Page 72 - EW January 2025

Special Report

sentative and advisory services on tant to acknowledge that Bharosepe/
education laws, franchising, software/ Jodo stepped forward to part-sponsor
information technology and corporate the Second EW-BSAI Education Lead-
and commercial law. ership Retreat at Varanasi, for which
I N HER 45-MINUTE MASTER- tion, an excellent example of latest dig-
many thanks.
The enlightening Jodo presenta-
CLASS, Jhingan stressed the
importance of all schools es-
in K-12 education, was followed by the
tablishing SMCs (School Man- ital technologies being implemented
agement Committees) as stipulated by first high-powered panel discussion
s.21 of the RTE Act, 2009 and outlined of the Leadership Retreat which de-
the contours of the doctrine of vicari- bated ‘Building a Stronger Work-
ous liability, i.e, the extent to which force: Bridging the Gap between
school trustees, governors and prin- Teacher Training and Classroom
cipals can be held liable in criminal Reality’. The stellar panel of educa-
and civil law for acts of omission and tionists who focused on the burning
commission of teachers and other em- Jhingan: safety recommendations issue of poor quality teacher training
ployees. institutes countrywide, and the neces-
Moreover, Jhingan clearly ex- Dey explained, the platform’s flagship sity of schools and education leaders
plained the major provisions of the product named Flex enables schools according high importance to teacher
POCSO (Protection of Children from to automate fee payment-collection welfare and development, included
Sexual Offences) Act, 2012 and the during the entire tenure of a student Prodipta Hore, Program Director at
Juvenile Justice Act, 2015, drawing as she progresses from K-12 by safely the Aditya Birla Education Academy,
attention to several judgements of the connecting her parent’s bank account Mumbai; Dr. Sheela Mallya, Prin-
Supreme Court; recommended poli- to the school’s accounts section. “Bi- cipal of Children’s Academy, Mumbai;
cies that school leaders should imple- lateral fees payment arrangements Dr. Amrita Burman, Director of the
ment in their institutions to prevent made by parents and schools can be Sunbeam Group, Varanasi; Vibha
crimes against children and women, factored into Flex to the satisfaction Kapoor, Principal of Welhams Girls
and uphold institutional reputation. of both parties,” explained Dey. Little School, Dehradun and Ahishek Bag-
Advising school principals and lead- wonder that since the company was chi, Principal of Presidency School,
ers that in legal cases of negligence promoted four years ago, it has ac- Banashankari, Bengaluru. The delib-
“courts tend to award higher com- quired a clientele of 2,500 education erations of the panel were moderated
pensation against private schools,” institutions and has processed fees by Summiya Yasmeen, Co-founder
Jhingan presented delegates with over Rs.5,000 crore for 1.5 million and Managing Editor of Education-
safety and security recommendations parents countrywide. It’s also impor- World.
detailing the roles and responsibilities First panel experts with moderator Summiya Yasmeen (centre)
of principals, heads of departments,
advising empowerment of adminis-
trators with budgetary authority and
establishment of a compliance officer
reporting to the SMC.
Following a brief tea-break, the 100
delegates at the Second EW-BSAI re-
treat were treated to an informative
presentation by Koustav Dey, an
alum of IIT-Kanpur and IIM-Banga-
lore who together with two IIT-IIM
colleagues promoted Bharosepe Tech-
nology Services Pvt. Ltd (estb.2020)
which has ideated and designed Jodo,
an ICT (information communication
technology) platform featuring a suite
of IT-driven software and products
that sharply reduce the pain of pay-
ment and collection of school fees. As

72 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2025