Page 15 - Nooraine Fazal

Eduleader

bytes

Forsaking a successful corporate career overseas in London, Dubai, Sydney, Hong Kong to return to India must
have been a difficult decision. What were the major factors that prompted this transition?
After a successful corporate career in over 20 countries, I wanted to return home to my parents, and utilise my expe-
rience to contribute towards the growth and development of the fast-growing post-liberalisation Indian economy. I
first explored the possibility of establishing a B-School and incubator to facilitate creation of intellectual property, jobs,
and wealth in India in partnership with a leading US university. But I abandoned that project when I discovered that
the education system had not been liberalised and that it was legally impossible to promote a financially sustainable
higher education institution within the regulatory framework. Nevertheless, with encouragement and support from
several eminent academics and industry leaders, we promoted Inventure Academy in 2005. My research indicated
that India’s K-12 education system urgently required new pedagogies. Therefore, we positioned Inventure Academy
as a multiple intelligences school to enable every child to fulfil her potential and succeed in a fast-changing world.

What would you say are the distinguishing features of Inventure Academy education?
We believe in providing well-balanced academic, co-curricular, life skills and sports education which equips students
to become changemakers — setting and working towards goals by adapting, taking risks and developing stamina.
Our teaching-learning model is interdisciplinary, inquiry-led and project-based. We focus student learning on the 4Cs
of the 21st century, i.e, communication, collaboration, creativity and critical thinking. At Inventure we also educate our
children on two more Cs, i.e, choice — capability to take informed decisions — and compassion — to deal with the
negative consequences of technology and globalisation.

You have recently promoted the Inventure Preschool...
We wanted early learners to benefit from Inventure education, i.e, learning in a happy environment supported by
holistic tried-and-tested multiple intelligences-focused early childhood education.

Thinker/philosopher you admire the most
I admire the philosophy and writings of Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Howard Gardner, Yuval Noah
Harari and Daniel Pink. But my best learning comes from taking the road less travelled.

Your leadership style
I believe in leading by example. To inspire teachers and students to be humane, intuitive, playful, transparent, analyt-
ical, decisive and authoritative as the situation demands.

How satisfied are you with the growth and development of your two schools?
I’m happy we have established a reputation for nurturing confident and eager-to-learn changemakers. I believe the
happiness quotient of our students is perhaps the highest among all schools countrywide. However, I’m disappointed
by the lack of trust between education stakeholders and obstructive government regulations. Therefore we have not
promoted more Inventure schools. Nor have I been able to inspire government and other schools to follow our best
practices blueprint.

Against this backdrop what is your prescription for upgrading Indian K-12 education?
Education must be the #1 national priority, with all stakeholders working in partnership towards a common goal.
We need an education system that enables every citizen to fulfil her potential and transform India into an equitable
society of enterprising and skilled citizens, capable of contributing to global development across all fields of human
endeavour. 21st century India’s focus should be on enhancing learning outcomes and schools should be encouraged
to create scalable innovative and sustainable education models. We should empower our best and brightest to be-
come educators. A regulatory body such as the Knowledge & Human Development Authority (KHDA), Dubai, should
be established to assess schools for quality, accountability and performance through evidence-based frameworks.