Dr. Rupa Chakravarty, Principal, Suncity School, Gurgaon

1. What according to you are the various challenges faced by primary and higher School Education in India?

Ans: According to me the challenges faced by primary and higher school education in India vary from

Lack of teaching skills (as may come into the profession by default) – I want to teach as it has shorter hours, because my child is going to start going to school so I want to go with him and so on.

Lack of interest to motivate children by adapting various methodologies to teach in accordance with a child’s method of learning.

Unaware of pedagogy

General attitude towards outcome- marks before knowledge/ wisdom

2. Please suggest some ways to overcome these problems

Ans: We need only the best to come into the profession.

Teachers should first be made to go through an EQ (emotional quotient) test before any other to gauge their affinity for children/ students.

There should be no condition to teaching i.e. ‘I want to teach only higher classes’ as I feel a teacher should teach a range of classes for his/her own learning of progression of the syllabus and so on.

3. Do you think that the current curriculum taught in the schools is relevant vis-à-vis the psycho-social environment of a student?

Ans: No. however a lot of dynamism has come into the field of education thus a lot of changes are visible.

4. Rote learning is still prevalent in schools, what according to you should be done to make learning and teaching more practical and student oriented?

Ans: Rote learning is also a part of learning but it should be a minor part of it in keeping of the pedagogy. Our school adapts a methodology called ASK to ASK U. It is an acronym. Any lesson taught has to go through ASK to keep a child’s curiosity revved up. ASK stands for ‘Application’ ‘Skill’ and ‘Knowledge’. This basically addresses Honey and Munford’s ‘VAK’ Visual, Audio and kinesthetic. We also integrate interdisciplinary learning besides multiple intelligence. The ASK becomes TASK when trips are added as a teacher can take trips within a short range to help reinforce the concept being taught.

5. Please suggest some ways to measure the learning outcome of the students?

Ans: If our children are made to apply what they are taught in a situation ‘technical’ or ‘situational’ it will help us gauge what is the learning outcome. We have a few ways we check the learning outcomes:-

Summer jobs (higher grades)

Peer teaching

6. How do you think technology can be integrated in school education?

Ans: Technology should be the slave not the master.

7. What is your view on Smart Classes and changes required in it?

Ans: Smart classes are a necessity as it brings the outside world into the class however according to me video conferences with schools in other parts of the world will help in exchange of best practices.

8. It is being often said that teachers are not linked with the outside world and its changes. How do you think teachers can be made to link with the outside world in order to bring some changes in the classroom?

Ans:Same as above AND

On line global trainings

Attending conferences for exchange of ideas

Panel discussions

9. Recently CBSE has announced that Schools which will provide vocational education to the students will be graded as Next Generation Schools, what’s your view on this initiative by CBSE?

Ans:I am in tandem with the thought of CBSE.

10. How do you think students can be engaged effectively in the schools?

Ans: Effective engagement of a student in a school is when a child’s thought process has been incited, when he is researching and thinking beyond his text. To keep all this going the CURIOSITY should be kept burning through total commitment of teachers.