Every year
City Montessori School, Lucknow organizes Ed Leadership Conference. This year
it was 9th Ed Leadership Conference and theme was child centric education, creating a new
normal and from hunches to evidence based education.
The
conference begins with lamp lightening. The way to honour each and every
delegate participating in the conference was really amazing. They invited all
the delegates on the stage for the lamp lightening. The gesture shows their
humility, as they wanted every delegate to feel connected to this conference.
Dr Bharti
Gandhi,
Founder Director
City Montessori School
The first
speaker was Mrs Bharti Gandhi, Founder Director of City Montessori School. I
was really amazed to see the passion and commitment of Mrs Gandhi towards the
students of City Montessori School. She said the work of educationists is to
enable child for the benefit of Mankind. We have to make diamonds from the raw
coal. The mind is the gem of inestimable value.
She also
said medical science is the greatest science because it deals with the human
body after God and we are above it because we tech students to become Doctor. She
also said every child is potentially the light of the world and this is the
belief on which CMS works.
The purpose
of education is to give Gyan, Guna and Sewa Bhav to the students. Teacher’s
work is to motivate students so that they believe in themselves. The
educationists are doing work of Almighty God. We are doing greatest of the
greatest service towards mankind. We must not be afraid of anyone.
The speech
of Mrs Gandhi was really fascinating and inspiring for me.
Mr Alfie Kohn,
Renowned author
of many books on child psychology and education
The session
with Mr Alfie Kohn- A renowned author and outspoken personality of United
States of America. He gave lecture on his book “The case against Competition”.
He said competition is never necessary for the development of a human being. He
gave lecture on the saying of Geeta’s “Fal ki chinta mat karo” at the same time
it does not mean “fal ki apeksha mat karo”. Also we had one idiot among three
Idiots- Baba Ranchor Das who said “kabil bano kamiyabi ki taraf mat bhago”. It
has a true meaning that run for the excellence…….which is never ending process
throughout life.
In the
evening I went to attend another conference which was conducted by Intelligent minds, a group of global
principals and educationists, from Kuwait to Perth, From Delhi, Mumbai,
Hyderabad, Lucknow, Raipur and many more places. This conference was sponsored by Mr Rajesh bajaj, director of PM Publishers Pvt. Ltd. His efforts made us together and form a larger group of the principals and promoters of the school. We had a get together party at
Marriott Lucknow. We interacted with each other and exchanged words about our
forte. I liked the presentation given by Mr Ashish Arya, Chairman, little
Angels School Sonipat was outstanding and heart touching. He is a visionary entrepreneur
who started from a small school in sonipat, and now after years of hard work
& labour, it has become a world class institution. His love and compassion
for humanity fascinated me. I would say “Insan ko Insaan samajhna koi Ashish ji
se seekhe” (Similar traits of Jagdish Gandhi and his family). Unfortunately his
wife Mrs Soniya Arya passed away last year due to swine flu. It was the biggest
setback for him and the little angels family. His wife had a dream of a school
for students with special need. Therefore he started inclusive school in
sonipat in the name of Mrs Soniya Arya.
Mr Ashish Arya,
Chairman little
Angels School, Sonipat
The presentation
given by Mr Arya proved that “Neeyat
Imandaari aur Mehnat se insaan kuch bhi kar sakta hai”
Fortunately
the presentation is available on youtube. The link is:
I am sorry
to all speakers of the conference for not covering all their talks. This is my
inability for not able to learn from your talks. The words written here are
only things which I have seen and learned from my senses.
Ms Seema
did research on the effects of turmeric on the cells of onion to prevent the
growth of cancer cells.
We, the leaders
of the schools are looking for the best books, kits and educational material
for our students. Mrs. Sunita Gandhi and her global classroom team is
developing educational kits and material by their own research and
implementation.
First is “Target
Plus” this is a tool which help students improve their score in boards
examination. In this model teachers take
diagnostic pre board mocks, generate personal diagnostic reports, make personalised study plan and provide study material to the students. In this way
it helps students to understand to concepts and score marks in the boards
examination.
Devi
Sansthan is also an initiative of global classroom, which has developed Learning
kits for first generation learners. James Pearce, Shahnaz Zaidi,
Parvati Sharma, Neeru Sanyal and Neelima Bagaria are working with the children
living in the slums of Lucknow. James is personally living in the slums of
lucknow and teaching them hindi with the kits developed by global classroom
team.
Teacher
Guardian:
One thing that caught my attention was Teacher Guardian which was evolved by CMS.
In CMS
every teacher has to make a home visit of 5-10 students wherein they get a
better idea of a child’s home environment. They sit with their parents,
siblings or any other family member and discuss in detail the performance of
their child. The parents are made to understand what is expected out of them
and their ward as well for his or her better performance; be it sports,
academics, or any other curricular activity. The parents also in return share
their concern with the teachers. According to me this is very good platform for
teachers, parents and students as they can discuss anything they want with
plenty of time in hand, which is not possible during regular PTMs.
Enrichment
classes:
CMS of
course is a world-class institution and I went there to understand their
working and imbibing what all I could. Enrichment classes are one of the many
things, which intrigued me. We all conduct remedial or provisional classes for
students who need more attention or are weak. But in CMS they have named it
“enrichment classes”, enrichment because it is enriching students with concepts
they failed to understand earlier. Remedial classes or provisional classes
according to them bifurcates the students as smart and weak. So they came up
with the concept of enrichment classes wherein topics are explained to students
thoroughly with educational tools and all the students are free to attend these
classes. Every Saturday teachers have a meeting with their principal/directors
in which they have to show through a presentation what all education tools they
have used to cover different topics and what have they done to improve the
performance of the student.
Teacher’s work is to motivate
students and students must believe in themselves.
If we want to reach to the pinnacle then
we need to compete with our self.
There was a
need of the book dictation in the 18th Century when the children do
not have books due to poverty and students make notes of the sentences spoken
by the teacher in the classroom. Now the scenario has been changed. Every child
has book and can read itself.
Geeta Gandhi’s Talk on RTE
Right to
education act was implemented for the universalization of the education for
all. Unfortunately in the manner RTE act has been framed is way far behind the
objective of the universalization of education. Why
Only the
bread and butter depends on the school
I have seen
similar pain in the eyes of all entrepreneurs who established education
institutions to serve the society genuinely. The purpose of educational
institution is not only providing academic knowledge also imbibing moral values
in the students. How can an educational institution can bring the change in the
society and make students morally perfect when the roots of the institution are
weak.
Every
professional has right to earn for his livelihood. Doctors, lawyers, butcher
and all except the manager of school does not have right to take salary. Every
school needs full time manager to execute functions of school. He has big
contribution in the development of school. The entrepreneurs established
schools have bad image only because their bread and butter depends on the
school. People must see the contribution made by them. There is an old saying
that if we open one school we are closing one jail.
80% of the
private schools are providing education on the cost below the recurring
expenditure of the government in a government school.
The parents
have shown their faith in private school education by sending their kids to
private schools instead of government schools.
Dr Jagdish Gandhi,
Founder Manager, City Montessori School
I came back
from CMS as an awestruck child. I was literally in “Awe” of everything they
did. Managing 53,000 students and a staff of around 5000 is definitely not an
easy task. It requires great efforts, hard work and a vision. Dr. Bharti
Gandhi, Founder Director CMS has trained everyone such that from forth class to
administration to teachers and to students everyone knows their motto by heart
which is “Jai Jagat”. It means that one should contribute to the peace and
development of the world and because of their ardent belief in this motto they
were awarded UNESCO peace award in year 2002. Apart from different things I
learnt first thing which I would follow for sure is to have a vision and stick
to it, come what may we should not deter from our vision, our focus. The second
would be the provision of enrichment classes in my school. Third would be
making my students and teachers belief in our schools’ motto:
"Preparing children to serve mankind
extraordinarily”
I would
like to make my students teachers understand the purpose behind my vision and
motivating them that we can collectively achieve it., so that from fourth class
to teachers and to students everyone feels proud to be associated with SR
Capital public school.
Mr Lakshya Chhabaria,
Manager, SR Capital Public School
The writer of this blog.
