Page 46 - EducationWorld January 2021

People

years since I promoted THA, I have
invested substantial time in deeply
researching educational pedagogies,
health education in the US and India,
and have also published four student
workbooks and teacher manuals for
class VI-VII children in our pilot
project. I am delighted the National
Education Policy, 2020 proposes
that health education is included in
school curriculums,” says Mehra.
Future plans. Looking ahead, Mehra
has ambitious plans for THA. “First,
we plan to write student workbooks
and teacher manuals for classes
K-XII, then scale up our programme
and develop a financially sustainable
model. To begin with, we intend to
Mehra: comprehensive health education curriculum work with CBSE and Delhi govern-
ment schools and gradually with
Focused visionary schools affiliated with other educa-
tion boards. For training teachers,
our plan is to certify them on health
elhi/Canon City, Colorado behaviour in Bluebells International education as well as explore the pos-
(USA)-based public health which will be evaluated at the end of sibility of starting our own teacher
Devangelist DR. RAHUL the academic year after completion training institution,” says Mehra,
MEHRA is the founder-promoter of a minimum 40 hours of health clearly an individual with focused
of Tarang Health Alliance (THA, education. Moreover, monthly par- vision.
estb.2016), a non-profit promoted ent engagement meetings are being Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)
with the mission to develop innova- conducted during which we provide
healthy nutrition, physical activity
tive content and train teachers to and mental health advice to parents,” Learning gaps
implement THA’s comprehensive
health education curriculum — says Mehra. innovator
covering physical, mental and social History. An alum of India’s premier
well-being — in schools countrywide. IIT-Kharagpur with a Ph D in bio-
Mehra was recently appointed medical engineering awarded by KTA GROVER is founder of
India’s national representative to the New York University, USA, Mehra the mint new Shunya Impact
Unesco Global Health and Educa- has over three decades of experience EPvt. Ltd (estb.2020), Benga-
tion programme which produces as a research scientist in the medical luru, which has designed the Shunya
and shares knowledge to improve industry and academia (Medtronic Intelligent Classroom Learning Man-
the health of children and youth Inc, Minneapolis, Montefiore Hos- agement System (LMS) mobile app
worldwide. pital, Bronx, Brooklyn VA Medical for K-12 students. Based on latest
Newspeg. Empowered by CSR Center and Manhattan College, New machine learning and artificial intel-
(corporate social responsibility) York) and has registered 75 patents ligence technologies, Shunya LMS
funding and a grant from the Rotary in his name. enables students and teachers to post
Foundation, last June after train- Direct talk. Mehra attributes the class notes and assignments digitally
ing their teachers, THA introduced low longevity (average 69 years) of to receive assessment feedback and
online health education programmes Indians — significantly lower than of remedial education assistance.
for class VI students of three schools China, Sri Lanka and even Bangla- Newspeg. In November, the com-
— Bluebells International School, desh — to unhealthy lifestyles and pany was named among the Top
Raghav Global School and Soami practices. “Healthy lifestyles need 100 edtech companies in India and
Nagar Model School — in the na- to be developed from childhood. South-east Asia by HolonIQ, a San
tional capital. Therefore, THA’s goal is to make Francisco-based ‘global intelligence
“We are studying the impact of the health education mandatory in all platform for education’.
programme on health knowledge and K-12 schools. Over the past five History. A computer science engi-

46 EDUCATIONWORLD JANUARY 2021