Page 74 - EW January 2025

Special Report

Some delegate responses

he Second EW-BSAI Education Leadership Retreat the holy city of Varanasi. It was a great opportunity for new
2024 convened at the Sunbeam School, Varuna, Var- collaborations, friendships and alliances” — Nishchint Chawala,
Tnasi, attracted 108 school promoters, principals and President & Director, Vedanya Schools, Gurugram
leaders from 21 cities countrywide. Some reactions.
“It was a fantastic opportunity to meet educa-
“This Leadership Retreat staged in Vara- tion leaders from across the country and share
nasi has been an amazing experience. Ev- views on important issues confronting K-12
erything from the way the programme was education. Everything I learned here will be
curated to the relevance of the education implemented after I head back to Aditya Birla
Masterclasses and panel discussions was Education Academy and Aditya Birla World
wonderful. The hospitality provided was Academy. The Retreat wasn’t rushed; it provided room to think
commendable. Jai Hind as a common greeting is what I learnt and ponder over talking points and how to implement them in
from Sunbeam schools” — Anuradha Sharma, regional coordi- our schools” — Prodipta Hore, program director, Aditya Birla
nator (North India), Ryan International Group of Schools Education Academy, Mumbai

“The three-day retreat in Varanasi allowed “The retreat was an engaging, interesting
us time to deliberate on important issues and immersive experience. The issues dis-
and learn a lot. I was very satisfied that cussed were of great relevance and every
school leaders and principals could share minute of the Retreat was worthwhile. I
and learn from each other’s experiences would like to thank EW and BSAI for putting
during the Retreat” — Santosh Sethuraman, this event together — Dr. Sheela Mallya, Prin-
founder-president, Neuron Labs School, Pune cipal, Children’s Academy, Ashok Nagar, Mumbai

“This is my first Leadership Retreat. There “The educational landscape now is very dy-
are two features I would like to highlight. namic. Securing the future for children, child
The first, the relevance of subjects chosen safety, POCSO, and POSH legislation was
for discussion and the opportunity provided discussed in depth. One of the most press-
for sharing knowledge. More such retreats ing issues — child safety, which is of great
should be planned where we discuss issues relevance at the moment — was discussed
that go beyond academics and confront school leaders, prin- in detail. Listening to experts talk on these
cipals and owners on a day-to-day basis. The second part is subjects was an enriching experience” — Sanjay Pandey, vice
the cultural education provided by the Sunbeam Group about principal, KC Public School, Jammu

dardised good quality education to a continuously improving, personalised by a presentation by Sonali Ghosh,
large number of students. Proponents education to their small groups of chil- Head of Business Development at
of high-quality top-ranked standalone dren. However they were persuaded Axis Finance Ltd, a subsidiary of the
schools highlighted their sharp inward to consider replication of their well- high-profile private sector Axis Bank
focus which enables them to continu- developed pedagogies through pro- Ltd, which also partnered with BSAI-
ously improve their institutions to motion of new schools in light of the and EducationWorld to co-sponsor
attain global standards. On the other huge, unfulfilled demand for qual- this unique Leadership Retreat. In
hand, leaders of chain schools argued ity primary-secondary education, her address titled ‘Tailored Lending
in favour of consolidating excellence a proposition favoured by eminent Solutions for the Education Sector’,
in parent schools followed by replica- education consultant Rakesh Gupta. Ms. Ghosh informed school leaders
tion — bearing India’s huge popula- Chain schools providing high quality that Axis Finance offers school pro-
tion of children and youth in mind education to large numbers of chil- moters and education institutions
— to respond to pressing demand for dren, even at risk of some sacrifice of loans against property, business and
high-quality K-12 education across the quality, received strong endorsement personal loans to enable them to pro-
country. from delegates,” says Bhavin Shah, mote, expand and rejuvenate schools,
“Leaders of top-ranked, high- who moderated the lively panel de- and also provides education loans to
quality schools made a strong case bate. (To view full panel discussion students. BSAI and EducationWorld
for standalone schools with favour- visit www.educationworld.in) acknowledge and appreciate the sup-
able teacher-pupil ratios that provide This panel discussion was followed port of Ms. Ghosh and Axis Finance to

74 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2025