SIP Academy organised VIHAAN INDIA IN 2040 a top educator’s one day conference

Hyderabad: The City’s Top 115 School Owners, Principals and educators one day conference to discuss on “how to develop skills in children to make India a true global leader by 2040” held here in the city on Friday at Hotel Vivanta.

Organized by SIP Academy, India’s the biggest skill development organization for the children, the theme of the one full-day conference was “What it takes to make India a Global Leader in 2040 by developing skills of our children today?”

In this first of its and of a conference organized in Hyderabad, VIHAAN who-is-who educators of over 115 School Principals / Correspondents in twin cities , such as Maya Sukumaran – Gitanjali Begumpet; Shankara Chary , Indus Universal; Jayanthi Venkatraman – Sister Nivedita; Seetha Murthy – Silver Oak; G. Arundhati – Sangamitra; Nalini Dadi – Genesis Intl; K.Anandavalli – DAV , Miyapur; Sunir Nagi – Pallavi; Vidhya Muralidharan – Army Public; E. Kameshwarai – Oasis; Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan – B.Ravi Kiran, Amir Khan, CMR Intl and others representing over 2 lakh young minds participated.

It is a series of conference to be organized across the country. The first edition was held in the beginning of this year in Chennai. This was the second in series. It will be held in various other cities in the near future.

The conference began with the welcome address of Mr Dinesh Victor, MD of SIP Academy, India’s biggest Skill Development Company for children. Mr Dinesh Victor, an IIT and IIM alumni is a CEO of SIP Academy. He has been a champion of skill development movement in Children in India. He is one of the names to reckon in India on the subject of Skills Development in children. He will share some of the insights on the subject and the need for it.

The purpose of this unique educators forum, according to Mr. Dinesh Victor is to deliberate on “What it takes to make India a Global Leader in 2040 by developing skills of our children today?” and chalk out a road map for the future to help schools in structuring their teaching methodology to identify, develop and nurture essential life skills.

One-sixth of world lives in India. If you change India, you change one-sixth of the world. India has 20crore school-going children studying in 15 lakh schools. Develop the right skills in children then their real potential can be realized said Dinesh Victor while welcoming the gathering.

The day-long session had four sessions catering to Corporate World; Colleges and Universities; Entrepreneurs and Schools. Panelists in each session deliberate on four topics

01. Skills relevant for work which can be developed in schools as seen by top corporates.

02. Skills relevant for higher education that can be developed in schools as seen by College and University Deans.

03. Skills relevant for successful entrepreneurship that can be encouraged in schools.

04. What are top schools in India doing to develop these relevant skills in children?

Two top corporate executives Mr Ujwal Bhandari, Director of Google-Asia Pacific Media Operators And Ms Meenakshi Nevatia, MD of Stryker Corporation for India spoke on “Skills relevant for work which can be developed in schools as seen by top corporate”. Mr Ujwal Bhandari: has extensive experience in Building / Turning around businesses and scaling them exponentially. And Ms Meenakshi Nevatia: She is an MD of Michigan based Fortune 500 medical technology firm Stryker. In her past she served Novartis. Both these speakers corporate perspective of skills that they look in their workforce.

Today’s world is all about “short cuts”, said Mr Ujwal Bhandari. Name, fame, everything people want instantly. It is the world of instant gratification. It is the fast paced world. The Generation change which used to happen once in 20years in the past is now happening in every five years. Technology is changing. Companies go defunct in no time. So what skills are required in future generations? Two skills are crucial—one is Agility(knowing concepts and apply them in the real life to solve real life problems); Adaptability(we are not trained for everything, but, still we should be able to handle the unforeseen challenges).

What teachers can do import skills. Teach them values, which don’t change. Share your and their parents values. Celebrate behaviour versus marks. Inculcate a habit of constant learning. Help them get better every day mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Help them better their relationships. Allow them to be the best version of their life. Teach them compassion, left them appreciate difference and teach them humility. Humble people are more comfortable in their own skin, Ujwal told his audience.

Focus on mind set, skill set and tool set, he told them. Help them discover their own light.

Teach them to set goals. Introduce goal setting. Have a resolution day as new year is fast approaching. Encourage them to take resolutions Other speaker Meenakashi said inculcate people and crisis management skills to kids. Let them be authentic. Teach them to teach others. So that they learn more. Let them not focus on what they don’t have. Instead let them focus on what they have. Help kids find their own niche, she told.

Speaking further she said, the city Hyderabad and both Telugu states may be boasting of producing more IITians, but, tution culture is real lying ruining the lives of kids. Stop this culture she said. India is producing more engineers than China and US are producing, she said

Prof. Dr Arnab Bhattacharya, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research & Founder of “Chai & Why” delivered keynote address. Prof Dr Arnab Bhattacharya is the founder of “Chai & Why” a monthly forum to enable informal discussions of interesting scientific issues outside a traditional academic setting. It was built on the format of the popular “Cafe Scientifique” in Europe and “Science Cafe” in the

The US, “Chai and Why?” aims to engage interested people in science but generally never have the opportunity to discuss their views with, and ask questions of, someone “in the know”.

Addressing the unique educator’s forum of schools owners and principals Prof Dr. Arnab Bhattacharya said the Science Exhibitions organised in our schools currently are Art and Craft Exhibitions and they are not Science Exhibitions. We need more real Science Exhibitions which stimulate scientific temper in young minds.

India is perhaps the only country where the constitution mandates (Article 51A)that, it shall be the fundamental duty of every citizen of India to develop the scientific temper, but reality seems very different.

All kids are fearless researchers and brilliant scientists. Even all of us are Scientists as we need to do critical thinking and we behave like scientists, Prof Arnab said.

You must encourage students to ask questions he told Principals. They can ask questions on anything that is scientific and except personal beliefs of the people. Asking questions is only way of progress, he observed.

The next session dealt with the skills required in higher education. Dr Mudrika Khandelwal, Department of Materials Science, Metallurgical Engineering, IIT Hyderabad and Prof H. Venkateshwarly, Former Principal, UCC & BM, Osmania University spoke on ‘Skills relevant for higher education that can be developed in schools as seen by College and University Deans.

The third session addressed skills relevant for successful entrepreneurship that can be encouraged in schools. This session was addressed by Ms Vanita Datla, Vice Chairman and MD of ELICO Ltd and Mr. Manek N. Daruvala, Founder Director of T.I.M.E, MBA Training Institute.

The fourth and the last session addressed on the topic “What is the view of NCERT board and what are top schools in India doing to develop these relevant skills in children? Prof. Dr Sridhar Srivastava, Dean, NCERT New Delhi; Ms Anjali Razdan, CEO of GD Goenka School, Hyderabad and Mr Skand Bali, Principal of The Hyderabad Public School addressed the subject.

Each session was followed by a panel discussion with question and answers and encourage an interaction and allowed participants to have a full dialogue with the speakers and contribute to the subject.

India is a mighty nation. It is a knowledge society. India’s ancient Astronomical. medical, green skills, scientific, technological, educational talents, Vedic culture and spiritual excellence are well known to the whole world. Our ancient India was world teacher–Jagat Guru. The world looked at India for seeking knowledge, we had the world’s first university. However, over the past 300 years, we have fallen behind the world due to various reasons. The good old system of mere instruction-based education won’t work. The skill-oriented education will enable not only to emerge as a world leader but also helps to gain our past glory.

Corporate leaders, Entrepreneurs, College Deans, Former Director of NCERT and Top School Principals will speak at the day-long program. Vihaan, in Sanskrit means ‘awakening’ is a wakeup call to revisit our teaching practices and methodologies to come out with solutions to develop relevant skills for children. The basic idea behind this need of the hour initiative is to sensitize educational leaders and get some practical ideas which the school leaders can implement in their schools.