Ritu Sharma
Principal, DPS, Kamptee Road, Nagpur

Ritu Sharma is principal of DPS, Kamptee Road, since 2019. This CBSE-affiliated co-ed K-12 school has 3,422 students and 115 teachers on its muster rolls.

How satisfied are you with your school’s switch to the online mode of learning?
With the pandemic showing no signs of abating, I’m glad we acted swiftly when the lockdown was announced in March 2020, and moved our classes online from pre-primary to higher secondary education. This was a difficult transition. Many teachers were not tech-savvy and needed intensive training. But I am grateful that over the past year, our teachers and the entire staff went the extra mile to ensure that our children didn’t suffer learning loss during this crisis.

What are the innovations you introduced to cope with the challenges of online learning?
Our primary objective was — and remains — holistic development of our students. Therefore right from the start, we accorded equal importance to academic and co-curricular education to ensure the spiritual and mental well-being of our children. Despite reduced hours of instruction, we followed a daily routine of online prayers and yoga sessions, counselled parents and students, and organised virtual nature trails, summer camps and several cultural and literary events. Simultaneously, we continuously monitored every student’s academic progress and conducted remedial classes to bridge learning gaps.

Many state governments directed private schools to reduce/waive school fees in the pandemic year. How has DPS, Nagpur coped with this financial exigency?
The loss of jobs and incomes during the pandemic demanded that we sympathise with our children, parents, teachers and staff. But with the school obliged to meet fixed and ongoing expenses, this has been a challenging period. We had no option but to reduce expenditure and appeal to parents to continue paying contracted fees. But with mixed results.

What are your plans to deal with future pandemic disruptions?
I believe that online/blended learning is here to stay. Therefore, we will continue to develop online teaching-learning capabilities and pedagogies to ensure that our children are provided high quality 21st century education.

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