Page 70 - EW January 2025

Special Report

I N HIS INAUGURAL ADDRESS

to delegates of the Second
EW-BSAI Education Leader-
ship Retreat, Dilip Thakore,
Publisher-Editor of EducationWorld
welcomed BSAI’s decision to broad-
base the deliberations and debates to
include day and day-cum-boarding
schools. Lamenting that the learning
outcomes gap between children in de-
veloped OECD and fast-track South-
east Asian countries and India is
widening, as evidenced by PISA 2009
results and subsequent unwillingness
of the Union education ministry to se-
lect a cohort of 15-year-olds to write
the bi-annual PISA, Thakore opined
that an unprecedented nationwide Singh: all K-12 leaders welcome Siddharth Singh: technology usage advice
effort needs to be urgently made by
experienced and knowledgeable lead- Varanasi’s #2 day-cum-boarding of online bullying and cyber-crimes,
ers in K-12 education to improve the school in the EW India School Rank- unmonitored access of children to
learning attainments of India’s chil- ings 2024-25. digital devices and money, rise in
dren and youth if the goals of Viksit DECEMBER 22. DAY 2. The day began physical and sexual abuse crimes in
Bharat and $30 trillion GDP economy early on a chilly morning for delegates society, vaping and substance abuse
set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who volunteered for a 5.30 a.m Kashi and over-protective parents — have
for the year 2047 are “not to prove a Vishwanath Temple darshan (prayer made education provision a hazard-
pipe-dream”. homage) at a cluster of the oldest ous enterprise. Simultaneously, there
“Leaders prayer sites of Hinduism. Knowl- is very little societal sympathy for
of India’s 1.40 edgeable and well-trained guides of school managements, especially of
million prima- Sunbeam Group escorted the devout private schools. Perhaps because of
ry-secondaries for Sugam and Annapurna darshans a socialist hangover, private school
need to evolve (5.30-7.30 am). Following a tradi- managements are guilty of anything
from individu- tional Varanasi breakfast at HHI, del- that goes wrong, until proven not
als focused on egates were bussed to the Sunbeam guilty, which given the sloth of India’s
enabling chil- School, Varuna. judicial system is a long-drawn out
dren to do well The subject of the first Master- process. Therefore, school manage-
in board exams, class of was on ‘Ensuring a Se- ments should give top priority to chil-
to leaders capable of transforming our cure Learning Environment: dren’s safety and security. Installation
children to become deep-thinkers and Comprehensive School Safety and maintenance of high-tech safety
problem-solving adults on a par with Frameworks and Practices’. It devices, background checks of teach-
politicians, professionals and manag- was conducted by Siddharth Singh, ers and employees should not be re-
ers in developed countries. The pur- Principal-Director of the CBSE and garded as expenses, but as insurance
pose of the EW-BSAI leadership con- Cambridge (UK)-affiliated Emerald against liability suits and media expo-
ferences is to enable school leaders to Heights International School, Indore, sure,” said Singh in his interactive and
start thinking big, beyond board exam ranked India’s #1+ day-cum-board- widely appreciated Masterclass.
results,” said Thakore. ing school in EWISR 2024-25. In his Siddharth Singh’s brilliant on-
After the inaugural addresses of 45-minute Masterclass, Singh, an campus physical safety of children and
the Second Education Leadership Re- alumnus of Stony Brook University, teachers presentation was followed
treat, children of the Sunbeam School New York, advised assembled school by another absorbing Masterclass
presented classical Indian music and leaders to extensively utilise modern titled ‘Ensuring a Secure Learn-
dance performances of exceptionally technology, particularly CCTV and ing Environment: Legal Compli-
high calibre for 45 minutes before the other modcon devices to maintain ance and Child Safety’ conducted
evening ended with an excellent din- campus security and serve as deter- by Seema Jhingan, Senior Partner
ner hosted by the Sunbeam School, rents to wrong-doers. and Co-founder of LexCounsel Law
Varuna, Varanasi (estb.1972), ranked “A combination of factors — rise Offices, Delhi which provides repre-

70 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2025