Shreevats Jaipuria
Vice Chairman, Seth M.R. Jaipuria Schools

An alum of the Stern School of Business, New York University, Shreevats Jaipuria is vice chairman of the Seth M.R. Jaipuria schools (SMRJ) and Jaipuria Institute of Management. The SMRJ Group comprises 34 K-12 schools (Uttar Pradesh and Bihar) and four business schools (Lucknow, Noida, Jaipur and Indore) with a total enrolment of 30,000 students and 2,200 teachers.

The Covid-19 crisis has majorly disrupted the education system. How have SMRJ schools responded to this challenge?

Our #1 priority is to ensure the safety and well-being of our students, teachers and parents. Therefore, from early March, we mandated work from home for all students, teachers and staff and began online classes. Most importantly, we continue to intensively train our teachers in technology usage and digital pedagogies, while constantly upgrading our online teaching-learning system to ensure valuable learning outcomes for our children.

What are the major challenges confronting Indian K-12 education in the Covid era?

Many households in India don’t have access to digital devices such as computers and Smartphones and high speed Internet connectivity. To cover such homes, we have equipped our remote learning system with pre-recorded videos shared through e-mail and WhatsApp. However, technology is not the big bottleneck. I believe the greater challenge is changing parental mind-sets. Schools need to work in collaboration with parents and help them understand that learning must continue despite the lockdown. Every day of learning contributes to the overall development of children.

Several state governments have issued fees waiver/deferment circulars to private school managements. In our schools, we have withdrawn the tuition fee increase for 202021 and waived transportation fees during the lockdown period. We have also given parents the option of paying fees monthly. I am thankful that most parents are cooperating with their schools and appreciating teachers for ensuring learning continuity during the lockdown.

What are your Top 3 proposals for reforming K-12 education in India?

• Government policies must encourage promotion of new private schools, especially in under-served areas. Increased competition between schools will lead to lower fees and greater choice for students and parents

•Schools must increase investment in pedagogy research and teacher training. For instance, we have established a 50-member team that works exclusively on pedagogy research and teacher development

• K-12 curriculums and education must be contextualised to Indian culture and society.

What are your future plans for the Seth MR Jaipuria Schools?

Transform the learning experiences of 100,000 children and 5,000 educators across 75 sustainable schools pan-India by year 2025.