On Saturday, 02nd November, 2019 at the Daly College, Indore, the Aditya Birla Education Academy & Mpower in association with New Millennium Education Partners (NMEP) organised a shift from the previous large format conferences which included school leaders and teachers from varied sections of the school spectrum. This event witnessed at intimate gathering of school leaders from various schools in Indore. The roundtable ensured maximum engagement of all stakeholders that were present.

A lively Roundtable Discussion among top 10 educators of Indore chaired by Bharati Thakore, Founder and CEO, NMEP, dwelt on the critical importance of  21st century teacher training and continuous upgradation of teacher skills to deliver relevant education to equip Indian students to compete on the world stage. Prodipto Hore, Program Director, Aditya  Birla Education Academy, highlighted the teacher training courses of   UPenn and Universities of Nottingham and Iowa, and other workshops conducted by ABEA for teachers’ professional development. 

The proficient members of roundtable discussed the topic ‘The School Leader: Developing Essential Professional Skills for Moving Ordinary Schools to Extraordinary’. The panel comprised of Ms Dolly Dsouza, HOD, DPS Indore; Ms Jayshree Patel, Principal, GD Goenka Public School; Dr Lalita Singh, Principal, The Shishukunj International School; Mr Neeraj Bedhotiya, Prinipal, Daly College; Mr Prakash Choudhary, Principal, Prestige Public School; Mrs Rupashree Sapru, Coordinator, Sri Sathya Sai Vidya Vihar; Mr Siddharth Singh, Director, The Emerald Heights International School; Ms Sonal Chourey, HOD, St Rapheal School; Ms Vineeta Singh, Principal, Indus World School; Mr Winston Gomez, Principal, New Digamber Public School and Ms Vineeta Bedhotiya, Dean Staff & Student Development, Daly College.

These school leaders discussed skills that were essential for schools to become extraordinary. Mr Siddharth Singh advised a mixture of experiential learning and artificial intelligence in the 21st century; teachers need to attend sessions to clearly understand these 21st century skills. Dr Lalita Singh advocated the importance of functional literacy as a basic skill that schools need to work on implementing. Ms Dolly D’souza talked about creating more teachers to reduce the student teacher ratio. “Group learning will also help the students”, she added Ms Jayshree Patel stressed on the importance of digital literacy skills. Mr Winston Gomez spoke about the unique talent that each teacher possesses and that schools need to identify and nurture this talent of their staff and use it in the best way to benefit students. 

Mr Prakash Choudhary expressed that the qualities of confidence, collaborative spirit, patience should be instilled as these are important for teachers to make their classroom experience more effective. Mr Neeraj Kumar Bedhotiya stated that the attitude of teachers needs to be positive; they need to test student learning outcomes and engage them more to make the learning extraordinary. Ms Vineeta Bedhotiya said that personalised learning and adding human interaction is what can help make the school experience exceptional for a student.

The participants were also part of a session that was being facilitated by Ms Parveen Shaikh, Head – Outreach & Collaborations, Mpower, who took them through the warning signs and management techniques for common mental health issues of depression, anxiety, self-harm and substance abuse. The session was interactive wherein the participants and facilitators shared personal experiences. The facilitator was able to explain all the different warning signs, treatments and barriers to seeking help effectively to the audience.

It was thoroughly a day dedicated towards matters that deeply affect the education community!