The students and teachers of St. Mary’s High School, Kalyan create history as they recreate the concept of Dashavatar in a visually captivating movie with special effects, excellent dramatisation and captivating soundtracks On the auspicious occasion of Akshaya Tritiya and Eid on May 3, 2022, the St. Mary’s High School, Kalyan team launched its in-house production “Dashavatar” to mark its annual day function that will remain etched in our memories forever. Dashavatar signifies the changes in era, the diverse forms of Lord Vishnu and how humankind has evolved through the eras to adapt to change. The theme was selected keeping in mind post-Covid learning environments which reflect the sentiment of accommodation of new thoughts and ideas to cope with change. Conceptualised by AryaGlobal’s Director and well-known educationist Dr. Neelam Malik, the thoughts behind Dashavatar. were carefully executed by an experienced team comprising Directors Pratik Bhosle; Mrs. Divya Borse and Mrs. Debashree Mukherjee for screenplay and Varsha Vishe and Nishad Joshi for dialogue and music. St. Mary’s has set the ball rolling to adapt the National Education Policy. This Annual Day is a skill-building activity, a career development project to help students discover their talents and dabble in hobbies today or for the future and to tread the path of integrating technology with learning proposed in the NEP,” said Dr, Neelam Malik speaking on the occasion. St. Mary’s High School has a well-established teaching pedagogy that focuses on value education. By integrating technology with learning, Dashavatar was a unique effort to introduce children to India’s rich culture and heritage. The final performance was the result of six months of sheer hard work put in by the students, parents and teachers of St. Mary’s High School who underwent rigorous training from renowned theatre artistes in acting, stage tactics, lights, costume, music score and special effects. All students were given a chance to contribute based on their aptitudes and skills. Commented Bharat Malik, Chairman of AryaGlobal: “This experience has helped children understand the importance of teamwork and that to achieve something great, one needs to engage in creative thinking. Children have learnt the importance of patience and the value of research in making a great movie. They have also learnt the nuances of stagecraft and dialogue delivery.” “We always aim to provide a holistic learning experience by integrating life skills. With Dashavatar, our students discovered their love for dramatics and understood the hard work that goes into producing a movie. I thank our parents for giving their whole[1]hearted support and consent for their child’s participation,” said the school Principal Divya Borse. CEO Dr.Vinda Buskute added: “Adapting to change is the essence of growth and happiness and this is evident in our scrip[1]tures. We are witnessing the same in our students as they equip themselves to adapt to vocational skills required today.” St. Mary’s High School, Kalyan is recognised as the No. 1 Budget School in India by Education Today and India’s No.1 State Board School in Digital Advancement. As Dr. Neelam Malik…
Santosh Kumar, Co-founder & CEO and Yeshwanth Raj Parasmal, Co-founder & Director share the aims and objectives of 21K School, India’s #1 online school. Tell us about the launch of your ‘Future of Education’ initiative. Santosh Kumar: The education system is changing, with new teachers and programs that will change the face of teachinglearning forever. Imagine a world where students are enabled to learn at their own pace instead of being conformist members in an assembly line-type environment. Education has always been much more than just the curriculum; it’s also about social interaction between peers with similar interests as well as creative aka free thinking exercises on how we can improve society today through meaningful discussions. The revolution won’t come without hurdles but there have never been better times ahead for those willing and ready! We at 21K School are spearheading this revolution of making transformational education available to children world over. We wanted to give parents an inside out perspective on how we are delivering futuristic education. You can visit our YouTube channel @21KSchool to know everything you ever wanted to know about Online Schooling and didn’t know where to look! As a K12 school that is only online, can you tell us how you are providing education to children through your platform? Yeshwanth Raj Parasmal: Our three co-founders and I came together with one strong belief – that the biggest gift a parent can give their child is to prepare them for a rapidly evolving world and a future far beyond the traditional roles we have grown up seeing. This is our core notion in order to offer high quality online educa[1]tion, global curriculum choices and quality teachers who love teach[1]ing on a universal platform that students have access to anywhere in the world! We started 21K School to change the way education is looked at and taught for. We knew we had to change the factory model of education and bring in transparency and innovation at the core. A child must enjoy learning and only then can she use that learning in her future life. Our digital-only K12 schooling experience helps save time and gives children the flexibility to pur[1]sue what they love. Online School saves as many as 1,050 hours per year, translating to 700 days over 16 years of school education by reducing travel time and tuition time. This flexible learning model at 21K School allows students to pursue their passions across sci[1]ence, maths, art, music, dance, entrepreneurship, and sports. 21K School is designed not just as another mainstream schooling option but as a giant leap into the future of learning experience where parents are assured that their children are being prepared for a happy, healthy and prosper[1]ous global citizenship; Our students are ready for the real world with a growth mindset. What is the market feedback for this digital education format since education in India has always been provided in a physical setting? Yeshwanth Raj Parasmal: The Covid pandemic hit India at a time…
Chitkara University has been established and managed by passionate academicians with the sole mission of nurturing “industry-ready” students. With over 900 faculty members and enrolment of 17,000 students from 28 countries, we are proud to host a diverse student community on our campus. Our goal is to impact future global citizens through life-changing research, state-of art infrastructure, innovative curricula and industry tie-ups. Chitkara University has been awarded A+ rating by the prestigious National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) placing it among 5 percent of higher education institutions (HEIs) for quality education. The university scored a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of 3.26 on a 4-point scale. Chitkara U is consistently high ranked in the coveted National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) under the categories of Engineering, Pharmacy, Management, Overall and Research. Similarly in Atal Ranking of Institutions for Innovation Achievements (ARIIA), the university has been ranked #2 in the private self-financed category of HEIs. Chitkara University is also ranked #4 in India in the Times Higher Education (THE) Impact Ranking – 2022. THE Impact Ranking measures universities’ contribution to United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The university has taken a quantum leap in global rankings and is currently ranked in the 201-300 band among 1,400 universities from over 100 countries across the world. In the QS World University Ranking 2020-21, Asia, Chitkara University featured for the first time ever. It was also the only Indian varsity to be shortlisted for ‘Technological Innovation of the Year’ in Times Higher Education Asia Awards 2020. The university has also made it into the Top 200 in ‘Clarivate Analytics’ leading innovators list 2020. Chitkara University prides itself for its 3,000+ Scopus Indexed publications, 1,500+ patents (filed), 150+ patents (granted), 5,000+ citations and much more. Our alumni are well placed across the globe. Chitkara University and its constituent institutions are duly recognised by University Grants Commission (UGC) and a number of other regulatory bodies including Council of Architecture, Pharmacy Council of India, National Council for Teacher Education, Indian Nursing Council, National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology. It is a proud member of the Association of the Universities of Asia and Pacific (AUAP), Association of Indian Universities (AIU), Association of Indian Universities, ASSOCHAM, United Nations Academic Impact (UNAI), among others. The university is recognised by the DSIR-SIRO for its research endeavours besides having government recognition for its Institutional Animal Ethics Committee (IAEC), Institution’s Innovation Cell (IIC), Institutional Human Ethical Committee (IHEC) and many more. The Technology Business Incubator is recognised by the DST and MSME since 2010. The TBI has been awarded grants from NSTDEB[1]NewGen IEDC, NIDHI Prayas, NIDHI-SSP and from the Start-up India Seed Fund. The TBI is a MEITY TIDE 2.0 centre. The Incubator is sector agnostic and supports start-ups across the country. In addition, the university has bagged funding of over Rs. 60 crore (in last three years) from the European Union and DST under various schemes from its SEED, TDT, NCSTC, NSTDEB, SERB divisions, among others. A state-of-the-art curriculum grounded…
Technology, design, and social sciences. Completely different areas, are they? In 2015, the United Nations declared sustainable transformation as the most critical global agenda till 2030. While developing the 17 Sustainable Development Goals—or SDGs as they are usually referred to—it was acutely felt by the experts that converging technology, design and social sciences was essential to achieve the tasks outlined in the SDGs. While an acute shortage of professionals educated and skilled with these three seemingly disparate sets of knowledge is recognised, what kind of academic programmes can possibly merge these three areas is unclear – particularly in India – where interdisciplinary courses are conspicuously absent at the undergraduate level. Catering to future SDG needs will be impossible with the conventional subjects taught across Indian universities. An examination of the agenda of sustainable transformation reveals that it concerns transforming spaces and places. Studying the built environment becomes critical for such a pursuit. To better understand the questions surrounding the built environment, it is imperative that future professionals study technology, design and social sciences together. To meet this need, O.P. Jindal Global University (JGU) established the Jindal School of Art & Architecture, JSAA, in 2018. JSAA now offers a Bachelor of Architecture degree and two Bachelor of Design degrees, one in Interior Design and another in Community & Urban Development. Across all three programmes, students are trained to tackle real-world challenges from a theoretically robust and pragmatically nuanced pedagogy that equips them to produce effective and equitable solutions. At JSAA, the approach is to define the built environment very differently from its conventional understanding. Education at JSAA starts with the assertion that every environment is ‘built’, whether by humans or nonhumans alone or jointly, facilitated by active geophysical processes. All three are active agents in producing any environment. There is enough evidence with scientists now to recognise that a forest is as much a built environment as an igloo. While the former is ‘built’ through the interactions of humans, nonhumans and the geophysical processes, the latter is ‘built’ by the Inuit community with the help of natural processes. Nothing is ‘pristine,’ everything has been ’built,’ not only insofar as human civilisations go back to, but even before that. Even dinosaurs were active agents in creating and building the environment they lived in. This understanding of the built environment is the central principle and core ideal that JSAA works with, following the latest and best practices from across the world. This necessarily means having faculty members educated at the very best universities around the world with advanced interdisciplinary education and training. JSAA’s accomplished and well-trained faculty includes not only architects, but anthropologists, geographers, historians, lawyers, designers, engineers, and conservationists with academic training and professional experience in the best global universities such as Cornell, Purdue, UCLA, Connecticut, UC Berkeley, Heidelberg, Politecnico de Milano, to name a few. JSAA offers research-based and hands-on education. The spirit of pedagogical engagement at JSAA is not hierarchical but leans towards co-producing knowledge where students are equal stakeholders…
