25 Principals Redefining Indian Education (contd.)Continuously learning principalAnu Dhingra heads Delhi Public School, Lucknow, an institution which admits only 2 percent of the children who apply for admission. But when Dhingra joined in 1999, this then one-year-old CBSE affiliated school had only 450 students. Since then the enrollment has swelled to 1,700. The secret of DPS Lucknow? “A reputation for simple hard work,” says Dhingra side-stepping questions about the brand image of DPS. Nevertheless it‚s patently obvious that the need to keep up with the 130 DPS schools countrywide inspires this English literature alumna of Punjab University, who earlier served in the Salwan Public School and several Army Public schools. “To aim just to be the best school in Lucknow, is limiting. We are aiming to become the best DPS school in India,” she says.The school already chalked up an impressive first in terms of using Oracle software as an educative tool. Moreover in-service training for teachers is given top priority. Teacher workshops on leadership, teaching practices and evaluation systems are continuous year round. Classroom pedagogies favour hands-on learning with students trooping off to golf courses, flour mills and dairy farms to experience and observe. English language learning is another focus area and a well-equipped language lab with audio visual aids and an English club is a great draw with students.In keeping with the DPS tradition, all class X students passed in the first division last year, with a confident first batch ready to write the class XII exam this year. DPS Lucknow has done well in extra-curricular activities as well. “If we participate in a competition, we usually win,” says Dhingra of her students, who have brought back the state level taekwondo championships and reached the semi finals of the national vocals competition Saregama. Guided by a social conscience, Dhingra has also set up a Shiksha Kendra on the school campus which provides free-of-charge education to underprivileged children. More than 50 students, aged four-ten years attend two-and-a-half-hour classes daily and are provided schoolbooks and uniforms by DPS, Lucknow.Though pre-occupied with school administration, Dhingra says interaction with young children keeps her refreshed. “Being a teacher is all about being a learner and I believe one can learn even from four-year-olds,” she says. Obviously she is putting these lessons to good use . Equal education championIn 2003 when Kalpana Singh met Shukla Bose, founder of Bangalore-based NGO Parikrma Humanity Foundation (PHF), her life changed dramatically. Bose was on the threshold of starting the first free Parikrma School for slum children and wanted Singh to take charge as principal. In what Singh describes as an “instant decision”, she gave up her job as principal of Vidya Dayini Model School, Hyderabad and signed up with PHF. Since then from two schools with an enrollment of 320 students, PHF has promoted an additional two schools with an aggregate enrollment of 730 children from slums across the garden city. The distinguishing characteristic of PHF schools is that they provide free English-medium, CISCE syllabus education to…
