Page 73 - EW January 2025

The consensus of opinion of the ing temporary accidents and setbacks.
highly experienced and knowledge- Following a tea-break, the next
able panelists was that India’s 10,000 item on the packed agenda of the
teacher training colleges — most of three-day EW-BSAI Leadership Re-
them privately promoted and man- treat, Varanasi 2024 was a stimulat-
aged — are in bad shape. This is con- ing panel discussion on the subject
firmed by the low percentage (14-20 ‘Scaling Education: Benefits &
percent) of teachers certified by these Challenges of Chain Schools vs.
institutes managing to clear the Cen- Single Owned Schools’. This dis-
tral/state government’s Teacher Eligi- cussion panel also featured a stellar
bility Test (TET) introduced in 2011. cast of highly experienced K-12 educa-
tionists — Neera Singh, Principal of
“ THE PANELISTS WERE the EW top-ranked Rajmata Krishna
unanimous that teaching-
Kumari Girls Public School, Jodhpur;
learning standards in exist-
the Varanasi-based Sunbeam Group
ing teacher training colleges Dr. Deepak Madhok, Chairman of
are very poor. Panelists agreed that of Educational Institutions; Sachin
they should be phased out and that Sinha: valuable branding advice Vats, founder The Gurukul School,
the recommendation of NEP 2020 Ghaziabad; Neera Raina, Director of
to the effect that four-year teacher appointed Principal of Mayo College Millennium Schools; Rakesh Gupta,
training degree programmes should eight months ago, highlighted the im- Managing Partner of the Hyderabad-
be introduced in multi-disciplinary portance of transforming education based LoEstro Advisors; and Subra-
universities, should be actioned im- institutions into respected and trusted manyan Kantheti, CEO of Veranda
mediately. Meanwhile school leaders brands. K-12. This high-powered panel was
should ensure provision of rigorous “A brand is not just a name or logo, moderated by Bhavin Shah, CEO of
continuous in-house teacher devel- it is a comprehensive representation EducationWorld.
opment programmes, perhaps with of identity and values, cultivated The panelists were evenly divided
external experts, to train teachers through various elements that influ- between dedicated and committed
in contemporary pedagogies to de- ence perception and behaviour. Ef- leaders of single, standalone and
velop children’s critical thinking and fective branding is crucial for build- multi-institution chain schools. The
problem-solving skills,” said Summiya ing recognition, loyalty, and trust,” he latter advanced spirited arguments in
Yasmeen, who chaired the panel dis- said. He also presented strategies and favour of unique standalone schools
cussion which aroused spirited com- value propositions to transform ge- which provide highly personalised ed-
ments from delegates. (For complete neric schools into respected, trusted ucation to small numbers of children,
deliberations of this panel visit www. and resilient brands capable of surviv- and chain schools which reach stan-
educationworld.in) Second panel experts with moderator Bhavin Shah (centre)
In the post-lunch session of Day 2
of the recently concluded Leadership
Retreat, delegates were presented an
excellent Keynote Address on ‘Strat-
egies to Build Future-Ready, Re-
silient Global Education Brands’
by Saurav Sinha, the recently ap-
pointed (2024) principal of Mayo Col-
lege, Ajmer (estb.1875) ranked India’s
#2 boys boarding school in EWISR
2024-25. In his 30-minute address,
Sinha, an alum of London Business
School, with several years in health-
care and digital marketing in Lon-
don, Europe and Singapore who quit
the corporate world ten years ago to
serve in Indian education (Pathways
World School, Gurgaon and Harrow
International, Bangalore) and was

JANUARY 2025 EDUCATIONWORLD 73