Page 27 - EW FEB 2022

EW SPOTLIGHT FEATURE

FAST FORWARDING

towards a better educational experience

here is growing awareness about the adverse impact of Redefine components of quality education
prolonged schools’ closure caused by the raging Coronavirus Continuing from where Dr. Saha left off, the group’s vice
Tpandemic on the lives of students worldwide. International and chairperson Mr. Shreevats Jaipuria urged school leaders to focus
national research findings indicate that learning loss apart, students on continuous learning, value inculcation, meeting aspirations of
have suffered mental and physical health issues as well. society, according equal importance to co-curricular activities, and
The need to reimagine Indian education has never been more lifelong learning as the vital components of quality education.
critical now given the country’s unpreparedness for a digital learning Incidentally, all Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools are deeply rooted in
environment coupled with poverty and poor Internet penetration. the values of Sustainability, Possibility, Integrity, Collaboration, and
The time has come for crisis recovery mode to enable improvements Empathy -- SPICE in short!
in assessment, pedagogy, technology, financing, and parental
involvement.
The Seth M.R. Jaipuria Group of schools that runs and manages
43 K-12 schools – with an aggregrate enrolment of 30,000 students Values followed at Seth M.R. Jaipuria Group of Schools
instructed by 2,200 faculty -- has a presence in 36 cities. Driven
by our motto to nurture future-ready students equipped with 21st Need to redefine assessments
century skills, we organised the 7th Jaipuria Leadership Programme Addressing the school heads, Professor Dr S. Garimella stressed
in December 2021 -- attended by 38 school heads -- and deliberated on the objective of assessment – not to judge but enhance quality
and addressed a range of issues from school culture, setting of education. Authentic assessments don’t focus only on cognitive
high standards for teacher performance, increased academic understanding but foster the affective and emotional well-being
expectations for all students and community engagement. During of children. It perfectly synced with Dr. Saha’s address on
the course of the three-day event, the following points came up and differentiated assessments.
we are happy to share the same with the larger educational fraternity
with the hope that collectively, we will do better. Plan early and plan well
Chinese philosopher Confucius famously said: “A man who does
Build back better: Make your school the ‘school of choice’ not plan long ahead will find trouble at his door”. Mr Kanak Gupta,
Addressing the impact and uncertainty of the pandemic era, the the Director of Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools, emphasised the need
need to foster students’ cognitive development as much as their for planning to be a step ahead and referred to Brian Tracy’s
social, emotional and spiritual development emerged as a strong famous metaphor ‘Eat That Frog!’ to urge the school heads to
requirement. The school of choice must also focus on bringing all tackle the most challenging task first and not procrastinate. With
stakeholders together with a common interest to improve children’s what he referred to as ‘hygiene factors’, Mr Gupta guided the
lives. Addressing the gathering, the chief guest Dr. Biswajit Saha, leaders towards setting up systems and processes in schools to
Director (Training & Skill Education), CBSE, spoke about the avoid last-minute chaos and rush.
importance of transforming students into confident, independent
learners and guiding them on their career path. He also emphasised Sharpen your saw
the importance of skill development and urged schools to adopt a An education system is only as good as its teachers. Research
data-centric approach for better administration. has shown that teacher effectiveness is the most significant
school-level factor impacting student achievement (McCaffrey,
Koretz, Lockwood, & Hamilton, 2004; Rivkin, Hanushek, & Kain,
2005; Rockoff, 2004), and yet little is known about teacher and
administrator perceptions of teacher effectiveness. Just like the 7th
and final habit as proposed by American educator Stephen Covey,
the underlying message throughout the Leadership Programme
was to preserve and professionally develop the greatest assets of
all schools -- its teachers!
Let’s all join hands to make learning for our students
intellectually appealing and in the process build a community
of practice and work towards collective teacher efficacy. After
all, John Hattie, through his path-breaking meta-analysis, has
stated that teacher efficacy is directly proportional to student
Dr. Biswajit Saha emphasised skill education achievement!

EDUCATIONWORLD FEBRUARY 2022