandemic. How a school includes these issues and other topics of bringing hope, joy, inspiration, awe, better gratitude, pride, amusement, and optimism in life will be interesting to see.

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Other topics featured this month, emphasise learning wisdom through three methods – first, by reflection which is the noblest; second, by imitation which is the easiest; and third, by experience which is the bitterest.

All learning of concepts and skills should start with acquiring the necessary knowledge. Schools can be the focal point of doing so! Teaching in classrooms with projects, model making by students, group work to search, and application of concepts in daily life are a step to ensure students get an opportunity to use this knowledge. This leads the way for the creative use of acquired knowledge to produce solutions. After which, problem-solving skills emerge, and it sets the path for the peak of the pyramid, which includes creating new knowledge, innovation, new vision and new possibilities.

Let 2020 be a year that redefines Indian education. We are good, but it is time to move to be great. But even that is not enough; let us build skills the same way we taught ABC and be ready for the best!

Kalpa Kartik

Editor

Our Contributors DR. FR. FRANCIS ANTHONY SWAMY S. J. Principal - St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. Convenor - Jesuit School Board Joint Secretary - Archdiocesan Board of Education, Mumbai

M. RAMESH KUMAR Academic Coordinator Sanjay Ghodawat International School, Kolhapur

MANSI JINADRA Lxl Ideas, Bangalore

D. SRIVIDYA Vice-Principal Navy Children School, Visakhapatnam

SALONY PRIYA Director, Counselling Psychologist, HR Trainer & Education Consultant UMMEED Counselling & Consulting Services, Kolkata

YOGESH POPAT Principal Delhi Public Elementary School, Indore

KRISHNA KUMAR Founder Director - Indian School of Counselling and Healing Studies (ISCHS) Senior Vice President - ICC Club Global Organisation, Bangalore

SHEETAL MUKHERJEE Emotional Consultant and Co-founder The Good Soul Workshop, Nagpur

SHIBANI GHOSH Founder Parvarish - The Museum School, Bhopal

MR. CHETAN SINGAI

Dr Chetan Singai, Deputy Director, Ramaiah Public Policy Center, Bengaluru, KA, India Member, Technical Secretariat, Committee to Finalize the Draft National Education Policy-2019/2020, MHRD, GoI, New Delhi.

Mentor | August ���� | www.lxl.in

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Sultan Speaks

Digital Learning is Here to Stay!

Way back in 1999, as a young engineering student, I had a start-up in education called ‘Activity’, and we conducted Life Skills workshops in schools of Bangalore and organised ‘Activity - The Kool Skool Festival’ which later was rebranded and went on to become the legendary school event ‘Horlicks Wizkids’. Not being happy with one start-up and being highly influenced by the ‘dot com’ bug, I started a company called ‘SchoolKingdom.com’ with an aim to bring education online.

We offered websites to schools, online marks and attendance, student information management system, et al. The project was so innovative that Wipro Netkracker – one of the original ISPs – funded it and provided tech support. The only problem was that we were doing this at a time when we had to dial-up for the internet, and the penetration of the web was very low. We were at least a decade ahead of time, and the venture failed.

Almost a decade later, around 2010, when Mentor Magazine was taking shape, we had visualised an online platform for educators called ‘Mentors Connect’. It was an online platform that gave educators an opportunity to learn, share and connect with each other. As wonderful as the idea was, the educators in India were still not ready for the online medium and preferred the print magazine to the online platform. We tried hard and failed again.

In 2019, we launched the Mentor Magazine Middle East edition. This time we had no choice but to make it a digital edition as we were working with six different countries and getting media publishing permission in so many countries was a nightmare.

With the success of the Middle East edition, we have been seriously contemplating making our Indian edition digital.

While our thinking hats were still on, we are now struck by the Corona Virus pandemic, and it made our decision simple.

The Indian edition of Mentor is going digital from April 2020. Chances are that most of you will be reading this article online, and if you are not, then, LXL.in/Mentor is where you will find all the articles of Mentor present and past. You can now share your favourite articles on all digital platforms and contribute many more articles.

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While we at Mentor Magazine are moving with the times, I find it quite amazing that despite having such amazing online learning and teaching tools available for more than a decade, most schools have not even attempted to experiment with them and keep it as an option for home learning. Today, we are faced with an unprecedented situation, and most schools are caught unprepared. I have said this very often and written about it multiple times in my articles, that schools of the future will be a combination of online and offline learning. Subjects like math, science etc. can be taught by the digital medium as effectively or at times, better than classroom learning.

Schools have to gear up to this reality; they have no choice now with the kind of situation we find ourselves in.

Every school should now have a digital learning plan along with their regular classroom learning plan. Children should spend more time on getting doubts cleared, interacting with fellow students, doing art, life skills, value education, sports, etc. in their school time. Let us trust in the power of digital learning and leave some of the Math & STEM learning online, and when we are offline, let’s focus our time in making humans of our future generation.

While we are forced to work from home, I hope you enjoy reading Mentor online at LXL.in/Mentor.

Syed Sultan Ahmed MD & Chief Learner @ LXL Ideas

What’s Trending

Once the schools reopen, they will be thrown open to a big challenge of following the health protocols set by the Government. However a few protocols will be easier to follow like, sectioned off common spaces, and floor markings to direct foot-traffic flows can help students and staff maintain distance.

However, permanent changes to the physical environment, such as no-touch bathrooms or upgraded ventilation, may be unrealistic for many school systems’ budgets—especially given the short time frames involved.

Under such circumstances, what according to you will be the biggest challenge you foresee in following the safety norms and precautions for reopening of the school?

School staff, parents and students are eagerly looking forward to schools reopening and life returning to normal but not without apprehension. While the greatest fear is of following norms of physical safety, there is also the fear of students and staff adjusting emotionally and socially to the new normal. After six months, maybe more, of lockdown and online classes, returning to school will first be met with euphoria which may be short-lived. Younger children, true to their nature, will find it next to impossible to maintain social distancing.

Every time they breach their boundaries, they will be racked with fear of infection and guilt of disobeying.

Feedback from many older students is that they find online classes better because they have more time and fewer distractions. When school reopens, they will be comparing this advantage to time spent with friends, which they’re missing now. Moreover, will friends be friends anymore or strangers? After all, the pandemic has changed many of us, in some way or other. Anxiety levels of management and staff will increase, because there’s never enough protection that can be taken but guarantees of safety will be demanded. Finally, we have to wait to see whether isolation has eroded our social skills.

Mukta Chatterjee, Executive Director, Centre Point Group of Schools, Nagpur, India.

The greatest challenge in reopening schools would be to ensure that children conform to the safety precautions and norms set in the school. It is going to be a given that high levels of sanitation would be maintained at school premises. Proper wearing of masks and social distancing is going to be non-negotiable. What we have to really keep a check on would be the return of children to school. We would need to understand that these children have spent months at home and not had a chance to interact or play with their peers, an essential part of their growth in these years. This is a natural instinct and curtailing this under these current norms would be the challenge. A way to ensure social distancing can be to split a classroom into 3-4 smaller batches and ensure that they are taught in a staggered manner. Classes on alternate days can also be an option that can be considered. This would ensure adequate social distancing and also ensures teacher and other students' safety.

In addition, the simple and bonding tradition of sharing one's food with others can potentially be dangerous. Hot Food can be served inside the campus itself so that "Interesting Items" from one's lunch does not lead to food being shared. This would also ensure that the children have access to hot food rather than stale food which was packed a few hours ago. At length, we could be looking at the possibility of schools opening up for students only when a vaccine for COVID has been found and distributed.

Kalpana Mohan, Academic Consultant Bangalore Mentor | August ���� | www.lxl.in

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Pedagogy

Helping Students Apply Self-Awareness in Their Life Laying the Foundation in our Children Ms. Sheetal Mukherjee

Research carried out by the Carnegie Institute of Technology shows that 85 per cent of your financial success is due to skills in “human engineering,” your personality and your ability to communicate, negotiate, and lead.

Shockingly, only 15 per cent is due to technical knowledge.

Additionally, Nobel Prize-winning Israeli-American psychologist, Daniel Kahneman, found that people would rather do business with a person they like and trust rather than someone they don’t, even if the likeable person is offering a lower quality product or service at a higher price.

THE NEW GAME We live in a world that’s increasingly chaotic directly impacting the society and environment around us.

Everyday lifestyle changes affect the pace of change in our emotional and social needs, stemming from the rapid intrusive and disruptive evolving technological landscape.

Constant learning and relearning is the new name of the game.

We need to accept that the recent generation has different capabilities and need newer skill approaches in finding winning solutions. These are very different from the traditional belief of high academic performance as the best way of being empowered in life. High exposure and access to social media along the way has created confusing situations for choosing the right paths, attitudes, ambitions, dealing with competitions, etc.

Today’s students have access to a virtual world where there are absolutely no boundaries in levels of thinking, believing and aspiring. They are impatient to unleash their potential, which brings up other sets of challenges, notably emotional issues.

EMOTIONS MATTER In an increasingly emotional world, emotions need to be addressed. It has become imperative that children are taught how to recognise, understand and manage their emotions. With this, we are instilling a coping mechanism

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that brings about awareness of self and makes them emotionally and socially competent.

Self-awareness is the ability to see ourselves clearly for who we are and how we fit in this world. We may not like everything that we see, but there is a certain comfort in knowing ourselves.

Research says that people who are self-aware are more fulfilled, achieve greater happiness, communicate better, have better relationships, are creative and are less likely to lie, cheat or steal.

They are also better performers at work, more promotable and most importantly, are more effective leaders. For bringing up healthy achievers, the new rule for education and the teaching system of today has changed and now include developing not just Intelligence Quotient, but also Emotional Quotient and Social Quotient.

To understand the necessity of incorporating self-awareness in the new education system, let’s think of ourselves as we are. As adults, we are aware that our potential is a balance of physical, professional, social, financial, and interpersonal attributes.

Any imbalance in these factors takes a toll on our inability to perform and to maintain the balance, we really need to become ourselves and in doing that, we need to become self-aware.

We can with high degrees of selfawareness have a solid understanding of our own emotions, our strengths, weaknesses, and what drives us. Neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful, we are honest with ourselves and others.

Pedagogy We recognise how our feelings impact us, people around us, and our performance at work. We have a fairly good understanding of our values and goals and where we are going in life. We are confident as well as aware of our limitations and less likely to set ourselves up for failure.

While we are successful in our right and ensure the best for our children, we are unable to comprehend our own children’s growing emotional needs. We can only conclude that it's our inability to fathom the pace of the paradigm shift that is constantly taking place in the emotional and social landscape in newer generations as well as the new skill sets that are required in the navigation of life.

THE ESSENCE OF EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL SKILLS To develop and help our children become self-aware, we need to make them understand that everyone has emotions that drive us and while there is nothing we can do to avoid them, we can control the feelings that arise out of them. We can introduce and adopt age-appropriate preventive emotional programmes that teach self-regulation and managing emotions so that we can keep our words and actions in check. Such programmes teach that bad moods and impulses co-exist, but the need is to realise if and not to act upon them.

Anyone who acts upon their negative feelings creates havoc, disruptions, and lasting bad feelings all around them, but then negative feelings are also needed for survival and success.

The ability to wait until emotions pass, allowing us to respond from a place of reason, rather than simply reacting to feelings can also be inculcated. The signs of someone who is good at self-regulation are reflection, thoughtfulness, comfort with ambiguity, change, and not having all the answers. Social skills are another area of emotional intelligence that is highly important. To have good social skills requires a high level of other aforementioned skills as well as the ability to relate and find common ground with a wide range of people. It goes beyond just friendliness and the ability to get along with others. Children can be taught specific social skills making them excellent team players so that they develop the ability to move an agenda along and keep focus while at the same time remaining aware of the emotional climate of the group and possessing the ability to respond to it.

Social skills can help in forging healthy relationships, connections and bringing other players together to form a common social fabric and support.

ACTIVITIES TO INCULCATE SELF-AWARENESS Other ways that help children in becoming self-aware are activities that train them to set aside just five minutes each day in learning about: 1. Personality – The idea is to get to know oneself inside out – what you are and what you are not. To ask questions like, Why did I do that? Who are you behind your name?

What are you like on a good day or a bad day? How do you react to upsetting situations? etc.

2. Core Values – Values that you will not compromise that could include loyalty, integrity, inflexibility, learning, etc.

3. Getting to Know One’s Body – How well you know your body, health, breath, limits of tolerance, balance, flexibility, etc.

4. Getting to Know Dreams – Dreams matter and are important. Getting to know details and the specifics and making them a part of daily pursuits. Taking them seriously and working on them.

5. Getting to Know Likes and Dislikes – Just writing down likes and dislikes requires courage and builds resilience.

6. Setting Goals – Having a life vision and a mission.

CONCLUSION In the end, self-awareness can also be practised with activities planned around reflection, journalising, understanding immediate family personalities, finding out character strengths, becoming your best friend and living with who you really are. Other topics that can be woven in is the importance of bringing hope, joy, inspiration, awe, better gratitude, pride, amusement, and optimism in life.

Finally, we need to teach our children that we are all more than just our body.

The need to accept oneself with flaws and to work on them is extremely critical in an age of high social comparison.

Self-awareness is a journey of commitment to ourselves in discovering who we are as human beings. It is, in fact, the need of the hour. The integration and challenges of navigating social media in our daily lives bring up the importance and necessity of becoming more self-aware.

Yes, it is certainly good to be an intelligent, rational thinker and have a high IQ; this is an important asset. If a child can master the complexities of emotional and social skills that are often underrated forms of intelligence, research tells us today’s and coming generations will achieve greater success and be regarded as more personally and professionally competent and capable.

Education doesn't stop when you graduate from school.

It's a lifelong journey. As Elon Musk says, "Don't confuse education with schooling. I don't go to Harvard, but people who work for me did."

Mentor | August ���� | www.lxl.in

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Pedagogy

Museum Pedagogy Museums as Learning Spaces Ms. Shibani Ghosh

Imagine knowing about animals, birds and reptiles by studying their fossils, skulls and specimens to better understand their features, habitats and diets. Or examining coins, manuscripts, maps and understanding first-hand, how history has been preserved using objects and texts, and what they tell us about our past. Learning in Museums makes classroom subjects come alive.

Museum Pedagogy refers to using museum exhibits as teaching aids, and museum staff as subject experts, to facilitate practical learning experiences for children.

Museums create a conducive learning environment sparking curiosity, inquisitiveness and conceptual understanding. It is not only relevant but essential for children, because: - Museums are subject-focused, or they have subject-focused galleries.

- Existing learning spaces created by the Government and/or Private Organisations.

- Museums have a mandate to make themselves available as learning centres. Therefore, the subjects available in museums can be taught there.

- Museums have exhibits for all age groups, from children to adults.

- Exhibits of the museums are the best teaching aids that can be very well used by schools without creating new ones.

- If museum exhibits are mapped properly with the curriculum and subject topics, then almost all subjects of all classes can be taught through museums.

MAKING THE IDEA OF LEARNING FUN AND INTERESTING You need not work hard for this. All you have to do is to understand the exhibit, build it into a story form, and give daily life examples already known to the children, by which they can see the applied form of the topic.

Then the subject taught automatically becomes interesting. Social and environment-related topics are taught through interesting role-plays, as it really helps the children understand the topic easily.

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PRACTICES TO HELP CHILDREN UNDERSTAND MUSEUM PEDAGOGY

The museum acts as the school for children, providing an open learning space, where children learn by doing, touching and observing models and artefacts. It provides an environment that sparks off inquisitiveness in every child and creates his/her appetite for knowledge and information.

Different Museums and their infrastructure and changing galleries create such an attraction for children that they can’t wait to visit them.

B.Ed students from different colleges are invited to demonstrate their best teaching skills, as they are evaluated for practice teaching. At the Museum School, we try to bring quality education to underprivileged children at almost no cost, using existing resources most optimally. The disparity in quality of education is thus removed, giving every child the same education, irrespective of economic disparity.

Pedagogy DISTINCTIVE ADVANTAGES OF MUSEUM PEDAGOGY Learning in museums facilitates deeper conceptual understanding by enhancing students’ sensory literacy — absorption of information through the senses of sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste.

Another important outcome of museum-based pedagogy is that it develops students’ ability to make interdisciplinary connections between concepts and ideas beyond the confines of curriculums and subjects. This helps to build lateral thinking and problem-solving skills.

Museums and their infrastructure create the best learning environment that few schools can match.

The exhibits in the museum are powerful, high-quality teaching aids, that no school can match, as all artefacts are unique and life size.

Further, museum staff are selected based on their deep knowledge and real-life applications of the subject, and explaining abilities, hence, are the best subject experts available, even better than school teachers.

All these put together bring quality education to all children, giving them enough space and time to develop their conceptual understanding as per their learning abilities. Undoubtedly, museums of all types have integrated a stronger educational emphasis.

PRACTICES AT PARVARISH - THE MUSEUM SCHOOL The following practices have helped our school develop interest, knowledge and confidence amongst out-of-school children, and increased their retention abilities till higher studies.

- Mapping exhibits with subjects and topics for different levels and grades of children.

- Train the teachers on how to use the exhibits as teaching aids.

- Teachers create a story format for every topic that makes the class interesting.

- It starts with identifying the exhibit matching the story (improving observation skills).

- Giving children the space to understand the working/function of the exhibit, and reason it logically (developing inquisitiveness and logical reasoning).

- Answering questions by providing examples of daily life, matching the functioning of the exhibit, and seeing its application in the real world (develop conceptual and applied understanding).

- After completing the explanation, asking the children to pen down their understanding in their own words (developing expression and explaining skills in written form).

When new children join in every year, we start with a baseline assessment of each of them. This tells us their present levels in all aspects. For new children, the initial focus is on literacy, oratory skills and confidence-building (in the museum environment). This helps them in joining back to a regular school in the next academic session. In subsequent years, the children are taught concepts of various subjects through museums. This builds their knowledge base and makes them surge ahead of other students in their class. The children are also taught soft skills and arts-based skills to give them exposure to all areas. While paid junior artists/professionals teach the basic skills, eminent artists and professionals volunteer to teach the finer skills. Adolescent students are taught vocational skills based on their choice and selection, and are also given entrepreneurial skills. Regular practitioners and professionals are engaged to teach vocational skills to the children.

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Pedagogy

The curriculum is designed in such a way that, at each level, children learn from everything around them, and also learn to share and care for others.

The classes inside the museums are taken in a story form so that it not only becomes easy for the children to understand, but they also learn to help each other understand and express their understanding in both vocal and written forms.

From school dropouts to engineering colleges, from slum dwellers to performing on a national channel, from the everyday struggle of life to the New York Film Festival, from child labour to an entrepreneur, from dreams to reality shows, from identifying and naming basic colours to a painting-competition winner, the outcomes are many for the children in our school. All children have joined mainstream schools, are performing above average, and leading their schools in oratory skills and performing arts.

Some of the benefits include, but are not limited to: - The confidence level of the children has grown high.

- They have learnt the skill to explain any topic conceptually, without books.

- The knowledge gained through this pedagogy is for a lifetime.

- Children do not need to do rote learning to remember the topic.

The impact of our work can be seen in both the students and their families, as the children take all their life skills learning back home, to improve their families.

The impact is also seen in the families of our teachers, as they are no longer oppressed women, but now decision-makers in their families, and also counsellors in their community.

MAINTAINING TRANSPARENCY AND BRINGING IN DIVERSITY THROUGH MUSEUM PEDAGOGY Transparency We have developed a regular assessment model that brings in complete transparency and facilitates easy monitoring. The assessments result in every teacher

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knowing the growth of every child, irrespective of whether he/she has taught the child. It also results in performance evaluation of every teacher. The assessment is conducted in such a way that no child realises that he/she is going through an examination. Neither do the teachers realise that they are being evaluated too at the same time.

This removes the fear of examinations and hence brings out the best in every domain honestly. Also, every sponsor gets a growth report of all students, irrespective of whom they have sponsored. The growth report is also shared with all the collaborating museums so that they can add value wherever required.

Diversity We maintain enough diversity in our pedagogy, as children from different communities are enrolled in the project, without any bias or prejudices. And to deal with this diversity in language, behaviour and communication skills, we chose the best environment to bring them under one roof, in the ambience of a museum, where everything is equally strange to all. Also, they get to know the whole world through interaction with tourists from different countries who also speak different languages. These interactions bring in a wider diversity, bringing together people and children from different parts of the world. It helps in bringing a subconscious behavioural change in the children and develops their personality.

Languages are taught through role-plays and stories related to museum exhibits. Multiple skills are taught through different methods equally to all ages. Boys and girls equally learn the same skills, and there are no differences created. All festivals of all religions are celebrated by all equally, and the history behind those festivals are also explained. This helps in respecting all religions equally.

Pedagogy

Diversity is used positively to expose children to all aspects of life, and give the same quality education.

We have seen tremendous improvement in the confidence of the children, as they take the initiative in explaining some exhibits to the tourists themselves.

ENCOURAGING THE ACCEPTANCE OF MUSEUM PEDAGOGY WITHIN THE FRATERNITY During training sessions, we let our team use any pedagogy they know to teach a particular topic. We then show them the related museum exhibit, and ask them to make a lesson plan using the exhibit as a teaching aid.

Next, we ask them to knit this in a story form, and teach other teachers in the group. When the team finds that the strength of using the exhibit is much more than any bookish knowledge and can very well be used as teaching aids for the children then the team easily accepts the pedagogy and starts teaching accordingly.

CHALLENGES FACED The biggest challenge initially was to take children out from the slums. We tried to convince their families that anyone from the family can accompany their children to the museums and see on their own what is being done through this project.

The next challenge was to convince them that education is equally important as earning for the family. We convinced them that no profession is big or small, but the child can attain the dignity of the same labour, if he or she is educated too. We did not pull them out from their work, but scheduled our class timings in such a way that the working children need not have to leave their work.

Gradually their interest towards studies and skill development pulled them out of their work, and they are being trained in different skills, to take that as their livelihood in future.

Another challenge was to take them out from bad habits, stop abusive language, and to maintain discipline. To overcome that, we started speaking to them using simple language full of good words and love as a response to their bad words. Slowly the children started speaking our language and started grasping good things that changed their life.

We also faced a challenge when we mainstreamed our students with government schools for the first time. The school teachers discouraged our students from coming to our project. On enquiring further, we found out that the prime reason was that our children were asking questions in the class. We supported the teachers by answering the questions that they could not, and this helped them in upgrading their knowledge too. Our students now get the top rankings in their classes.

However, the biggest challenge has always been to get funds for the project. To overcome that we started approaching individual sponsors to meet our expenses.

The project now is completely citizen-funded. However, every year, we have to struggle to get more sponsors as we add more non-school-going children to our project.

Many more slums in Bhopal still wait for the opportunity to be a part of The Museum School.

CONCLUSION Since the model has proved its worth and impact, and has also been recognised internationally, it can be replicated as a model by the Government, by creating more museums in different cities, and associating Government schools with them. We will be happy to support the Government and train their school teachers for the same.

The plan is also to make such museum schools in various cities as training grounds for B.Ed students, so that they too learn to use the exhibits as teaching aids, and implement the same approach in the schools they join as teachers later.

In the end, there are three determinants of quality education: - Appropriate infrastructure that provokes inquisitiveness and eagerness among children to know, understand and learn new things.

- Appropriate and lively teaching aids that help both the teacher to teach and the student to learn concepts easily.

- Subject matter experts and good teachers, who can go down to the level of the student, to build up his/her knowledge from there.

The Museum School and Museum Pedagogy meets all these three determinants easily.

Mentor | August ���� | www.lxl.in

13

Leadership

Outstanding Leadership Being a Dealer of Hope Ms. D. Srividya

Management is doing things right, but leadership is doing the right things. This is the essence of outstanding leadership. A leader has to be very conscious of telling the team what to do rather than how to do it. This approach brings out the best in others as they know the task and the expected results of the same.

Meanwhile, the leader has to stand with them as a person and not someone special, but someone with more responsibility and with answers. If a leader cannot show the torch to others, that means the leader has failed in leading the team.

In this procedure they are guided to achieve the best and reach positions they ought to be. The secret of success lies in doing the opposite of what everyone is doing and trying to be good at the existing will only forbid one to be great at anything. However, like many things, being a great leader requires hard work and dedication, coupled with a passion for excellence and ongoing development.

TRAITS THAT MAKE A LEADER

The most progressive leaders hence, have to be able to “park their ego” and focus on the team.

For this, I suggest that every leader must have the following personal traits: • Self-Awareness • Passion for Mobilising Team Members • Assertive Communication Abilities • Empathy • Respect • Resilience to Handle Stress

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• Exemplary • Courage and Willingness to Take Risks • High-Level Intuition • Clear Vision of the Goal

Leadership These traits help the leader in team bonding, forming deep relationships and co-created plans, to see the link between behaviour and outcomes, and use systems to provide greater clarity and the space for meaningful conversations.

For, in the end, it isn’t very easy to have a meaningful life without meaningful work. For this, the key is focusing on results and performance rather than on self-interest and self-gratification. Getting results, however, also involves expending energy on relationships within the organisation.

LEADERSHIP AND THE TEAM The team is benefitted as they think and act systemically, they understand how action follows reaction, how mutual gains create loyalty and commitment, how confidence provides a springboard to motivation and creativity and how trust speeds interactions and enables people to take personal risks and succeed. They give significant amounts of time and focus on people. For, they are the only route to sustainable performances for an outstanding leader. “A good leader meets the expectations, but an outstanding leader exceeds expectations.” Self-confidence, self-motivation and self-awareness help him/her to achieve excellence and to be focused on organisational outcomes, vision and purpose. Also, care has to be taken that this sense of self is not ego-driven.

Leadership should actively build trust by delivering on promises and acting with consistency, which, in turn, leads to a sense of security and greater freedom of expression. They understand the power of trust to speed up interactions, enable people to take risks, as well as diminish arguments or disputes.

The values of a team are most often a reflection of a leader’s values. For this is essential to stay on track, treat the staff with respect, be open about plans and programmes, protect the integrity of the colleagues, and focus on the main thing. All this is essential because leadership is not a place; it is a process. It’s a process in which the leader becomes an architect and implementer of strategy; a mediator in conflict situations; an integrator who assures the climate of the organisation; and a person able to motivate subordinates by persuasion, compulsion or example to others. “The extraordinary determination differentiates leaders from ordinary people.” The success of leadership depends and displays on what you do with all kinds of resources provided to you. One utilises the human resources to its best by: • Delegating the work • Supporting at every step of execution • Providing coaching to execute • Directing in a proper way to reach the desired results

POSITION DOES NOT MAKE THE LEADER; THE LEADER MAKES THE POSITION Trust happens when leaders are transparent and believe in correcting the wrong with honesty which will result in mutual trust and happy and healthy relations as it’s known that happiness is the key to success. Change is inevitable; growth is intentional. There is always a need that a leader willingly adapts to the changing trends in all the areas; only then a leader can become a facilitator and consensus-builder.

It is about striving to make a positive difference in the organisation so that the organisation can make a positive difference in the community or region it serves.

Effective leadership is more about building character.

As stated by Frances Hesselbein,

“The leader for today and the future will be focused on how to be – how to develop quality, character, mindset, values, principles, and courage.”

So, as a strong leader, one should be a visionary with the belief that I can and should be shaping the future, and to act on those beliefs by “walking the talk.”

BEST PRACTICES OF OUTSTANDING LEADERS - Never say you are too busy - Never stop learning - Identify problems and put forth solutions - Inspire a shared vision - Challenge processes - Model the way - Empower others to act - Be punctual, respectful and open-minded - Help instead of criticising - Never take rejection personally - Work hard for success Mentor | August ���� | www.lxl.in

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Leadership

Mindfulness and Consciousness in Schools Learning to be Free of Fears, Stress and Anxiety Mr. Krishna Kumar

The life of every individual in the current generation very much resembles the operation of a pendulum in a wall clock. The time always remains in the present, whereas the pendulum keeps moving to and fro without ever staying stable. It is the same story for every individual human being’s life too – as all of us are physically living in the present, but keep on swinging towards the past as well as the future. We are stressed about past events which won’t ever come back and worried about the future which has not yet come to us. So, are we aware of losing the present moments?

MINDFULNESS IN THE CLASSROOMS Sitting inside the classroom with friends and teachers, how many students are enjoying the moments of studies without worrying about exams, scores and expected achievements? How many students are happily being in the present without bothering about their past experience-based stresses? Of course, this story is not only limited to kids, but also to teachers, parents and the rest of the associated individuals within the school environment who are going through the same situation in different ways. Ultimately, an eight-year-old child and an 80-year-old adult are prone to go through stress or anxiety in various levels throughout their lives as a result of these swinging thoughts. There’s a growing amount of anxiety, depression, performance issues, behavioural damages, and succeeding psychological disorders that result from such cases. Eventually, this will also affect people’s physical and social well-being.

How many kids or teachers or parents are out of this interdependent stress? The moments we forget to live are equal to the moments we never lived. “Mindfulness can make a significant impact in this scenario as a powerful toolbox to regulate such troubles.” For instance, you can imagine the academic performance possibilities of the students who are enjoying mathematics class very well in the present. At the same time, most students tend to postpone studies or homework hours or tuition moments to the last minute. In the end, they feel stressed and suffer a lack of concentration, lack of attention, and many more things which eventually result in poor academic performance too. If the entire classroom is mindful, the teacher and students will live in the present going through the subjects with ease and learning effectively. In essence, the grasping capacity grows, memorisation power raises, and attention span improves. “Mindful meditation practice is one of the most powerful methods to help members of the school community irrespective of their age, lifestyle, stress levels and capabilities.” Anyone who wants to live in the present and stay attentive as well as focused can start this practice.

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PRACTICES IMPLEMENTED IN SCHOOL REGARDING MEDITATION AND MINDFULNESS A simple method which can be easily practised in any school community is an awareness exercise about surroundings. Here is a simple two-minute try out model: • Stand up on the ground, preferably barefoot. Take a long breath in and out (around ten seconds).

• Observe five different types of sounds that you can identify around you (may take 15-30 seconds). Once you have done so, observe five different kinds of things around you. Find the names and colours of it (may take 15-30 seconds).

• Once this is completed, observe five different types of sensations around you, starting from the feet, which is touching the ground. Observations can be smell, temperature, skin feel or even taste also (may take 15-30 seconds).

• Once again, take a normal long breath in and out (around ten seconds).

It is not necessary to force yourself to describe what you were observing, though you can speak about your observations if you like to. Whoever is giving instructions can share instructions, and no force or examples are required to share. Let the individuals’ mind stay focused by letting them be liberal in observations at the present moments, instead of being stressed to do other things.

MAINTAINING MENTAL WELL-BEING IN SCHOOL When we feel stressed or mentally weak, most of us are wired to resist it instead of accepting it first, embracing it and letting it go.

When I don’t accept that I have a fever, how can a medication consumed by me for fever work? When I do not understand, or I am unaware of what I am feeling, how can I heal?

Resistance, friction and Newton’s law do not only apply to physics but apply to an individual’s personal life too.

“Staying mentally healthy requires acceptance, letting go as well as resonance, which is opposite to resistance, friction and Newton’s third law of motion. Mindfulness is a pathway where we experience all these states of mental well-being.”

Leadership BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS

TIPS FOR OTHER SCHOOLS

The results of these practices are proven by an uncountable number of scholars from thousands of years till now starting from the Nalanda, Taxila era or even before that. As the access to and reach of knowledge became higher, thousands of schools are practising mindfulness as they found massive improvements in the wellness of individuals.

This is not only limited to early schooling but also practised by training academies including armed forces training centres, science research centres, business communities and professional offices as well.

Some more practices that schools can regularly implement without spending too much time are shared below: • Have A Breathing Exercise with Counts – Take a long breath in and count one to five, hold your breath for a count of one to five (or even six to ten), breathe out for a count of one to five (or even 11-15). This can be done two to five times in a stretch at any point in time. The brain will be more focused and observant of various activities around. Eventually, it will lead to improved focus, attention and concentration apart from a relaxed mind.

• Finding the Fragrance – Olfactory senses are highly essential, and many times, we are less aware of it. How many of us can sense the mild smells or fragrances in and around us? This exercise of mindfulness uses your olfactory senses. Take a deep breath in and out. Start identifying any five different types of fragrances around you. Remember not to force anyone who is not able to identify even a single smell. The focus is not on how many types of fragrances people can identify, but about being aware and attentive in the present.

• Stethoscope – One of the biological signs of being alive for human beings is through heartbeats. Though we know that our heart is beating, how many of us pay any attention to it? Let us do this quick exercise of mindfulness where we are going to focus on our heartbeats. The exercise can be done in 30 or 60 seconds or even more based on the practitioner’s convenience. Start counting your heartbeat. Keep counting till 30 or 60 seconds are over. The best results will come when you do not use any clock or schedule as you are free enough to observe for as much as you want to. This is a good exercise for people with anxiety and can help to stay relaxed and healthy even during exams or other high-stress situations.

As per a report published in August 2014 by the Indian Journal of Medical Research, nearly ten-30 per cent of young people suffer from health impacting behaviours and conditions that need urgent attention of policymakers and public health professionals. As per this report, tobacco use, harmful alcohol use, other substance use, high-risk sexual behaviours, stress, common mental disorders, and injuries (road traffic injuries, suicides, violence of different types, etc.) specifically affect this population and have a long-lasting impact.

If we look at the severity across age groups, we will understand the importance of creating a healthy society from the early stages, which is best possible at schools.

Moreover, other precious benefits such as improved attention span, learning capacity, focus, concentration and memorisation skills are also going to be improved in kids.

This in-turn will have long-running benefits such as positively impacting the community, society and the nation’s growth. We are practising prayers, national anthems and lot more exercises as part of our academics in schools focusing on various socio-psychological and physio-academical benefits of kids which are everyday habits and a regular part of our curriculum from decades.

Most of these practices are happening in a well-organised fashion which most kids, teachers or even parents do not practice out of school days or out of school premises.

CONCLUSION

“One of the most significant benefits of mindfulness is that it does not need a specific time to practice nor any particular environment is required. In mindfulness practices, we are working on our self-awareness, acceptance, embracing the present and being in it.” This can be done in a noisy atmosphere or silent atmosphere equally. It does not need any yoga mat nor an instructor. It does not require a fixed amount of time as there are exercises that can be practised just in 15-30 seconds and some that last for hours, depending on one’s availability.

We are worried about lifestyle diseases and growing stress levels in the world from the past few decades.

What if we can be mindful towards the present and start working on creating healthy individuals right from schools? We proudly talk about our ancestral culture and its powers, including the Indus valley or Taxila scholars and what if we create a better one ahead in this century by the learnings which are available to us?

Do you know that you can do a mindfulness exercise even while you are waiting for the other person to pick your call?

You can be mindful even while you are standing in a queue.

Doesn’t it sound interesting that mindfulness meditation or practices are convenient than any other meditation or methods all while it can give amazing inter and intrapersonal benefits to individuals and hence, the society? Just imagine a teacher asking the students in the classroom to listen and observe the loud noises stemming from the next-door classroom and to identify how many sounds they can recognise by paying attention for a few seconds. The conventional belief of a connect between silence in the surroundings and concentration of individuals will soon become a myth once this practice becomes regular inside the classroom. When we prepare a set of practices like this matching the school environment and implement it as part of the curriculum, it can lead to incredible benefits for the larger communities. Moreover, the practice is not limited to ages or categories, and hence, the benefits can be availed by anyone who is involved in it directly or indirectly.

Given that the most prominent youth population in the world is in our country, why can’t our nation be an absolute global power with amazing possibilities through the strong collective of mental, social, emotional, physical and academical well-being? This, of course, needs to begin right from here.

References 1.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4216492/ 2.https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1P3-3466318121/mindfulness-training-for-indian-armed-forces 3.https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-education/ 4.https://www.mindfulnessfoundation.org.uk/paradigm/who-action-plan-2013-2020/ 5. https://www.who.int/mental_health/evidence/MH_Promotion_Book.pdf

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Cover Story

‘Magis’ – A Living Tradition How a Leader is Striving for More There has been plenty of debate and research over the aspects that attribute to a thriving school. What makes a school successful? What are the key factors that distinguish effective from the least effective schools? With multiple paradigms for school operations, how can we judge if a school model is effective? In this story, we travel to Mumbai through the vivid words of Dr. Fr. Francis Anthony Swamy S.J. – Principal of St. Mary's School I.C.S.E. – who provides crucial answers to these pertinent questions.

Using the ‘Five Factor Theory’ based on research by celebrated international authors and educators – David Miller Sadker and Karen R. Zittleman, Dr. Fr. Francis Anthony Swamy S.J. brings to life the story of St. Mary's School I.C.S.E., Mumbai, based on the five common characteristics that effective schools seem to share.

QUALITY LEADERSHIP Is quality leadership integral to the success of your school?

Yes, quality leadership is essential. Educational leadership ensures a vision of holistic excellence for all students.

Though intellectual success is vital in students’ lives, it has to be complemented with life skills to create individuals who can transform societies on a social, spiritual, personal and intellectual dimension.

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Cover Story What is the form of leadership your school follows?

The form of leadership which I follow in my school is delegative and participative. This encompasses the following: • Developing an inspiring vision and purpose which is clearly articulated, shared and understood by all, and which takes a range of views into account.

• Translating that vision into strategic and sustainable plans, clear objectives and high expectations of students’ performance.

• Creating a school climate that is motivating and inspiring and a culture that encourages innovation and collaborative work.

• Distributing leadership and accountability throughout the organisation to improve standards.

• Being a visible leader and demonstrating vision and commitment in everyday work and practice.

Key Practices that Promote Quality Leadership • Delegative – The Principal cannot articulate and implement his vision all alone, and he must transmit it to other administrators. In St. Mary’s, the Assistant Principal, the Primary Supervisor, the Kindergarten Supervisor and the Academic Coordinators are given the authority to carry on day-to-day administration.

They report back to me. All the significant aspects of the school are discussed together, and a common consensus is arrived upon.

• Participative – All students and staff participate in the actualisation of school goals. The staff and Student Council are empowered to take responsibility for the overall growth of the institution. The Academic Council jointly undertakes all academic decisions in the secondary section.

Describe the outcomes of practising quality leadership.

It gives me more space to focus on planning and organising. It helps build trust amongst my team members with openness and direct communication. My team members are encouraged to take the initiative. In exercising the authority that has been delegated to them, all team members have developed their skill of leadership. It has also boosted their team morale, improved their efficiency and productivity, enhanced their enthusiasm, innovation, as well as cooperation.

The teachers have started taking ownership, have become involved in the broader aspects of the school, and are no longer restricted to only their classrooms.

Delegating leadership amongst students has helped empower them. Our students take the full responsibility of organising an interschool extravaganza called ‘Immaculata’ which has become the brand image of the school. By involving themselves in this interschool event, the students get a first-hand experience of time management, marketing, finance and many other vital organisational skills. The teachers also play the role of mentors.

HIGHER EXPECTATIONS FROM THE WORKFORCE Should a leader have high expectations from his/her workforce?

High expectations from one’s workforce keep the workforce mobile and proactive and avoid stagnation.

I believe that high expectations from my staff has built their self-esteem and increased their confidence to improve their performance. It has helped them realised their true potential and subsequently, has led them to a richer learning experience.

On the other hand, when higher expectations are set for my workforce, then I need to be very sensitive to feel their pulse. Unrealistic expectations might lead the staff to lose motivation and purpose, leading to mediocrity in performance. To maintain a conducive learning atmosphere, I am open to feedback which helps in the evolution of effective leadership.

How can a mismatch between the expectations of a teacher and the school management be resolved?

When a teacher perceives teaching as only a means of earning, I do feel a mismatch between the respective expectations. I believe that teaching is not only a profession but a noble vocation. One of the charisms of the ‘Ignatian Pedagogy’ is to keep striving for the greater, the “More” or the “Magis”. A change in the mindset of this kind requires frequent training programmes and spiritual orientation.

What are the parameters to judge the success of your school?

Our success as a school is primarily due to the effective implementation of the Ignatian Pedagogy, which is continually evolving and forms the basis of the ‘Jesuit Education’. We are committed to the following: • To offer in-depth faith formation in dialogue with other religions and world views.

• Provide value-based education which instils ethical principles and social well-being among all the students.

• Creating a safe and healthy environment for all.

• Global citizenship through International Student Exchange Programmes with schools abroad.

• Care of all creation – making the school self-sufficient via sustainable technologies such as harnessing solar energy, recycling plastic, garbage segregation, as well as green manuring.

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Cover Story • Justice through child advocacy and rights-based modules such as IMUN. • Being accessible to all strata of society by providing affordable, world-class education and providing concessions to the economically weak.

• Interculturality by living in harmony with all religions and cultures.

• Lifelong learning through systematic in-house training.

• Inculcating pride in India’s diversity by organising annual school excursions for all classes.

How does your school enable teachers to reach their highest potential?

To enhance the development of our teachers, we focus on the following practices in the school: • Regular classroom observations by the Academic Coordinators and Assistant Principal. These are followed by individual feedback sessions on pedagogy, content, as well as teacher mindsets.

• Classroom observation by senior teachers with constructive feedback.

• Newly recruited teachers are asked to attend lessons given by the senior teachers and learn the various skills of pedagogy.

• Inviting resource persons – we also invite resource people from different fields of expertise to expose our teachers to better teaching practices. For example, we had invited resource persons from the British Council to expose the teachers to bring in critical thinking, and reasoning with better communication skills in the classroom.

• Exposure visits – we encourage our teachers to go for workshops and field visits. Workshops and orientation programmes are organised in school by the school management. Senior teachers regularly attend cell meetings held by the Council.

SCREENING STUDENT DEVELOPMENT REGULARLY How does your school screen student development regularly?

At the pre-primary and primary level, we promote a non-competitive environment for children. Students do not take examinations but are regularly assessed based on worksheets and activities. The teachers decide the areas in which individual students need support. They also keep a record of every child’s interest, strengths and areas of improvement, which they regularly discuss with the parents.

At the Secondary level, we follow the two-semester examination system. Besides this, the students of class IX and X appear for the ongoing ‘Test Series’ in various school subjects. Teachers conduct intensive revision classes for students who need extra help.

The Secondary section of the school has also engaged the services of educational software companies like ‘Educational Initiative’, ‘Extramark’, ‘Tata Class Edge’ and ‘Detailed Assessment’ to enhance the teaching-learning process. At the National level, students are encouraged to participate in the Olympiads.

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What are your best practices that have improved student performance?

• Word for the Day – Word for the day with its meaning and a sentence related to the word is printed in the calendar for each day. This practice has helped our students to build and develop their vocabulary.

• Breathing Exercises – Yoga is calming for the mind and body. After the long lunch recess, daily breathing exercises are conducted for the entire school on the PA system, which helps students to collect themselves and regain focus.

• Examen or Examination of Conscience – We also incorporate the ‘Ignatian Spiritual Exercises’ by encouraging students to review their day with gratitude and better themselves by acknowledging their shortcomings.

• Canteen Day – The parents, teachers and students in collaboration with each other conduct a canteen day every month. The proceeds collected from canteen days are utilised for the tribal students at Talasari with whom we have our outreach programme. Besides this, some amount is spent on our support staff as an incentive during festive seasons.

• Adopt a Child – Our teachers have adopted the scheme of ‘adopt a child’. One or two children with academic or emotional problems are “adopted” by the teacher. The teachers accompany the children through all the ups and downs. This scheme has worked miracles to include every child into the mainstream.

• School Newsletter and Magazine – The school publishes an online school newsletter biannually wherein students write all reports of various activities in school.

Photographs in the newsletter are shot by the students of the ‘Photography Club’. The school also publishes an annual school magazine which contains articles written by students in both English and Hindi. These enable students to develop their skills in creative writing and journalism.

Cover Story Beyond academics, how does the school assess and map the individual skillsets of the students?

At St. Mary’s, we give equal emphasis to academics and extra-curricular activities. Before and after school, we have regular sports coaching programme which includes football, basketball, cricket, athletics, judo and karate. We focus on creating and developing the mindset of a good sportsperson. We also have various clubs, including music, interact, photography, nature, scout, RSP and social outreach. We take our students on regular nature walks. The social outreach club goes for rural camps and invites the rural students to spend a couple of days in the school. The outreach programme helps students become aware of rural life and the difficulties rural students face to pursue their education. The nature club helps students connect with nature profoundly and enables them to understand their responsibility within the bigger context of sustainability.

Dance, speech and drama form an integral part of the school curriculum; these art forms help students express their emotions and hone their communication skills. Further, annual school excursions help in developing life skills and comradery amongst students.

What are your school’s assessment measures to compare student performance nationally and internationally?

We test our students using the tool of ‘ASSET’ which is administered by Educational Initiative. Asset is a skill-based test that measures students’ conceptual understanding and benchmarks school performance at the international, national and regional level with actionable insights through easy-to-understand reports.

Describe some of the problem areas of learning at the classroom level that has been successfully identified and resolved.

Children with Special Needs – In our inclusive system of education, children with special needs form part of the regular classroom. My teachers work in close collaboration with the school counselling centre to identify and use remedial teaching practices to integrate them into the mainstream. Parents involvement in this process is imperative.

Children with Emotional Needs – Students who come from broken homes or are emotionally neglected at home tend to be distracted and indiscipline in class. My staff, along with the school counsellors use cognitive behavioural therapy to develop self-esteem and self-confidence in them.

To inculcate a love for more challenging subjects like Mathematics and Science we have introduced the ‘Curiosity Gym’ and ‘Mind Spark’ where students learn through hands-on methods, robotics and the use of mathematical toys and tools which aid in conceptual understanding.

What are some of the 21st-Century skills being addressed by your school curriculum?

Embracing the future where Artificial Intelligence, Experiential Learning is the order of the day, we at St. Mary’s have launched a pilot programme in collaboration with some of the most leading partners in STEAM technology viz. Curiosity Gym for our students.

This programme has focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math, Bio-Technology, Genetic Engineering, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.

This scope of content has further enhanced and enriched the existing curriculum making it come alive for our students.

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Cover Story CLEAR GOALS AND DIRECTION FOR THE SCHOOL What are your focus areas and goals for your school?

St. Mary’s follow the Ignatian Pedagogy to mould students to become ‘Men for Others’ and ‘Global Citizens of Tomorrow’. Our focus is holistic education which will develop the mind, body and soul. As a school leader, it has been my constant endeavour to ensure to build healthy and robust relationships with various stakeholders in the following ways: • To create a collaborative learning community where stakeholders grow holistically.

• Lifelong learning.

• Emphasis on justice, tolerance and understanding of all faiths and interculturality.

• Training for Global Citizenship through international exchange programmes.

• Embracing Ecological Stewardship by reducing our carbon footprints through sustainable technologies.

• Making education accessible and inclusive.

• Providing a secure and healthy environment for students to bloom.

How does a school leader bring together every stakeholder to accomplish goals?

As a school leader, I meet all school administrators regularly for a briefing and to discuss emergency issues. The school has hired the services of ‘Intellinects Ventures’ to create a platform for seamless communication – a portal which facilitates immediate communication between all stakeholders. There are regular meetings of the School Committee, Academic Council, Academic Coordinators, and the Counselling Team wherein as a school leader, I have detailed discussions.

Further, the monthly staff meeting is very productive and effective. Feast days and other celebrations also provide an opportunity for teachers to create cordial bonding with each other and with the management.

SAFETY AND STRUCTURE What are the parameters you use to consider your school a safe school?

The entire school campus is under CCTV surveillance. The security personnel restricts entry to the school campus at the entrance gate. Only school I.D. cardholders are permitted on the school premises. We have boundaries all around the school; a fire extinguisher is in place too. Visitors are given I.D. cards after the security personnel has scrutinised them. Corporal punishment is banned in St. Mary’s school. The counselling centre ensures that all kinds of assistance are given to children who have an emotional or psychological problem.

Additionally, students are never left unattended.

UNIQUE ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE SCHOOL Describe some unique achievements of the school stemming from having addressed these parameters • With the full counselling centre, we have been able to detect children with any kinds of problems at the pre-primary level already.

For students with various learning disabilities, are counselled as early as pre-primary. Thus, many students find relief at an early age.

Parents voluntarily take up the study of a special educator to help their child and to reach out to other children in the school.

• Developing entrepreneurial skills in students which enables them to take up leadership positions in all endeavours.

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Cover Story A SUCCESS STORY OF THE SCHOOL St. Mary’s takes pride in quite a few success stories: • The interschool fest ‘IMMACULATA’ has become the brand image of St. Mary’s. The uniqueness of this fest is that it is, of the students, by the students and for the students.

• The school has successfully installed solar panels which generates round-the-year electricity for the whole school.

• St. Mary’s is very proud to have an extremely illustrious alumni who owe their success to the foundation laid by their Alma Mater. To name a few:

ZUBIN MEHTA

BOMAN IRANI

FREDDIE MERCURY

Orchestral Conductor

Theatre and Bollywood Actor

Singer, Songwriter and Lead Vocalist of The Band Queen

KUNAL VIJAYKAR

GOOLAM ESSAJI VAHANVATI

HOMI K. BHABHA

Actor and Director

Attorney General of India

Professor at Harvard University

AZIM PREMJI

GAUTAM SINGHANIA

REHAN PONCHA

Chairman of Wipro Limited

Chairman & MD of the Raymond Group

Olympic Swimmer

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Governance

Finding a Balance

The Fine Line Between Creating an Experiential Learning Environment and Completion of the Syllabus Mr. M. Ramesh Kumar

“The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet” – Aristotle

Experiential learning provides opportunities for students to engage intellectually, emotionally, socially and physically.

According to Confucius, “We learn wisdom through three methods – first, by reflection which is the noblest; second, by imitation which is the easiest; and third, by experience which is the bitterest.”

While talking about experiential learning, there are four steps of the learning cycle cited by Dr. Kolb.

CONCRETE EXPERIENCE (BY DOING)

ACTIVE EXPERIMENTATION

KOLB’S EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING CYCLE

ABSTRACT CONCEPTUALISATION (THINKING)

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REFLECTING OBSERVATION (OBSERVE)

Governance Success is directly proportional to planning. If you plan anything, you will achieve success. The same principle applies here – if we want to implement experiential learning for children and ensure the completion of the syllabus on time. One has to know how to maintain a balance between both. Unless we plan, before the academic year starts, it isn’t very easy. Here, the teacher’s creativity and collaboration with other subjects count a lot.

In the present scenario, simply handing knowledge of the subject is not enough because children are far ahead than teachers in collecting information. This is just like dynamite in their hands which can either be used for the better or, the worse, just as it was not known to amateur scientists. As educators, we play a pivotal role in guiding children. To handle today’s generation, we need to amalgamate more than two to three subjects to create interest for students.

Given this context, the teaching community must come together in advance before the academic session starts.

Academic Coordinators play a significant role here. He/she has to bring all the subject teachers under one umbrella and ask them to sort out the topics which can work together for experiential learning. Once they sort out the topics, teachers have to plan the topics to cover in two or three classes which take approximately six periods in total. For instance, if we are dealing with a biography of a scientist in a language class, we can use his work in science class when dealing with the same invention of the same scientist. This will help teachers provide relevant instances rather than explaining the concept.

This system also helps to create interest in the subject for which students may not be interested. For instance, if a child is not interested in maths but interested in language, the teacher can discuss the life of a mathematician which may develop curiosity in the student and motivate him/her to learn maths. Similarly, while dealing with botany, students can explore nature and learn about plants and poems on nature.

Through this collaborative, experiential learning, teachers can shoot two birds with one stone.

ASSIGNING COLLABORATIVE, INTER-DISCIPLINARY PROJECTS Assigning collaborative projects provides an opportunity for students to learn more than two or three subjects at a single point of time, all of which covers different concepts. Based on the topic, subject teachers can collaborate and take up the task, which will also be more interesting to the students and time and effort can be saved. Plus, this breaks the monotony of the class and ensures students are learning in a conducive environment.

For example, the story of ‘making of scientists’ deals with Richard Ebright and how his curiosity made him become a scientist that studied cell life. To a literature student, to read about a scientist and his interests will be a bit boring.

However, if this topic is covered while teaching cell life to children, they will be far more motivated by the concept.

By doing so, we as educators can save a lot of time as well as provide a better platform for children to reflect on the topic.

The execution of this plan is also critical. There should not be any deviations. If teachers can successfully implement this, undoubtedly, they will be able to balance experiential learning as well as complete the syllabus on time. Further, to help them achieve this, the school can conduct extensive workshops under the supervision of professionals at the beginning of the academic year. Schools can also invite external faculty members to interact with their students to break the monotony.

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Governance Usually, in school, the library and computer science periods go to waste without any accountability. These one or two wasted periods in a week, means nearly 30-40 periods over time. Here, educators can utilise at least 25 hours in a year which can be benefited by asking students to do research and present their research paper related to specific topics.

From this, children will learn research skills, the ability to choose content, and constructively make use of time.

ROLE OF RESOURCE PERSONS To be successful, resource persons play a very significant role to make it convenient for both the teaching and student fraternity. These resource persons can design lesson plans in such a way that there won’t be any confusion in dealing with topics under different circumstances/environment.

REFRAMING OF CURRICULUM If you want to implement all this, the curriculum should be teacher-friendly. It should start as a pilot project so that children and teachers will be well adapted.

COOPERATION NOT COMPETITION Teachers should execute the above principle to balance experiential learning and syllabus completion.

LONG HOURS WITH SHORT BREAKS To implement experiential learning, we need long hours of instruction because it involves many steps like identifying the concept, learning by doing, executing and collecting and sharing feedback for better understanding, etc.

Taking short breaks is essential to regenerate ideas.

WEEKEND WORKSHOPS To encourage students, once in a fortnight, teachers can organise workshops which will motivate students to use weekends productively. This is indispensable for the present generation, so they are driven in learning new life skills, and they can be diverted from factors which have become a great hindrance to their studies.

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SPECIAL ASSEMBLIES While planning for special assemblies, coordinators and teachers should sit together and chalk out the topics which can be implemented so that at the end of the year, they can cover at least five per cent of the topics.

FIELD TRIPS At the beginning of the academic year, before planning a field trip, subjects/topics need to be segregated so that at the time of the field trips, teachers can cover the topics by providing questionnaires, feedback forms, datasheets, articles, diary entries, etc.

EDUCATIONAL TOURS In many institutions, educational tours have become more entertainment rather than informative. So, before deciding the destination of national and international trips, children need to be educated regarding the trips, and they need to be prepared mentally for the activities. The concerned staff should be made accountable because parents are investing lakhs of money for their wards.

IT’S A PASSION NOT A JOB Unfortunately, teaching has become a job rather than a passion – a job by chance rather than by choice. Looking at the last two decades, the teacher and student relation has been invaluable.

The teacher was everything for a student because he/she was the only source of information for him/her. But in the present scenario, it is entirely vice versa because of the extensive development in technology.

Today, ten per cent of information is delivered by teachers while the remaining 90 per cent can be obtained through technology. Unless teachers consider teaching as a passion, it cannot happen effectively.

If it is a passion, the teacher does not see any hindrances for completing the syllabus through experiential learning. To conclude, the quote by Confucius – “I hear and I forget, I see and I remember, I do and I understand” – best explains the need for experiential learning for students.

Governance

National Education Policy-2020 and School Education: (Re)invigorate, (Re)structure and (Re)form Dr Chetan Singai

John Taylor Gatto’s book Weapons of Mass Instruction begins with an interesting debate on compulsory schooling (read Right to Education (RTE)) in India. Gatto examines the question of ‘what type of education will help learners to be self-reliant, reflective and sensitive human beings. Is our existing education system sensitive enough towards the needs of the child? Are we propagating and reinforcing the traditional higher-order approach of three ‘R’s (Reading, W(R)iting, A(R)thematic)? Arguably, the three ‘R’ approach accentuates basic literacy with limited or not much scope for the holistic development of the child. As Mahatma Gandhi once expressed (in 1937) ‘education should aid in the development of the brain, body and the spirit. Literacy, in itself, does not constitute education’.

Such higher-order approach exposes us to debates on education vs learning: the former being teacher and teaching-centric and the latter promulgating learner and learning-centric approach. India’s education system, in the last decades, has been teacher and teacher-centric, due to an emphasis on the traditional higher-order approach I.e.., the three ‘R’s, at the level of the policy and practice, across most of the schools in India.

Such an approach is deeply rooted in our education system since Independence. The new National Education Policy-2020 (NEP-2020) replaces a 34-year-old National Policy on Education, framed in 1986. The NEP-2020 provides glimmers of hope in rejuvenating school education with a core policy objective to ‘revitalize school education through effective regulation and accreditation mechanisms that ensure integrity and transparency and foster quality and innovation for continually improving educational outcomes’.

In line with this, the NEP-2020 recommends significant reforms in school curriculum and pedagogy, school administration/governance, and teacher education.

REFORMING CURRICULUM AND PEDAGOGY The NEP-2020 envisages an unprecedented structural shift in school education in India, including the medium of instruction. According to the NEP-2020, “language is a medium of expression of the individual, society and its collective continuity in culture, in addition to being a tool for communication’. Language has a direct bearing as the mediator in all cognitive and social capacities, including in knowledge acquisition and production.

The science of child development and language acquisition suggests that young children become literate in (as a language) and learn best through (as a medium of instruction) their “local language,” i.e. the language spoken at home”.

Hence, the NEP-2020 recommends. Wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/local language/regional language’.

A much needed and debated recommendation of the NEP-2020. The NEP-2020 recommends that the existing 10+2 structure in school education will be modified with a new pedagogical and curricular restructuring of 5+3+3+4 covering ages 3-18. The proposed pedagogical and curricular structure is divided into four stages as against the current two-stage structure: - Foundational Stage (Ages 3 to 6 OR 3-years pre-primary and class 1 to 2) - Preparatory Stage (Ages 8 to 11 OR class 3 to 5) - Middle Stage (Ages 11 to 14 OR class 6 to 8) - Secondary Stage (Ages 14 to 18 OR class 9 to 12)

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Governance

To this end, the NEP-2020 early childhood care and education (ECCE) as a part of the Foundational stage of school education, a single curricular and pedagogical phase of play and discovery-based learning for very young children, between the ages of 3-8 years. The Eighty-sixth Constitutional Amendment in 2002 extended the provision of ECCE to children from age three onwards, and this commitment has been honoured. The policy takes cognizance of the differences in the development of cognitive abilities in children. The flexibility in the first five years will enable equalizing of the multiple cognitive abilities of children.

This is followed by a Preparatory stage consisting of three years (Grades 3, 4 and 5) of basic education incorporating some textbooks as well as aspects of more formal classroom learning. The next three years of Middle stage school education (Grades 6, 7 and 8) would involve developing more abstract thinking and subject teaching leading up to a Secondary education stage of four years (Grades 9, 10, 11 and 12).

This last phase of four years of secondary school education will facilitate multidisciplinary studies with appropriate exit options besides preparing for the next phase of the undergraduate programme of study, including an early introduction to Liberal Arts education. To this end, the NEP-2020 considers education as an integral part of the Children’s holistic development and sees education as a continuum – between the primary, secondary and higher education.

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REFORMING SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION AND GOVERNANCE At the level of schools, effective governance and administration will be critical to engage with proposed reforms. To this end, the NEP-2020 recommends that the “State/UT Governments adopt innovative formats, such as school complex, rationalization of schools, without in any way reducing accessibility, for effective school governance, resource sharing, and community building. The creation of school complexes could go a long way toward building vibrant teacher communities”.

The NEP-2020 proposes to establish School complexes ensuring the availability of all resources like infrastructure, academic (e.g. libraries) and people (e.g. art and music teachers). The NEP-2020 suggests robust collaboration with parents and other key local stakeholders, wherein teachers will also be more involved in the governance of schools/school complexes, including as members of the School Management Committees/School Complex Management Committees. With such macro and micro-level reforms, the NEP-2020 envisages an efficient and effective administration and governance across schools and school education in the country.

Governance REFORMING TEACHER EDUCATION The proposed restructuring of curriculum and pedagogy in school education is dependent on the capacity and capability of teachers to engage with the proposed structure. To this end, the NEP-2020 recommends reforming teacher education in the country. According to the NEP-2020, Teacher capacity also plays a central role in the attainment of foundational skills. Currently, few teachers have had the opportunity to be trained in a multilevel, play-based, student-centred style of learning, especially for the foundational and preparatory stages. Further, the policy recommends that teacher education should include methods for the recognition and fostering of such student talents and interests. The NCERT and NCTE will develop guidelines for the education of gifted children. B.Ed. Programmes may also allow specialization in the education of gifted children.

The NEP-2020 identifies that the ‘the quality of teacher education, recruitment, deployment, service conditions, and empowerment of teachers is not where it should be, and consequently the quality and motivation of teachers does not reach the desired standards.’ In order to address this problem, the policy recommends essential provisions to ensure that ‘outstanding students enter the teaching profession - especially from rural areas - a large number of merit-based scholarships shall be instituted across the country for studying quality 4- year integrated B.Ed. programmes.’ The NEP-2020 suggests that the Teacher Eligibility Tests (TETs) needs to be strengthened to inculcate better test material, both in terms of content and pedagogy.

The TETs is extended to cover teachers across all stages (Foundational, Preparatory, Middle and Secondary) of school education.

THE WAY FORWARD: IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE NEP-2020 According to the Constitution of India, education is a Concurrent subject (Seventh Schedule of the Constitution).

The Concurrent list includes the subjects to common interest to both union/centre and state government. Both the centre and state government can make laws. In case of conflicts, laws by central government prevail.

The provision could unpack specific barriers and drivers to translate the policy recommendations to actual implementation. At the level of the states, issues related to party ideology, resource allocation/optimization and anxiety of centralization are some of the significant barriers for implementing the reforms proposed by the NEP-2020.

In sum, the NEP-2020 envisages a need to reduce curriculum and to propagate learning as an interactive process based on practical learning. The focus is on the practice of concepts and making education more flexible, practical, learning, and diversified. The NEP-2020 visualizes school education to be a lifelong process of transforming information and experience into knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes.

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LXL Article

Home Learning An LXL Ideas Article by Mansi Jinadra

Billions of students have stopped going to schools due to the COVID-19 closure, and as a result, are completely disconnected with their teachers and the learning process itself. During such times of social distancing and isolation, only the Multi-Faceted Tools of Digital Learning can help us maintain the connection.

Here are some recommendations of the tools of Home Learning that teachers can use to encourage, inspire and empower their students.

- Video Chat with your students via Hangouts for a group tutoring session or Skype for a one-to-one session - Create Webinars for your students via Zoom. If live-streaming is not possible, record your webinars and send them to your students.

- Use Virtual Whiteboards like Jamboard to demonstrate concepts, chart out diagrams and engage students in activities like making mind maps.

At such times, it is equally important to be connected with your fellow teachers to stay updated. Here are some ways to help teachers stay connected: Guide Your Teachers: • Envision: Explain Need for change, describe it with enthusiasm and optimism • Clarify: Set specific performance goals and maintain quality standards • Support: Provide support and encouragement when there is a difficult task • Modify: Encourage participation, include member suggestions and deal with concerns to formulate decisions • Plan: Help organize unit activities to use people, equipment and resources efficiently • Delegate: Empower team to resolve problems • Monitor: Check on progress of quality of work in systematic manner • Recognise: Praise for contribution and achievements

- Set up an Online Class with Google Classroom to make announcements, give students assignments and to grade their assignments.

TIPS TO USE THESE TOOLS EFFECTIVELY • Share an agenda for the call beforehand • Moderate the session for questions • Acknowledge each child • Use gestures • Practice before you go live • Maintain eye contact while recording

TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE PLANNING AND MONITORING OF VIRTUAL CLASSES - Build up excitement in your virtual class by giving your students a Live Quiz through Google Slides.

- Create and share Assignments in Google Docs, helping you provide real-time feedback to your students and track their progress.

- Store the assignments in Google Drive so that you can easily access them anytime and anyplace.

- Assess your students’ progress by creating quizzes in Google Forms.

- Schedule 1:1 meeting with students and parents regularly via Google Calendar.

- Create a Class Website via Google Sites to share academic and generic information.

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Stay Connected: - Take virtual Tea/Coffee Breaks together on Video Calls via Hangouts Meet or Zoom and discuss your day - Share your resources with other teachers via Google Drive.

- Stay connected with fellow teachers via Chat on Hangouts Chat individually or in a group.

- Conduct virtual Group Sessions to upskill together from Online Tutorials or Webinars available freely on YouTube.

In these times, where tangible meetings seem like a far-fetched dream, it is crucial to adopt and embrace technology to keep us all connected and help us tide over the crisis.

Innovation

The ABCs of Youth Skill Development Awareness of Abilities, Building Opportunities, Creating Possibilities Ms. Salony Priya Counselling, coaching, and mentoring by educators is essential to build skills and make the youth future-ready for employment and innovations so that the India of 2030 emerges as an empowered community of techno-savvy, strongly-motivated youth with skills to excel!

This is the ultimate dream for all of us who believe that despite all distractions and all kinds of behaviour, we see in our children and youth that they do have potential, and also, they are bright and brilliant in some other ways than us.

They are the techno-generation that has to master technology and not be its slave; they have to compete with artificial intelligence and strive to save this world they see as having major environmental issues. We had conducted a study in ten schools with grade four students and realised that the children were worried if they have a future as schools were shut due to pollution. The questions of the children were disturbing. So, are we as educators making children future-ready in and beyond our schools?

SKILLS PYRAMID

Invent

Solve

Work

Play

Know

CREATING NEW KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, PRODUCTS, SERVICE; LEADERSHIP

Craftsman

CREATIVE USE OF SKILLS TO RESOLVE PROBLEMS

Expert

PURPOSEFUL USE OF KNOWLEDGE

MOTIVATIONAL USE OF KNOWLEDGE

ACQUIRING BASIC KNOWLEDGE

Specialist

Apprentice

Student

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Innovation KNOWLEDGE BASE LEADS TO SKILL BUILDING All learning of concepts and skills starts with acquiring the necessary knowledge. Then, comes the motivational use of knowledge – many reforms of teaching in classrooms with projects, model making by students, group work to search, and application of concepts in daily life are a step to ensure students get an opportunity to use this knowledge. Post that, comes the purposeful use of knowledge where not just knowing, understanding or learning is enough. The person moves up the skill building pyramid and starts applying this knowledge to meaningful use.

This leads the way for the creative use of acquired knowledge to produce solutions. Problem-solving skills emerge, and it sets the path for the peak of the pyramid, which includes creating new knowledge, innovation, new vision and new possibilities.

THE PROMISE OF A NEW WORLD From conventional teaching in the last 50 years, we have focussed heavily on the first two stages of skill-building, giving knowledge and to some extent allowing motivational use of knowledge to our students. It has done good, created a broad base of knowledge and our students know a lot. Now we need to innovate and move to the next two stages. How wonderful it would be when the Indian youth would be recognised for their talent, innovations, and they would create solutions for so many environmental, medical, urban-life disaster issues. This would lead to a tech-savvy society, based on strong value systems and driven with passion as the youth would have the right blend to create, deal, cope and change!

The largest youth population on this planet is Indians.

While this is an awesome feeling, it is also a great responsibility. Our Indian youth has grown with a rich cultural base, a diverse community, exposure to a variety of languages, cuisines, costumes, rituals, and the stage for a colourful life is already set. How wonderful it would be if educators could see the immense potential we have currently in our schools and colleges to create a new world.

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THE ESSENCE OF SKILL BUILDING When I listen to students with care and empathy, not to correct them, but to understand their perspective, I strongly feel the need to build skills in them. To quote, a 17-year old said this to me: “Teachers being our elders, we expect them to guide us and show us the path, but instead they treat us like ‘come on, Amit’ (a hypothetical name to ensure confidentiality).

Are you a kid? Do I need to tell you what you need to do?

You should know.”

To its reply, I stay silent, but a lot is going on in my head.

With the frustration of not knowing how to handle things, I seek refuge in the internet, things like chatting with people who aren’t real but we do it anyway because it keeps our mind off from stress. I hear these similar statements every day when I counsel and coach – from the internet to drug addiction being chosen by young people who are stuck with hours of watching meaningless things on the internet – thinking it would distract them or give them happiness. I meet competent young people who are in a vicious cycle of helplessness. They trust their teachers; they crave for their attention even when they are now five feet ten inches tall. Now they do not say anything, but wait for us to reach out to them and understand them. Can we judge them and leave them, labelled as bad?

Innovation It’s a very short-term view when we feel the need to reduce stress on the youth – reduce syllabus, reduce examination pressure, change assessment pattern so that all could score higher marks, give them more subject options – but, is that the complete, sustainable solution? I have seen more and more students with marks above 85 per cent feeling low, empty and have no direction, no belief in themselves, even though in the last two years they have studied hard.

It’s obvious we are not doing enough for our students who are failing, not just in examinations, but more importantly, in life. We need to do something more tangible, involving them in building more people skills. Will it not be better to teach them how to decide when they have options, will it not be better to teach them how to deal with situations where they could not cope, how to bounce back, what do they do when they have very tempting offers all-around bombarded from media, everyone and every product offering quick solutions, easy ways and short cuts, and how does a 17-year-old see wisdom in practising and taking the long and more difficult route?

Let us accept that our youth is the largest global market. Hence, everyone is selling them everything possible, packaged with exceptionally lucrative promises, whether it’s a beauty product or a health drink or a quick memory potion or a friend for life data card.

In such circumstances, will it not be essential then to teach them skills to deal and cope and change?

THE UNIFIED FORCE OF INTELLECT, EXPERIENCE AND PASSION Thus, educators need to: Adopt Mentoring Build emotional skills, empathy, resilience, and the ability to coexist and not compete!

Adopt Coaching Build thinking skills, problem-solving and decision-making skills, so that they learn to handle life situations.

Adopt Counselling Build coping skills and let them learn to face disappointments, learn to lose with dignity and handle stress with calmness.

Let 2020 be a year that redefines Indian education. We are good, but it is time to move to be great. But even that is not enough; let us build skills the same way we taught ABC and be ready for the best!

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Innovation

Balanced and Thoughtful Implementation of Technology Looking at Technology as a Teaching Aid and Not as a Burden Mr. Yogesh Popat The 21st century is an era of technological changes. The use of technology can be considered as a necessary evil for the education sector. We cannot deny the benefits of utilising technology in our daily routine. Still, the other side of this coin also includes many harmful consequences, especially on the health of our young generation. It is our duty as educators to train students to have a balanced use of technology.

A BOON OR A BANE? Technology has several benefits like it makes learning exciting for students, it reduces the use of paper, social networks help students and others connect to the broader community, but on the other hand, the excessive use of digital devices affects the eyes and postures of students very severely, as well as it reduces their imagination and thinking capability. Sleep deprivation, social isolation, and cyberbullying are some of the points negatively affecting the mindset of young students. A recent Internet survey found that 78 per cent of teenagers have mobile phones, up from just 23 per cent in 2011.

THE RESPONSIBLE USE OF TECHNOLOGY Instead of using smart classes daily to teach the varied topics in different subjects, only one period of smart class per week per subject is suggested. Playgrounds, nearby areas, and laboratories can be utilised as teaching aids which not only attracts the attention of students but also develops the scientific temperament of students. Nowadays, it has been observed that instead of doing practical in labs, students and teachers are both using virtual labs to understand the same concept, which affects the learning capability of the students.

British Columbia’s Society of Occupational Therapists in their letter in 2009, stated that the young generation is so dependent on technology for their study, play and entertainment, that it is negatively impacting their optimal sensory and motor development.

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In schools, a digital citizenship curriculum is of utmost importance for young students to behave as safe and responsible digital citizens. Google, in association with NCERT, has launched a programme which integrates safety and digital citizenship for young students. Still, statistics reflect that students spend on average seven to nine hours per day on entertainment media, social media, and gaming.

Media balance is a topic of great importance for the younger generation. Technology can be considered as a giant room in which we are very close to everyone. So, what is the correct answer? Which way should we direct our young students to move to? We may not have an immediate answer, but we need to look at both sides of the coin and accordingly, as educators, we need to guide children.

Innovation

In the present scenario, technology can be considered as a necessity more than a luxury.

To have balance and control in the use of technology, a certain degree of parental supervision is also necessary. At home and in school, freedom for students is required but with the necessary licensing.

Periodic sessions on topics like correct body postures, caring for our eyes, cybersecurity and daily lifestyle, is need of the hour for every school – not only for students but also for teachers and parents.

TIPS TO MAINTAIN A HEALTHY BALANCE BETWEEN DIGITAL AND NON-DIGITAL LIFE

Teach Young Students About E-Safety and Fake News We must introduce students to the concept of ‘fake news’. Additionally, teach students about safe online activity, and the threats of internet grooming, sexting, cyberbullying and identity theft. We must ask students to cross-examine all information before they develop a complete trust in any of the news.

Challenge Covert Advertising Which Has Greater Impact on Young Minds It is a proven fact in many kinds of research studies that promotions and advertisements have a more significant impact on children’s minds. For example, junk food TV ads have been shown to make children hungry and tempted.

Teachers should train children to understand and examine the commercial reasons behind every advertisement.

Encourage Students to Think Ethically and Emotionally To teach students about digital citizenship, an ethical dimension is required.

It is essential to teach children how to behave in an online environment where public and private worlds are blurred.

Create Digital Ambassadors In any school, there are a group of people who are digital innovators. These groups can be used to serve as digital ambassadors who can plan and execute different kinds of youth leadership programmes revolving around the responsible use of technology and digital citizenship.

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Innovation STATISTICS AND RESEARCH

17

297

75%

India is the second fastest digital adopter among 17 major digital economies.

The growth of 297 million new users represents a year-on-year increase of more than 10 per cent. In January 2019, 3.26 billion people used social media on mobile devices.

increase in internet users has been noted since 2014.

CONCLUSION

When it comes to introducing digital citizenship, we can’t bury our heads in the sand. Instead, it should be the joint venture of the government, school, parents, teachers, and leaders to use digital media for the betterment of society.

Using social media and technology is like the age-old question of the chicken or the egg. It is the collective responsibility of leaders, administrators, teachers and parents to train young minds in such a way that they must be able to efficiently decide whether spending time on social media and the internet is a waste or an investment.

References 1.Tikam, Madhuri V. “Impact of ICT on Education.” IGI Global, IGI Global, 1 Jan. 1AD. 2.Makosa, Pawel. (2013). Advantages and disadvantages of digital education. Biuletyn Edukacji Medialnej.

3.Ohler, J. B. (2013). Digital storytelling in the classroom: new media pathways to literacy, learning, and creativity (2nd ed.).https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452277479.

4.Sook-Jung, L., & Young-Gil, G. (2007). Children's internet USe in a family context: Influence on family relationships and parental mediation. Cyberpsychology & Psychology, 10(5) doi:10.1089/cpb.2007.9975

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