R Get PUBLISHED ONLINE Share your thoughts for Mentor Online (mentor.lxl.in) on following topics: Online Learning Tools For Students Factors Affecting Students’ Performance In Exams Emotional Well-being of Students During Exams We thank our contributors for their informative write-ups under Writer’s Choice: Visual Communication for 21st Century Schools: Dr. Ritwij Bhowmik Healing Power of Music: T. Veena Passion Quotient: Virender Kapoor * Subject to editorial discretionShare write-ups, videos and infographics on any of the topics above at [email protected] andwe’ll publish it Online!* You can also contribute under School Pedagogy, Governance, Innovation, Leadership or Writer’s Choice categories KKK@L@=B
CONTENTSJanuary 2018 | Volume 11 | Issue 08 | Ɂ540MENTOR THOUGHTS SCHOOL INNOVATION4 18From the Editor’s Desk Digital Expressions Mentor Conclave 2017 - It’s a Wrap Building a Strong School Communication5 20Sultan Speaks Digital Marketing for SchoolsRedesigning Education for the Future Exploring a fairly new spaceSCHOOL PEDAGOGY 22 Making School Into An Iconic Brand6Visualising comics as an educational Embodying the soul in the designtool 24Consuming child-friendly content Mission Guaranteed LearningSCHOOL GOVERNANCE Causing a global impact8 26Rural Education in India CARES Management Framework for SchoolsProblems and Solutions Creating and Managing Human Capital10Safe Schools 28 Legal Protection for SchoolsAdopting effective safety measures Safeguarding Schools and StudentsSCHOOL LEADERSHIP 3012 Exploring Mythology and BeyondCollaborative Classrooms Revisiting our rootsTeaching as a team sport 3214 A Picturesque StoryCollaborative School Leadership That school in a villageFostering a productive school culture A Venture of1VCMJTIFS0XOFS4ZFE4VMUBO\"INFE&EJUPSJO$IJFG,BMQB,BSUJL All Rights Reserved 2016$POUFOU%FWFMPQFS6QBTBOB+BJQVSJB1BSVM1BOEFZ%FTJHOFECZ6EBZ4 EduMedia Publications Pvt. Ltd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
MENTOR THOUGHTS January 2018 From the Editor’s Desk Kalpa Kartik, Editor-in-chief, Mentor Magazine, Director, LXL Ideas“The value of things is not the time usability and applicability in schools by theirthey last, but the intensity with leaders. The sessions resonated with everywhich they occur. That is why there school stakeholder because of the diverseare unforgettable moments and portfolio of invited speakers and the relevantlife-changing experiences” talks.This quote by Fernanado Pessoa, a famous After every session, participant feedback wasliterary figure was proven right when we saw a collected to help us know their thoughts andfabulous turn out at Mentor Conclave 2017. An create a better learning experience for the nextactive participation by principals and teachers time. The graph displayed depicts the ease ofhelped shape the conclave as a remarkable implementation of thoughts in school . Withlearning experience making it an appropriate everyone's continued support and acceptance,culmination of a fantastic year gone by. We we aspire to bring more lessons of life in yearswould like to thank all our participants and to come.readers for the continued support and wish thenext year brings them new learnings,experiences and accomplishments in plenty.Keeping in line with Mentor Magazine's goal ofsharing ideas, views and opinions that can beimplemented in schools, Mentor Conclave 2017saw the community share, question andlearn.The two-day event was thought-provoking, insightful and made some leaderseven question their role and revisit theirpurpose in Education.This special Issue shares the learnings,knowledge and insight shared by all speakersduring the sessions allowing all to revisit somekey takeaways. The entire conclave wasdesigned based on the feedback given by thecommunity on the top 5 challenges ourprincipals face. The focus of Mentor Conclavewas on the relevance of content and its 4 [email protected]
SULTAN SPEAKS January 2018 Redesigning Education for the Future [email protected] our usual Sunday morning ride, I and my extremely insightful and pertinent topics andwife decided to stop over for a South Indian deliberations. Over 400 Educators from acrossbreakfast at one of our regular joints. There, I India got an opportunity to engage in somenoticed an old man ordering a takeaway. On very meaningful sessions. The highlight for meprobing, I got to know that 75-year-old was a session titled 'Decoding Kids' - a panelVenkatesh Uncle had recently retired from his discussion moderated by me with a group of 8job as a hospital admin but as a sole bread students aged between 9-16 years. During theearner at his home, he now works at this session, kids responded to some of the majorhighway hotel. He shared that he had met with challenges faced by our education systema near fatal accident almost a decade ago that including– How to motivate teachers? How toparalyzed his legs and his movement was recruit the right teachers? Role of a Principal?possible only with special shoes with How to deal with parents? How to handlecontraptions. But nothing affected his difficult children etc.? Their answers amazedenthusiasm as even on that day he was looking everyone in the audience. Their in-depthforward to celebrating his mothers' 100th perspectives and clarity of thoughts on thebirthday. I was immensely inspired by his problems were very refreshing. The keysimplicity and zeal for life. The concept of message imparted by this session was that theretirement held no value for him when he had best way for schools to innovate and evolve isthe self-confidence to face the life head-on. by seeking support and inputs from their own students.One of the ghosts left behind by the industrialera in our society is the concept of retirement Happy New Year!that makes one feel redundant. Schools today As we welcome another year into our lives, Iface a big challenge when it comes to finding hope that the coming year will give moreand retaining good teachers, on the other hand, opportunity to the experienced and retiredmost retired teachers have very little to do educators to contribute to the progress ofafter retirement. There is wisdom in education. I also hope that educators give moreonboarding 'Good Old Teachers' into the importance to the innovation and perspectiveschooling system by creating specific and of their own students to help design the futurespecialised roles for them. This will enable of education for themselves.schools to benefit immensely from theirexperience and help the younger teachers learnfrom their perspectives.The recently held Mentor Conclave 2017 in Syed Sultan Ahmed,Bengaluru was a fabulous experience with Managing Director, LXL Ideas 5
PEDAGOGY www.lxl.in Visualising comics as an educational tool Savio MascarenhasSavio Mascarenhas is the Group Art Director of Amar Chitra Katha, one of India's largest comic book series that is known for Tinkle, the fortnightly magazine for kids.His role in the company is to look into the art and design for both these magazines by heading a team of artists, cartoonists andcolourists. He started his stint as a freelance cartoonist for Tinkle comics in 1992 and later joined as a full-time staff artist in 1994. While at Tinkle he has co-created characters like Mopes and Purr along withwriter Reena Puri, Janoo and Wooly Woo along with Writer Vaneeta Vaid and also created SuperSuppandi and Adventures of Little Shambu.Take us through the history of Comics in India. a script based on facts. The characters couldWe are a land of stories and story-tellers. Over range from historical figures like Asoka tothe years, Comics have been an effective social entrepreneur like Verghese Kurien to amedium of telling stories and an important story told by Ruskin Bond, an award-winningplatform of content consumption by our English author.Children. In India, Amar Chitra Katha started50 years ago to educate our children about our Art & Design: It involves penciling, inking andrich history, culture, mythology and stories of colouring to represent the story in the script asfolklore, fables and parables like Jataka Tales, pictures. Penciling involves making the crudePanchatantra through comics. This vision of outlines of the characters. It requires a team ofencapsulating our cultural heritage and social highly visually active people who imagine thevalues in Comics transformed them from words as a moving picture and sketch thesomething frivolous to a powerful educational characters. Inking is the second stage wheretool. Comics as a medium of education has been you deepen the outlines making the picturesresponsible for nurturing generations of clearer. This is followed by colouring i.e. addingreaders with the habit being passed down to the the colours and making it visually appealing.next. Inserting Text: the Last stage is putting theWhat is the story behind creating a comic? dialogues as speech bubbles and completing theEnlighten us on the entire process. story. A picture can speak a thousand wordsResearch & Scripting: The story of a comic and without dialogues, each can be perceivedstarts from an idea i.e. identifying the need for differently by an individual reader. So, puttinga particular story to be told to the masses. This dialogues in context to pictures enables us toinvolves an editorial team which researches on read and interpret stories in the way storytellerthe identified topic vetting several books, would like to narrate it.articles and other reading materials to prepare 6
January 2018 Creating a Comic: Inking and Colouring Comics can be an effective supporting aid to the academic content of textbooks for e.g. ChildrenWhat are your most recent works as the group can understand historical characters likeart director of one of the leading comic book Asoka through a comic on the same. Comicsseries? being more visually appealing than textbooksMy team has worked on a comic on Sardar helps engage students so that they understandPatel which took our editorial team a year of and retain the story in their long-term memory.research and scripting. It is based on a book by Comics are but a creation of a sequential actRajmohan Gandhi. We have also done a comic through pictures bringing the characters alive.on Swachh Bharat where we have narrated the Textbooks at the most can tell you a story buthistory of cleanliness in India dating back to comics have the power to let you become a partMohanjodaro and Harappan times to where we of the story. Recently, several ICSE schoolsare at present. In addition to story-telling, we have included comics as part of theiralso suggest learning activities and social curriculum reflecting the fact that schools areinitiatives that students can be a part of to play also starting to realise the value of comics as anan active role in Swachh Bharat. Thus, most of education tool.our works have sections of active engagementfor the students to get involved in the What are the different ways being used by yourcommunity. team to engage schools presently? In addition to visiting schools andHow can schools take advantage of comics as an recommending them to use comic books as aneducational tool? add-on to the textbooks, our team is alsoThe world has always been dominated by conducting students workshops on creatingvisual learners with men in stone age their own comic books. The students areillustrating their stories through cave encouraged to doodle, sketch and write theirpaintings. Over the years, people talking own stories. The workshops are a huge successthrough pictorial representations hasn't with schools asking us to come back.changed with the majority of childrenpreferring pictorial content over something In the time of digital media, where do you seethat is text heavy. Hence, it is important for the future of comics which are primarily print?schools to include comics as an add-on reading Age group of comics primarily fall in thewith their textbooks to enhance informed bracket of 7-14 years. In the pre-teens age, acontent consumption and retention in their majority of parents don't give a digital devicestudents. to the child and encourage inculcating reading habits through books. What more, going digital is just a format. In future, comics would exist but the format may change. Presently kindle and book readers are primarily for reading novels and still not comic-friendly. At the most, one can use their PC to read a comic as pdf. Our market research has shown that comics are strong in print and majority of the readers are quite young. Though comics may expand on digital platforms, they would still stay put in print as reading habits in India are still rooted in books. 7 [email protected]
SCHOOL GOVERNANCE www.lxl.in Rural Education in India Gourav JaiswalGourav Jaiswal graduated as an Electronics and Communications Engineer and was initially working as Network Engineer. During this time, he witnessed the lack of quality education in rural areas and a misconception prevailing in the society of quality education correlated withmoney. Being from a rural background himself he decided to work towards making education accessibleand founded the NGO, Agrini. Agrini focuses on transforming rural government schools to provideequality in education for students inhabiting remote locations. Gourav has also been selected as “YoungConnectors Of Future 2017” by Swedish Institute and has received multiple national and internationalfellowships like Learning and Leadership Journey, Wipro Education Seeding Fellowship, Dasra SocialImpact program etc. Apart from being an entrepreneur, Gourav is also a speaker on education issues.Global Education Model Pradesh and Jharkhand lack even minimalFor learning to take place, a safe school infrastructure. In the majority of villages,ambience is a must. This safety is not limited to an abandoned house is changed to a schooljust the school infrastructure but also related with no regards to the safety protocol andto the teaching-learning practices adopted by minimal guidelines for a school by RTEteachers to engage students. Frequently, a classroom space is shared by two classes with a single teacher shufflingGlobalised education today faces a large urban- between the two groups of students. Theserural divide in the quality of learning. Rural classes have no provision for supportareas are marred by geographical isolation, infrastructure like lighting and ventilationreduced accessibility of good schools and Schools also lack facilities for safe drinkingteachers, economic backwardness pushing the water and toilets. A common reason forchildren towards unsafe labour jobs and other early drop-outs of girl students as observedsocio-cultural barriers. Even if a school is is lack of functional toilets in the schoolpresent, inadequate basic infrastructural Frequent accidents when students wanderfacilities, regular absenteeism of teachers and off school premises because schools lack afrequent use of corporal punishment by the boundary wall is not unheard of. Oldteachers make the teaching-learning dilapidated buildings with the danger ofenvironment hostile to the children. In this roof falling exist in a lot of government andarticle, I have shared my experiences of low-income private schoolsworking at the grassroots and my efforts to In a community school, a case had beenbring a change bottom-up. registered of a child casualty who on touching a high tension wire hanging lowPain-Points of a Rural School over the school roof had to get both hisInadequate Rural School Infrastructure arms amputated. The owner was actually a teacher who had bought the land because of Schools in rural areas primarily Madhya 8
January 2018 its cheaper rate and even the gram increasing access to quality content for the panchayat had provided the sanction Children. We have realised kids today are overlooking the school safety guidelines visual learners so you cannot isolate them from the screen media, but, you canRural School Teachers substitute the content with more age The teachers also believe in old-school appropriate and useful matter teaching and do not move beyond the chalk So, we have started showing them youtube and talk method. This leads to videos related to their coursework and inattentiveness and finally children losing giving them hands-on assignments like interest in the subjects. A saying in the making working models for concepts village, 'Guruji marey dhama-dham to learned vidya aaya chama cham' meaning the more We organise art competitions, quiz shows teacher beats, the more student learns, and cultural activities to engage students prevails in these parts of India Student as teachers has also been used as a According to Right to Education Act, our successful strategy where video recordings teachers are also involved in census and of example students are showed to motivate election duties and multiple elections along others to perform better with updating voter's card takes makes it an Making power point presentations and use all time consuming work of other audio-visual tools have also increased our classroom participationIncreasing Violence in Students Regular teacher training workshops on Violence in school and among students is a imparting value system, sensitivity to no common occurrence. Common reasons corporal punishment, basic experiential found out were bad influence caused by learning practises are regularly undertaken mass media especially television These children come from families where Participation by the Community domestic violence is an everyday happening A positive about rural education is that the and for them, such violent behaviour gets community is very involved in the child's normalised over time. education. Awareness of quality education is leading to a mass migration as parents want toThe way ahead put their kids in a good urban private school.Using new and evolving Pedagogical Tools The high fees of such institutions result in parents investing more than half of their A solution we are working towards is income on education. This again raises an urgency of making quality education accessible to such communities for an inclusive development. An undergoing experiment that involves parents and teachers together in the learning loop of the child has been undertaken by us in several villages. The idea behind is to raise empathy and accountability of each stakeholder to provide an optimal teaching- learning environment to the Children. This experiment if successful will pave way for making quality education accessible to all. 9 [email protected]
SCHOOL GOVERNANCE www.lxl.in Safe Schools Shanti KrishnamurthyShanti Krishnamurthy has over 35 years of teaching and administration experience in the Chinmaya Vidyalaya, Jamshedpur (1981-2002), M.Ct.M Chidambaram Chettiyar Group of Schools, Chennai (2002-2006), and as founder-principal of the Mahindra World School, Chennai (2006-2009). In 2009, she took over as the Principal of Chinmaya Residential School in Coimbatore. She is amember of Central Chinmaya Mission Trust Educational Cell which governs and runs assessments for allthe Chinmaya schools across the country. Due to her long tenure, she is also associated with CBSE and isa member of the affiliation committee and runs inspections and frame board papers for CBSE Board.She has received the “CBSE Mentor Principal Award” in 2014 from the then HR minister Ms Smriti Iraniand “Chinmaya Gaurav Award” and the “Most Influential Principal” award from the White Swan group.How important is safety in residential schools? What measures school needs to take care ofThe essence of every school is safety. Schools while dealing with physical safety?especially residential schools exist because of Physical safety deals with infrastructure andthe safety measures adopted and implemented school design including taking care ofby them. Children spend almost 10 months in a electrical, chemical and fire hazards. Allboarding school and no parent would leave schools especially, Residential schools shouldtheir child behind unless they are completely have the preventive maintenance and repairsure about their child's wellbeing. School safety measures in place and indeed requires with anis not an added value addition to a school but ideal ratio of admin, electrician, plumbers andshould be the vision of the organisation. housekeeping staff. Health and Hygiene should also be a priority with facilities of safeHow important is a vision for a successful and drinking water, hygienic food preparation andsafe school? a fully stocked infirmary and a trained medicalEvery successful organisation needs three team to handle all sorts of medical emergenciesimportant aspects: The Yantra (resources), The to be taken by schools. Schools should also haveTantra (strategy) and The Mantra (vision). clear norms and policies of safety measuresVision is the inspiring force that gives an during adventure trips and educational toursorganisation its very purpose and direction. It when students venture outside the boundaries.makes the output of a school very clear. Oncethe vision is clear, the school automatically sets What do you mean by social and emotionalup a budget and allocates the resources safety measures? What do they entail?(yantra) and the strategies (tantra) also fall in Social and emotional safety primarily dealsplace. School safety and security under with a safe school environment and are closelyphysical, social and emotional aspects should related. Nowadays, increasing the threat ofbe an integral part of the vision. It will then child abuse with frequent incidents ofget its due importance. bullying, cyberbullying, sexual abuse in 10
January 2018schools is raising a red flag for the institution tosafeguard their students. Schools need to starttaking proactive measures to provide socio-emotional safety to their students. It includessetting up vacation norms, regulations forvisitors and workers, safety education, gendersensitisation classes and remedial classes underproper supervision. Ideally Parents also shouldbe partnered with the school by providingnecessary guidance for them.Emotional measures focus on building what is being taught in class, inquire andresilience in our students as we see mental and construct their own knowledge and there is nopsychological disorders on the rise. A common fear of failure or taking risks. Only then we canfactor underlying all is stress in schools. Focus ensure the child's self esteem is not ignoredonly on academics and success have left the which is important for emotional safety of thestudents unprepared to deal with failures. child.Thus, developing emotional competencyinvolves equipping children with life skills, Can you share some of the best practises of youremphasis on nurturing goodness, increased school to provide safe learning environment?participation in extracurricular activities andcreating a proper mentoring and counselling Our school makes customised examinationsystems in schools. All these will help in paper for the children at primary grades. Ifnurturing the emotional quotient in Children. a child is weak on a particular subject, we make an easier question paper so thatHow has teaching-learning changed with the he/she is not disheartened by low marks.time? Can a safe school environment ensure Over the years, we have seen a remarkableoptimal learning? improvement and they easily catch up withAccording to our scriptures, we had mantra the restapproach to education i.e. a focus on intuitive Every alternate day we have cultural talksknowledge against tutored knowledge. Tutored in the assembly where we talk about ourknowledge is about what is taught and rich culture and heritage. We believeintuition is that which is revealed to the embracing one's culture goes a long way instudent. The mantra education involved respecting the social norms and being achildren meditating and contemplating and good human beinginternalising, for the highest level of We have forums where students are free toknowledge can only be revealed. Today, the talk and question about what they studyapproach is yantra education with excessive and the textbooks. Supplementarydependence on computer, calculators and book materials are provided to enhance thinkingreaders. Combined with what is imparted by skills in Children. Holiday homework isthe teacher as an authority, the students have typically based on values like sacrifice etc.become excessively dependent on others to where students have to present on how theythink for themselves. This has resulted in practised the said value in their daily liveskilling the creativity in children.A safe classroom environment means wherestudents control their learning, they question 11 [email protected]
SCHOOL LEADERSHIP www.lxl.in Collaborative Classrooms Vipul RedeyVipul Redey is the head of the school enablement at Khan Academy and in his role he fully leverages this versatile online learning tool that has revolutionised the world of education. Recently, Khan Academy has signed a MoU with Government of Karnataka to localise e-content for its schoolsand Mr Redey is involved in a talent hunt for people who can explain concepts through videos. Prior toKhan Academy, he was managing Cisco's IT training and certifications program, eleven schools underGlobal Discovery Schools' (GDS), twenty schools under Pearson's and 25,000 students pan-India. As theCXO at GDS and Director of Academics at Pearson Schools, he designed the daily classroom experienceof thousands of students nationally. He is also a TED-Ed Innovative Educator, a TEDx speaker, and aStanford University Graduate School of Education alumnus.What do you mean by collaborative leadership What are the benefits of collaboration atin a classroom? classroom level?Today we see teachers as lone warriorsresponsible for all the teaching-learning Collaborative Classrooms have flexibility inactivities in the classroom. This existing teaching strategies and methodologies withassumption has lead to stagnation of education multiple pedagogies being usedwith the entire responsibility of quality It has the potential to bring in multiplelearning resting on our teachers. Changing this perspectives giving a bird's eye view ofperception, we want to visualise teaching as a concepts discussedteam sport. Collaborative leadership in a Each teacher has a specific expertise andclassroom would entail a mixed age classroom can complement the others by adding aof 75-100 students handled by 3-4 teachers different dimension of skill setwith each student moving at an individual pace Teachers can easily rotate in and out withthrough the effective incorporation of no disruption caused by a substitutetechnological aids. teacherLike any successful recipe, collaborative model Multiple student-teacher combinations areentails loads of ingredients with various possible with higher chances of teacher-processing techniques and depends on the student interactions with self-pacedtypes of teachers, training that teachers have learning and lesser chances of teacherundergone, content they bring on the table and burnout.the frequency with which it is served to the Increased probability of designing smallstudents. Thus, there are a lot of dynamic and group teaching sessions for speedy feedbackinter-related variables involved in building this The flexibility and inclusion of humanmodel. This is not just a theoretical concept, element by relooking at teaching as a teamthe model has been tested in the Khan Lab activity will help in building a dedicatedSchool with positive results. framework of peer support, mentoring and exchange of ideas in classrooms 12
January 2018How important is technology in the How can teachers ensure collaboration in acollaborative classroom model? classroom setting?Using technological tools and E-Content can First, the collaborative model should be builtliberate teachers from lecturing and free class on the expectation of good faith between thetime for true human interactions bringing teacher players. If you have four teachers andpassion and fun to learning. Students can learn they have to work together as a team, it isat a personalised pace with technology necessary they understand their individualenabling visibility at the most granular levels. strengths and weakness and also of the otherBefore computers, this was done through players. Like any team sport, teaching in theworksheets developed for every student collaborative model has to be of situationsmaking the process cumbersome and only where if a particular teacher's weaknessundertaken by schools with ample resources. surfaces, the other teachers whose strengthsTechnology has made this step easier, user- are the same jump to help them and vice versa.friendly and economical for all schools to put in As in any model, where people are involved,a classroom setting. Technology has the there is no full proof mechanism but what canpotential of bringing quality education to ensure success is a team of people who believeanyone anywhere in the World. The One World in the model so that they go that extra mile toSchool House written by Mr Salman Khan, make it work.founder of Khan Academy details how schoolscan connect with their students in the digital “Technology hasage and in collaboration create a freshapproach to learning. the potential ofHow can schools adopt this model of bringing qualitycollaboration. Where should they start?While bringing any quantum change, start at a education tospecific point to experiment and learn from it.Middle grades are usually adopted by schools anyoneto bring in pedagogical changes as they areusually where learning crisis starts and also anywherethey are away from the threat of board examsto ensure room for experimentation. As the model relies on teachers being aware of their weaknesses. How can we help them recognise their pain-points? Mentoring of teachers day to day work by an independent neutral third party is an efficient way to help him/her travel on a remedial path. The third person should observe the classroom teaching, recognise the problems and the ways that the teacher can get past them. This person should not be a part of a hierarchy or someone who can negatively impact the teacher's career or influence the long-term career growth. Bringing in peers or a neutral teacher coach can go a long way in helping them improvise their teaching-learning practises. 13 [email protected]
SCHOOL LEADERSHIP www.lxl.in Collaborative School Leadership Prashant MehrishiPrashant Mehrishi is the founder of iTeachFellowship, India's first in-service Teaching Fellowship. It is a two-year professional development programme for regular teachers helping them polish their teaching skills. Mr Mehrishi is an MBA with fifteen years of corporate experience in the IT andInsurance sector. Despite a successful career, Prashant felt something core was missing and he found histrue calling in the education sector. He joined the Teach for India Fellowship (TFI) from 2013 to 2015where he piloted their entrepreneurial idea through the 'Be The Change Project' and post a greatresponse, he started 'iTeach' to address the need of professionally trained and skilled teachers. MrPrashant still is associated with Teach for India and is a founder member of TFI Pune EntrepreneurshipClub.Collaborative leadership is a management recognize that none can succeed withoutpractice built on collaboration and focused on the others. Each has special expertise orthe leadership skills across functional and unique capabilities that the others need.organisational boundaries. All workplaces Each type of relationship identified above hasincluding schools operate on either of the five special requirements and demands. As anrelationships given below: institution proceeds from networking to collaboration, they take on more complexity, Networking: most basic and informal way added commitments, time and resource for individuals to work together. It Involves requirements. Each relationship takes longer exchanging information and ideas and to develop and more supports and resources to excludes working together on any activity sustain. Because of the required investments Communicating: a formal way for for relationship building, school leaders and individuals to share information and ideas managers should think strategically about (newsletters, letters press releases, updates what types of relationships they may want or etc.). Little happens beyond the sharing of need information through these formal mechanisms Characteristics Of Collaborative School Coordination: involves synchronizing Leadership operations or activities in order to make services more accessible and less redundant Trust: There should be trust and requires more trust than networking and understanding between all collaborative greater time commitments from people members. Collaboration is built on mutual Cooperation entails a much higher level of respect commitment and trust.It involves sharing Shared Responsibility, Power and Authority: of Resources, knowledge, staff, physical A clear demarcation of roles and property; clients, money and reputation responsibilities through delegation and Collaboration develops when entities decentralisation of power 14
January 2018 them Access to services; faster delivery of services And reductions in Problem Behaviours School Suspensions Duplication and fragmentation of programs and services, including service and program gaps Feeling of isolation among agencies and people Student transience “ Collaboration Decision Making Systems: With delegation, develops when placing appropriate decision-making authority along with participation of every entities recognize stakeholder helps in building commitment Conflict Resolution Mechanisms: Flexibility that none can to react to circumstances change and opportunities emerge and discovering new succeed without ideas of agreement and freedom to talk to express their views the others Consensus Building: Collaboration works on interdependence and symbiosis so leaders Key Outcomes of Collaborative Leadership should help their people reach consensus. Shared ownership of goal setting and Only if they are in agreement, they will own decision making the idea and its execution Shared responsibility for each other Empowered teachersBuilding Collaborative School Culture Better commitment and improvement inCollaboration fosters a climate of working teacherstogether accelerating positive changes in the Effective communication between all theschool. Stakeholders work together toward stakeholderscommon goals and assume responsibility for A productive school culture centeredevery student's success. This results in around learningimprovements in: Thus, collaborative leadership focuses on Academic achievement strategic school-wide actions directed towards Productive learning during out-of-school improvement in the learning environment and time shared among principals, administrators, Attendance in school teachers and others. It empowers employees, School climate encourages broad spectrum participation in Healthy youth development decision making and fosters shared School safety accountability for student learning. This Communication among providers results in developing a school leadership for More resources and better utilization of promoting lifetime learning. 15 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in Digital Expressions Roshan AbbasRoshan Abbas has spent two decades gathering domain expertise in radio, television, theatre, events and BTL and has recently entered Bollywood with his directorial debut under the banner of Shahrukh Khan's Red Chillies Production. He is a reputed television and radio anchor having won7 National Awards. Roshan entered the Event Management and Communication arena driven by thedesire to provide an all-encompassing service to clients and thus, Encompass Events was born. Roshan isalso currently a mentor partner at Glitch and is now a media entrepreneur and an angel investor in themedia and technology space. He is passionate about and regularly conducts workshops on radio, masscommunication and events.The modern life today is consumed by important platforms of communication fortechnology with digital communications any institution.becoming bigger with each passing day.Business institutions especially schools can no Deciding the mode and mood oflonger ignore this fact that digital mediums are communication: As a start, Schools shouldshifting the process of consumers i.e. their decide whether they are building content forparent's decision-making process. Presently, internal or external communication.schools remain an island in the fast-moving and Depending on that, the Facebook page can beshaping digital world. While the schools have a made private or public respectively. Then,control of internal communication i.e. schools need to form a committee to decideinformation exchange within boundaries, they whether the tone of communication would bedo not communicate well with the society. In formal or informal or categorise the topicsthis article, we will discuss a simple plan on under both the tones.how schools can start transitioning theircommunication on digital platforms. Make a Content Plan: A content plan is a roadmap of what the school wants to postChoosing the right communication platform: online i.e. making broad content buckets andSchools today grapple with too many then categorising all the information undercommunication mediums including a few apps them. The schools need to prepare theirthat are still in designing stage. Instead of communication content and work at least atrying new software, schools should invest in month in advance.already build platforms like Facebook, Twitter,YouTube and Instagram that has mass A digital media committee: Like schools haveoutreach. The schools also should build a an editorial board, they need a committee withstructured website and regularly update the few representatives of the school includingcontent. Website and social media are the most administrators, teachers and students on 18
January 2018board. The students can be actively engaged increating the communications content for theschool with the teachers being the final filteringagents. The schools should also hire a publicrelations officer or press relation officer whocould be a single point of contact betweenschools and their end audience.Structuring the Content public goodwill of a school .Communication and Content are two sides ofthe same coin and A school can categorise their Hero/Shero Storystories in four content buckets: Every story has a protagonist to causeOrigin Story maximum impact. So, why should schools beEvery school should have their own mythology any different? In addition to achievementi.e. what prompted the school to happen and stories, the schools should celebrate anwhy is the school here. Old schools can present individual or a team accomplishment. For e.g. aa rich historical and cultural timeline of them school in Bombay recently uploaded ashaping and also being shaped since time Facebook post of their students making aimmemorial. Small and relatively new schools robot, another school posted inspiring storiescan have a philosophical standpoint. It is of students who went to slum to let the dwellersimportant for every school to get their origin become aware of digital payments. Buildingstory right as it represents their vision i.e. the content for students, for students and bywhy of their existence. students is the best way to tap the power of expressing on digital media.Value StorySchools should express their own value story Engaging Students in School Communicationsimilar to folklore like Jataka Tales or Aesop's It is high time; the schools start delegating theFables. A value story encompasses the responsibility of developing and editingtraditional, cultural and value practises that content to their students and include them in aare common to a school. For e.g. a school which school committee formed of representativesplace a high emphasis on students doing trained on digital media and communication.community work. Podcasts which are an episodic series of digital audio and video files is also gaining popularityAchievement Story amongst students. The school can use theAn achievement story makes the school visible school journey time of students to engage themi.e. is a concrete evidence of what the school in communications through podcasts. Ourhas accomplished. It can be students millennial generation is well versed on theparticipation on prestigious platforms or the nuances of digital platforms and roping themsocial campaigns run by the school. Here, the in would not only help them learn a 21stschools need to engage with newspapers, century skill set but will also increase theirreporters and other social media platforms accountability, ownership and loyalty towardsthrough a public relations person. It is school.important that schools running a social driveincrease their presence through digitalplatforms including coverage on maybe localnews channels. This is very effective in building 19 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in Digital Marketing for Schools Karthik SrinivasanKarthik Srinivasan is a communications professional with more than 17 years of experience across corporate communications, public relations, social media and digital marketing with over 6 years in social and digital media leadership roles. Currently, he is the National Lead Social for Ogilvy &Mather and heads their social media practise. He has worked with brands like IBM, Lenovo, BlackBerry,ARM, Intel, Cricinfo, IIM Bangalore, Vodafone, Crocs, Ford, Flipkart etc. across client and agency roles.He has won gold at Socialathon India 2015 and at Emvie 2015 for Best media innovation in social mediaand bronze at DMA Asia Echo Award 2015 for Interactive, creative use of data. He has trained businessleaders, management professionals and IAS officers on social media, digital marketing and digitalcommunications in organisations like GE Healthcare, IBM and Mphasis etc.Why digital branding and marketing is name, geographical location, top people whonecessary for schools work in the school and are active in theIn the past, the decision of shortlisting the industry etc. After identifying the set ofschools by the parents heavily depended on keywords, good digital monitoring tools giveword of mouth of few trusted people. Now, them information on people's implicit andparents' opinions are being built and shaped by explicit intent i.e. broadly what are peoplestrangers online. It is ironical that there has speaking and what kind of information theybeen a lot of chatter around the school on are seeking about the schools.digital forums like parents asking which schoolto consult or whether the school is good enough Can you elaborate on how can digitalfor their child and the school in the equation is monitoring be used to seek information onmissing in the conversation. Hence, schools are people's implicit and explicit Intent?missing a great opportunity to do their Implicit Intent: Implicit means what is not toldreputation building and branding online and in directly to the people but has an implied orthe long run, they will be at a disadvantage. hidden intent. Schools can work with GoogleOnline platforms give a chance for the school to and twitter like platforms to find how manylay down their perspectives, address concerns people are searching their school, in particular,and also provide the sought after information. the broader geography where most searches are coming from and the keywords used by them inWhat should be the first step to taken by schools particular etc. so schools can actuallyto start Digital Marketing? undertake focused advertising on social mediaDigital Marketing for any company or or Google ads mentioning best new age schoolinstitution requires them to start with Digital on Sarjapur Road in Bangalore.Monitoring, also called listening. This requiresschools' to list down a set of brand keywords Explicit Intent: Explicit is visible where schoolsthey identify with their school like the school can get into open conversations with parents 20
January 2018 interpreting the required information. What tools can school use to structure their content and respond to their target audience? Tools like sprout social can help the school to schedule their posts for an entire month on their chosen social media platform like Facebook or Twitter and can also locate where people are speaking the most about your school. It will then send school the information like a Gmail inbox and the school can respond to the same email so that it goes to the target audience.and other people talking about them on forums Will schools' visibility on digital forums makelike parenttree.com, indiaparenting.com etc. them vulnerable to bad publicity?Here, schools should hire an appropriate I think schools' participation online is a mootperson or a team which uses a human name can point because people are already discussing aenter into conversations directly with the end lot about schools. It is happening inaudience. mainstream media, social media everywhere. It has become imperative for schools to be presentPlease suggest some frequently used tools for online and share their point of view. So, inMarketing Online? future when prospective parents are looking forThe top three digital monitoring tools that school, they don't form opinions based oncurrently used by all brands are Mention, strangers online but also understand theRadian6 and Crimson Hexagon. These tools school's perspective. Schools for every parentare being popularly used for broader digital are seen as a long-term investment making itmonitoring and social media marketing. They important for them to keep their reputationactually filter a lot of chatter that happens intact in the long run.online within a set of keywords used andgenerates reports. The reports broadly include Can teachers be involved in the space of digitalthe public sentiment about the given keywords, marketing for school?the interest the topic has generated over a An interesting spin to the question would beperiod of time and the key people talking about involving the students in Digital Marketing ofthe school. schools. For high school students, it could be a fantastic internship opportunity right at theCan the reports generated by these tools used by school level wherein tandem with the teacher,the schools directly? they can do something hands-on. Most of theseNo, these are reports with raw data and have a students passing out from college would end uplot of junk information. Like any software, doing digital marketing for companies, so whythey require human intelligence and processing not start early. Ironically most children areto make sense of it. This is because most of the already active online, so it makes perfect sensekey words that schools use are not unique. to channelise their potential in a moreHere, the school needs a data analyst to constructive and purposeful way.generate a sensible report by filtering and 21 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in Making School Into An Iconic Brand Sonia ManchandaSonia Manchanda is a Design Strategist and Graphic Designer, with 20+ years' experience in building creative organisations, training and leading interdisciplinary projects teams on massive transformational projects nationally and globally. Her work involves designing systems, creatingsustainable brands and unique experiences besides building capability and capacity by designinglearning systems. She is a Founding Partner at Spread Design + Learning where her mission is to spreaddesign as a way of thinking and doing things. She is a graduate of the National Institute of Design,Ahmedabad. She is an appointed member of the India Design Council, is on the CII Design Council andis a Governing Council Member of Forge, an incubator in Coimbatore. Her Open Innovation and DesignStrategy Project Dream: in has been awarded as a global game changer by Metropolis Magazine, USA.Is a school just good education infrastructure Brand starts from the Brand Purpose.or is it a construct, an idea that is shapedconsciously, a unique learning experience. This Brand Purposeconstruct i.e. the School Brand is not a static Purpose is about a human centered approachentity but an alive and moving picture. The in answering, “Why do we exist and whatperception of this construct is shaped in unique human problem exists in which wepresent in here and now by the many lives spotted an opportunity?” This is a humantouched. If school infrastructure is the body, centered approach to integrate and be relevantBrand is the soul of a school. while reframing problems as opportunities.I am Brand. Brand is me! Brand StrategyThe School Brand is a manifestation of the What will be the overall strategy to fully shareaspirations, of the parents, the children and and fulfill the Brand Purpose, Communicatingthe teachers. It is a mirror to their future, an ONE message and moving in ONE directionever changing reflection and exchange between with integrity in our words and deeds. For this,the Brand and the Believer. Brand is a the culture, rituals, values, symbols need to benarrative, spirit, belief, faith, relationship, imaginatively coded. If the Brand were abehaviours, journeys, yearnings, aspirations. person, how old would she be, what would sheBrand is a living, breathing, consciously wear, how would she speak will be brandcreated, constantly evolving construct! strategy. After soul and body comes the mind of the brand i.e. the Brand culture andTo develop a Live Brand, we need to personality. Without this your brand can feelconsciously do what is called Brand Design. like a split personality. And every new teacher,Brand Design is the grand design of your brand student, incident will be shaping the spirit andstory. That will be touched and experienced by culture of your School Brand.all concerned. The Brand Design of your Live 22
January 2018Brand Experience marker for your school! Go one step furtherThe Brand Image is no longer created through – what about branded pencils that have aadvertising but through shared experiences. hint of citrus oil to enhance happinessThanks to the online space, the word spreads Sonic Branding: Capturing and conveyingfaster. Brand experience is living the purpose. the essence of a brand in a sound. Why not aExperience manifests in every touch point, MOGO for your Brand. A musical Logo thatevery interaction and exchange. That has to be has the essence of your brand in a sounddesigned to have a unique feeling and response. Cultural Branding: Leapfrog the norms toThis is where The Brand Identity, Positioning, create new ideologies that are relevant toMood, Voice, the Physical Experience, the the category. How about going against theOnline Experience, even the way you teach can grain, moving aside from the herd. In ourand must reflect the difference you make and work – when everyone in India was going atouchingly remind the recipient of your little crazy for International Schools, weBrand's purpose and translates in into created a bold new brand – the School ofexperiences with integrity and imagination. India. A school with Indian culture and values, global standards. An idea fromBrand Image is created when the Brand India for the worldPurpose, is translated into strategy, identity, Humanised Branding: Create an avatar thatcommunication and experience. In a represents all the qualities and traits thatcompetitive space, if purpose is not translated you want your brand to have. A school is ainto experience, for lack of connection a Brand journey for the child – we represented thatcan lose out. However, Iconic Brands are ones journey as little boy and a girl goingthat are driven by purpose and have found ever through the school, sharing moments ofnew yet unobtrusive ways to make play, reflection and joy, in a School calledconnections, create fresh stories, be different, Juniors' Journeyexperiential and alive! Dynamic Branding: Where the entire experience in every moment experiencedCategories of Iconic Brands and expressed is unique. Why not a Sensory Branding: Using the senses to relate dynamic brand, like google – that is at a subconscious level. What about a expressive. Why not a brand designed by 'smell', a 'sound', a 'colour' – a sensorial students of the school everyday! Given evolving technologies, so much is now possible Content Branding / Branded content: shapes a continuous conversation. Videos that highlight the problems of the school's neighbourhood and solutions possible, created by the children of your school. But that's relevant only if the purpose of your brand is to nurture creative action In a nutshell, Live Brand is a compelling new strategy where once you have been through a Brand Design process, you find new ways to humanise the Brand. 23 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in Mission Guaranteed Learning Anil KherAnil Kher, a Chemical Engineer from BHU-IT, the Managing Director of Micro Interconnexion Private Ltd, a company manufacturing high tech 'Gold plated PCBs' for leading global players in sectors such as Watches, Automotive, Defence etc. Mr Kher is a member of Board of Technical Education,Goa, ex-member of Board of Governors of NIT, Goa and a member of CII Primary Education Council. Asa Past Chairman, Confederation of Indian Industry Goa Council, he has also successfully completedproject involving rural Government Primary Schools in Goa where at the end of four years, the ruralschools outperformed the elite primary schools of Goa. Now, this project is planned to be launched as aNational Mission to guarantee learning.Need for an Enabled Future enable 100% of grade 4 children to read andProgramme for International Student understand a simple paragraph in aAssessment (PISA) is a global survey that aims newspaper?”to evaluate education systems worldwide by The standard answer to this is 60 hours. Now iftesting the knowledge and skills of 15-year-old a child is spending 4 hours at school and fromstudents. All the assessment papers go up to 6 standard 1st to 4th, he/she goes to school forlevels with increasing complexity. India last 200 days, that makes a total number of tuitionparticipated in the survey in 2009 where the hours to be 3200 hrs. So, something isresults showed that not 1 in 7500 students genuinely wrong as these figures don't explaincould answer a level 4, 5 and 6 question while why the child after spending quality time inglobal average was 18% of students should go school is not able to grasp the fundamentals.above 5. The Annual Status of Education In the quest for an answer, a state experimentReport (ASER) in 2009 which is the largest approved by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to ensurehousehold survey in Rural India focusing on learning was started. In 2009, a MoU waschild's schooling and basic learning i.e. reading signed between CII (Confederation of Indianthe text and solving simple arithmetic found Industry) and Government of Goa. Fivethat 80% of students of class 4th were not able government schools were adopted and it wasto read text or do simple two-digit assured that using the school resources, themultiplication. These shocking results exposed experiment will try to give better learningthe deplorable state of Indian Education outcomes and evaluate the impact throughSystem and after much deliberation decision independent testing. Unlike the majority ofwere made to focus on the building block i.e. educational assessments based on storytellingour primary education. and anecdotal evidence, this experiment used a benchmark against a control i.e. what has beenStart of an Experiment the impact before and after. In this case,“How many hours of teaching do you need to experimental group were the five rural 24
January 2018government schools involving around a capability of teaching basic concepts. Thehundred students and control comprised of best way is to build competence in teacherssame number of students from leading private on teaching skills he/she is not confidentschools of Goa. After four years, the with. Every school has senior andexperimental group outperformed the control experienced teachers along with newgroup with 1% failure against 16% failure of teachers. Encouraging weekly and monthlystudents from the control group and the class meetings where both sets help each other toaverage of rural schools was 75% as against make unit plans and daily lesson plans by60% for urban schools. giving inputs on teaching the fundamental concepts is an efficient and economical wayThe key to success was found to be quite simple of training the teachers without spendingi.e. involving the teacher in accomplishing on external teacher trainers. This alsoclear goals that have been mandated by State. improves relationships between theThe performance indicators of teachers were teachers and brings unitymade measurable i.e. ensure that children by Hands-on Management: From the Directorstandard 4th are able to read and do simple of Education to the Area Inspector andarithmetic operations. School Supervisor, everybody is looking at the service conditions i.e. whether theLearning Takeaways: children are coming to schools or the lessonsThis experiment provided us with very they have written down in the notebooksimportant learning: implies they know the particular matter etc. Thus, top to bottom nobody is Clarity in goals of teachers: Goals of our interested in quality learning outcomes. It teachers and many and vague. Her is necessary to launch guaranteed learning obligation is to complete the curriculum as a mission from the Centre so that the and not to ensure visible learning outcomes State and the officers have to mandatorily for the children. Making goals clear, follow it measurable and associated with quality learning is the first step that needs to be Successive experiments have proven that taken success of any educational programme on a Training of Teachers: Today most of the global scale is correlated with the willingness teachers recruited have D.Ed. or B.Ed. but of teachers to get involved. So, every initiative again these degrees fail to reflect their needs to take place through the regular teacher. The new trend of interventions is heavily focused on substituting the teachers with a temporary volunteer to ensure quality teaching. These initiatives won't work out in the long run as the moment teacher takes a backseat, his/her accountability to the job, students and school are lost. We now need to recognise that we are talking about the deficiency of a life essential service for more than 70% of our region and it is high time we as a Nation do something that is reflected on a National and International scale and not just in our reports. 25 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in CARES Management Framework for Schools N ShekarN Shekar has more than 35 years of experience as HR Entrepreneurship as well in Corporate Management. He has also developed an organisational development framework called “CARES” which has been used in part or full by leading Corporate Organisations. He was theChairman of Carnegie Consulting Private Limited- a talent management consulting firm engaged intraining, research and executive search services. He has also helped SME's like Stump Scheule &Somappa Deshpande Centre for Social Entrepreneurship, IDS, etc. in establishing Culture ofAccountability and Recognition and Performance improvement. He was the mind behind the TalentManagement function of the company- called 'Team Tejas Cares' and helped the organisation toestablish Business Strategy as well as Recruitment of top talent from US and Multinational Organizationsin India.CARES Management Framework for Schools Objective of CARES FrameworkSchools might be an institution of creating CARES is based on five objectives:human capacity but like any business, theyneed a management framework to safeguard Maximising Learningtheir human resources (HR). HR Management Maximising Pedagogyis creator and manager of the human capital. Maximising Employee Retention &To work effectively and efficiently, HR needs a Satisfactionregulatory framework around which they can Optimising Financial Performancedo their task of managing resources related to Maximising Safety/Administrationthe employees. Here, we will discuss the To accomplish all these objectives, the CARESCARES Management Framework for Schools. framework lays down proper systems, tools and mechanisms in place.CARES looks any business entity as a living Community Value (Respiratory System)organism symbolising the four functional Community Value deals with Strategicfaculties as major organ systems (biological) Quotient (SQ) that depends on the institutionaland the last one as the system of set of traits goodwill. For this, the schools need to ensurethat defines the person (social) i.e. these: C - Community Value (Respiratory System) Have a clear vision, a core set of values and A - Achievement Value (Skeletal Muscular a strong ethos that underpins all that they System) do and is communicated clearly to all the R-Recognition Value (Cardio Vascular stakeholders System) A school's mission should be grounded in E-Education Value (Neurological D/E values and beliefs of creating public goods system) including effective education. A united S - Social Value (Personae) mission based school culture can inspire and unite a school as a community 26
January 2018 A well-articulated vision and mission Recognition Value (Cardio Vascular System) follows clearly defined objectives and time- For Recognition Quotient (RQ), the schools bound goals and strategies need to do the following: Curriculum, programmes, administration, management, parents, teachers all embody Recognising the contribution of every the school. So it is necessary to incorporate person in the system and making them feel the culture and values of the school valued from top to the bottom community in all these elements A clear and comprehensive career growth Enrolments of students or recruitment of pathway teachers should be done keeping it cohesive Proper Grievances processes in place to help to the school climate resolve situations and prevent escalation Satisfaction of every stakeholder is Adequate compensatory benefits important in this value chain for long-term Performance management, assessment and investment rewards and recognition should go together Including Welfare programs to enhance theAchievement Value (Skeletal Muscular System) security of acquired human resourcesAlso called the Execution Quotient (EQ) , itgives shapes to great ideas by schools through Education Value (Neurological D/E system) Education value deals with Competency Workforce planning that is an integral part Quotient (CQ) and focuses on creating a culture of people management and flows from of learning and development in the organisational design to talent planning organisation. For this the schools should: and forecast. The schools need to have an understanding of the kind of people and Do an extensive competency mapping of skill sets they need and how they can attract understanding every person's skill set them Competency development and training Staff engagement practices which is a through updated and evolving pedagogical continued part of resource planning processes is necessary Performance Management of people recruited and clarity in demarcated roles Social Value (Personae) Maintaining the financial health of the Also called the Image Quotient (IQ), it is the institution reflection of vision, mission, values, knowledge Innovation in every structure, design and and skills on which the entity has founded and system built upon. For this, the schools need to: Build them into a brand Comply with all statutory provisions Structure their governmental processes by delegating and decentralising work to avoid delays In practice, no workspace operates in a vacuum and there will always be a combination of factors driving Human Resource Management in any organisation. Schools need to be able to identify and understand what they are in order to incorporate them into the CARES framework to put an effective plan together. Always remember, nothing is set in stone and there is no one size fits all model. 27 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in Legal Protection for Schools Rahul MatthanRahul Matthan is a partner with Trilegal and heads its TMT practise and serves on the management committee of the firm. In this capacity, he has advised on some of the largest technology and telecom acquisitions in the country and domestic and international corporations on a wide range ofregulatory issues. He has been included in The Mint newspaper's list of 25 People who Matter in Indian E-Commerce. Mr Matthan has been involved in a number of policy initiatives including assisting thegovernment in preparing the country's privacy law as well as its Unique ID law. He is currently a memberof the Reserve Bank of India's Committee on Household Finance. Mr Matthan is also a frequent speakerand has a weekly column on issues at the intersection of law and technology.Why are legal safeguards necessary for schools? understand what the terms of the contract areToday, education is no more a social service but and understand its nuances. The schoolis becoming a business especially in light of all management should never underestimate theirthe legal compliance and regulations that ability to be involved in making legalrelate to or can potentially impact schools. frameworks, yes it should be vetted by lawyersSince schools deal with Children, seen as the but it is you who know the school the best.most vulnerable, the impact of what happensin a school is much greater. Today, we live in the Please list the top two areas that schools needdigital era where information is available with have legal protections in place.a touch of a finger making any incident viral in The Process of Outsourcing: Needs to be takena few seconds making it necessary for schools to care by a legally binding contract mutuallytake the necessary precautions. safeguarding both the parties.Does the process of commercialisation have any Data Privacy and Protection: India doesn't havelegal implications for schools? How can schools a proper legal framework for data protectionovercome them? resulting in an upsurge of cyber-crimes on aWith commercialisation, schools have also global scale. In an era, where theft and sale ofstarted to outsource a lot of products and stolen data are on an explosion, India being oneservices e.g. school security, transportation, of the largest owners of outsourced datatrainers for extracurricular etc. Outsourcing processing in the World becomes the epicentreleads to dilution of the core of any business of such crimes without proper legislation.resulting in a need for added legal checks, Here, schools which are hosts to all sorts ofbalances, systems and processes. Schools need sensitive data of children like personalto frame a legal contract for protecting both information, health records and even the crudeparties interest when they outsource. These location of the child through the new GPScontracts share liability and schools should Tracker on school transportation systems, 28
January 2018could be left vulnerable without equipping should have a number on their speed dialthemselves with the right legal provisions. In a that they can call when there is any legallandmark judgement, a nine-judge bench of problem. Schools can also look at theirSupreme Court has declared that right to parent's pool to find a lawyer and approachprivacy is a fundamental right with him/her. This is an effective measure as theinformation on Children requiring the highest parent would have a personal reason inlevel of protection. Thus, schools need to take protecting the school which the child goesproactive measures on what sort of Children's to and in turn the school will be benefitteddata they are holding and how best to protect by the right adviceit. Legal Safety Drills: At least once a year, have a refresher session on legal provisions,What are the steps schools can take to protect framework and safeguards and do drills andthemselves legally? trail runs with school management and the staff. It is important that every stakeholder A Legal Game Plan: Schools should know of the school is prepared to deal with what all areas they need to comply with and incidents that may require a legal then have a strategic plan for them. The intervention for e.g. training the principal, best way to go about it is to run simulations senior management and in some instances or trial runs of situations that could the teachers on how to deal with the press as potentially happen. Legal firms suggest sometimes one may unknowingly be this to their clients as when an incident admitting things in press which can raise happens, the affected party has a short time prejudices against their own case to react and if unprepared, their response leads to confusion and chaos. If simulations In case of a school incident involving children are run, a party is better prepared and can and requiring internal redressal, ideally who take appropriate reactive measures like if should preside? Should the child's teacher and the situation needs internal investigation or parents be involved? calling the police etc. and prevent the Schools should have a Legal Addressal and situation getting out of control Grievance Redressal Committee which is a A lawyer on speed-dial: Ideally all schools neutral third party and has no bias towards the affected individuals. Logically and methodically, teachers are not able to make this distinction as a lot of teachers decide on facts which have been shaped over the years; preconceptions on the children involved etc. so they might not make the right decision. Involving parents except those who are lawyers is usually counter-productive as all parents have vested interest in decisions that only benefit their child and have minimal knowledge of legal policies and systems in place. At the most schools should make the parents aware and assure them that necessary steps are being taken to protect their children. 29 [email protected]
INNOVATION www.lxl.in Exploring Mythology and Beyond Eika ChaturvediEika Banerjee is one of India's leading women business leaders and a corporate mythologist. In her current role as the CEO, Future Learning, Eika leads one of India's largest – Skilling, Employability & Livelihoods, Education and Corporate Capability Building organisations. Ms. Banerjee is an MBAfrom FMS-Delhi and holds various Diplomas/ Certificates in the area of Comparative Mythology, Ethics &Morality, Business & Lifestyle Coaching, Gender Policy & Governance and Behavioural Assessment. Shehas worked for over 17 years with Blue Chip companies in various Leadership roles as well as foundedand created two entrepreneurial ventures. Eika is founder and curator of Aakhyaan, India's First everAnnual Mythology festival, a knowledge platform that she has conceptualised with department ofSanskrit, University of Mumbai – to integrate the corporate world, academia and popular culture.Beginning of a mythological journey answers and dying for solutions. In the last fewMy journey in Mythology began to seek years, we have seen a corporate crisis, structureanswers on why we are the way we are. and governance crisis of multiple proportionsMythology is our more tangible unit of and therefore to me 'mythology' seemed a goodvaluable belief system. Between mythology place to know 'why' and 'workplaces' seemed toand history, the major difference is that history be a great place to 'apply' it in.always has a judgement and mythology isbeyond judgement. So, a mythologist is Mythology to help embrace our lives insomebody who studies civilisations and workspacesunderstands their cultural codes, value and In our day to day life, we are influenced bybeliefs systems providing a very interesting three main estates in life i.e. Academics,insight into future answering the 'why' part of Popular Culture and Work life. Academics asour existence which other disciplines like an estate is fairly established with research andsociology, anthropology fail to provide. ability to give us answers through solution providing human beings. Popular culture refersWe as humans are fairly set in our personal, to mass media and information where wepolitical, governance and social structures but consume everything and quite intelligentlystruggle in our workplaces. It is because the with no conflict. It is only the workspace whereidea of a corporate workspace is a hundred- we think we are governed by somebody else'syear-old binary idea that is being applied to a rule, are victims of a system, organisationsociety that is plural, non-linear and born of culture and politics. Therefore, the whole ideacivilisations thousands of years old. In the of mythology is to apply the learning from ourcorporate world, we struggle with maintaining personal lives from the ancient scriptures,the right work-life balance, working with wisdom to our workspaces which need thestructures, hierarchies, politics that we don't in most.daily lives. So, this is an estate that is crying for 30
January 2018Mythology in School Space they were but how well prepared for the futureOur education and science are built on the they are. Educators are gearing up for theconcept of focusing and growing your change by changing educational framework,strengths to be successful while mythology as a now it is the question of degree of the changediscipline is more about strengthening your that will emerge. For e.g. the way students areweaknesses to be your best self. Schools prepare given their assignments and kind ofus to compete with others and seek answers conversations they indulge in are drasticallyoutside while mythology prepares us to different from our generation. Recently mycompete with ourselves and seek answers daughter was given an English assignment onwithin to unlock our potential i.e. reach within the occurrence of a strange phenomenon. Sheto launch forward. Thus, mythology can give a chose Bermuda Triangle and for her Englishfresh perspective on school pedagogy, structure p ap e r, s h e r e s e a r c h e d o n ge o g r ap hy,and governance. environmental sciences, physics of magnetic field etc. to completely analyse her chosenThe whole idea of Learning by Rote and Smriti subject. Before, our debate teams used to argueand then applying it was useful back then and 'for' or 'against' but today the teams preparehas led us to where we are today. It was the their arguments for both sides and theright thing to do at that time and it was done curriculum offering them room for it.well. But the world of future will have noboundaries and we no longer can be a State, Future of Our EducationIndian, American or English System. We have In the past, our education system was designedto be a World System. A lot of educators and to differentiate us on the quantum ofeducational institutes are realising the information or content we had. Content being aimportance of preparing Children to be global binary commodity could easily label us bycitizens and have started adding new elements relative rank or rating. Today, in the digitalto their curriculum. world everybody has access to content and therefore moving forward it is how one analysesThe schools have started to realise that their the information will be the differentiatingown existence is not a function of how good factor. An interesting point is unlike content, the analysis is not a binary commodity and suddenly one cannot compete because everybody's analysis will be different. Thus, in an absence of a competing landscape analysis can only be a function of your best analysis pushing you to be your best self. It is a function of real-time, fast thinking, problem- solving, contextual thinking and joining the dots. Our education system needs to take that leap of understanding that there are no binaries and everything is in a continuum to meet the needs of the future World. 31 [email protected]
INNOVATION A village school at 7500 Feet in Doda District of Jammu & Kashmir with more than 400 Students coming from around 15 villages in the area.A PICTURESQUESTORYMentor Conclave 2017-Questioning and Co-Creating Mode of TransportEducation was an opportunity for educators to bridge thelearning divide and collaborate to design a dedicated Socio-Economic Plight: Parents practising subsistence farmingframework of meaningful education. This came to fruit by with marginal investment in educationan inspirational story of a village school shared by itsDirector, Ms. Sabbah Haji in the Conclave. Post her talk, allthe Teachers and Principals applauded Sabbah andenthusiastically offered their help through studentexchange programs, trained teachers as volunteers,sharing their teaching-learning resources etc. giving aninsight that education is deeply rooted in empathy.This touching talk has been beautifully captured inpictures and brought to our readers in this section. It is athought-provoking story of a school set in a difficultgeography. Despite, several shortcomings, The Haji PublicSchool through frugal innovation and resourceoptimisation is providing the best of education to thevillage children. The objective of sharing this story is toencourage all the educators to build a network acrossboundaries to share innovative ideas and create a lifelongpassion for learning amongst all pupils irrespective ofcaste, creed, geography or economy.“Remember together we are always better.\" 32
January 2018An initiative by the educated in the community to bring quality education to allA vision to let them illuminate the earthA mission to teach the first generation learners and bring them on par with the urban counterpartsDesigning a cultural contextual but modern learning system to accommodate their special needs.Unlearning and Relearning the lessons of life through the student-centric curriculum to develop alifelong love of learning.A school that hibernates in winter, only to awake with vigour on the first dawn of spring andnurture the young minds to follow their dream of finding their unique place in the World. 33
UPCOMING January 2018 Design Thinking Tirthankar Dash Design Thinker, COO, Quantum 360°, Design Solutions Lab Humanistic Mind Synthesis Mind Creative & Collaborative Mind Building Mind Get an insight into Design Thinking from the perspective of Mr. Dash in our forthcoming issue.To subscribe or to contribute articles please contact 34
Education BE PROACTIVE, NOT REACTIVE Research has contributed immeasurably to the area of education enabling significant progress in educational planning, policies and management.But, Do you conduct data-driven research studies?Do you effectively utilize that data in decision making?A study done by LXL Ideas, has identifed School Safety and Retentionof Teachers as the topmost challenges schools face in India.Join us in our mission to solve the challenges of Safe School and Teacher Retention for you.Write to us at [email protected] 35
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