Page 58 - EducationWorld August 2022

People

proposition) is not just our curricu- dation. She was appointed
lum and mode of delivery, but also principal of PCMC-EMS
our unique student-centred digital in 2018.
platform. The proprietary analytics Direct talk. “We believe
of byteXL enables instant assessment in teaching children in
to ascertain students’ weak learning partnership with parents.
areas and enables them to catch up. Therefore, since inception,
We offer two programmes — Expert we have routinely organ-
and Career Accelerator. Both include ised monthly meetings,
160 hours of instructor-led training open forums, parenting
per year and 120 hours of platform and skill building work-
engagement through prescribed shops including financial
reading material, recorded videos, literacy and government
coding challenges and assessments schemes awareness
supplemented with soft skills devel- Pathare (centre): partnership teaching model programmes for our
opment to boost students’ employ- parents community. When
ability quotient. Within two years, we (PCMC-EMS, estb. 2016) — one of Covid-19 swept India in March 2020
have enabled placement of 10,000 26 primary-secondary schools man- and the school was locked down
students in blue-chip companies,” aged by the Mumbai-based Akank- for 101 weeks, we provided ration
says Tadepalli with evident satisfac- sha Foundation in private-public kits to our parents who suffered job
tion. partnership with local governments. and livelihood losses, and leveraged
Future plans. With the company Affiliated with the Maharashtra the relationship building skills of
having got off to a smooth start, State Board of Secondary and Higher members of our School Management
Tadepalli has ambitious expansion Secondary Education, PCMC-EMS Committee and parent volunteers to
plans. “In 2022, we intend to partner provides English-medium education connect with students and parents
with an additional 150 engineering to 315 K-VI students mentored by on a daily basis. Moreover during the
colleges to upskill 240,000 students. 13 teachers. The school campus also pandemic lockdown, we established
Having established partnerships hosts a K-10 Marathi-medium school a learning centre for the commu-
in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and with an enrolment of 700 students. nity, distributed learning material
Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Newspeg. PCMC-EMS, Bopkhel is for children and initiated online
Nadu are our next target states. Cur- one of five Indian schools short- intervention classes for small groups
rently, our focus is on engineering listed for the inaugural US$250,000 to bridge learning gaps. In 2021, stu-
colleges but going forward, we may (Rs.1.9 crore) World’s Best School dents of classes III-V were provided
extend our services to arts, science Prize for Community Collaboration Lenovo digital tablets and access to
and commerce colleges as well. As in five categories. This global award the internet. As a result, our children
we scale, we intend to disrupt the is an initiative of the London-based and teachers have emerged from the
market with learning, skilling, place- T4 Education, a voluntary organisa- pandemic with minimal learning
ments, and emerge as strong players tion, and the Nassau (Bahamas)- gaps,” says Pathare.
in upskilling students in higher based Templeton World Charity Future plans. Encouraged by the
education to reduce high employee Foundation, Accenture and Ameri- rising number of admission applica-
induction and training costs of India can Express. The Top 3 finalists for tions far exceeding seats available,
Inc,” says Tadepalli. five World’s Best School Prize in Pathare is hopeful that the corpora-
Wind in your sails! the categories of Community Col- tion will invest in additional infra-
Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru) laboration, Environmental Action, structure to increase capacity. “We
Innovation, Overcoming Adversity, are experiencing severe shortage
Exemplary municipal and Supporting Healthy Lives will be of space. We need a larger budget
announced later this year, and prize
to enable our children to access
school leader winners this October. modern facilities such as science and
History. An education postgraduate
computer labs, playgrounds, etc. We
of Pune’s Savitribai Phule University, want to make PCMC-EMS a model
une-based SUSHMA Pathare began her career in 2005 as primary school which builds a strong
PATHARE is principal of a teacher with Akanksha Foundation foundation for secondary and higher
Pthe free-of-charge Pimpri- acquiring over a decade’s valuable secondary education,” says Pathare.
Chinchwad Municipal Corporation admin and teaching experience in God speed.
English Medium School, Bopkhel several schools managed by the foun- Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

58 EDUCATIONWORLD AUGUST 2022