Recipient of the prestigious Padma Shri Award in the year 2004, Gowri Ishwaran is an innovative educationist with over 30 years of experience in the field of Education. She has brought a paradigm shift on how education needs to be imparted to young students, owing to her clear understanding of the needs of growing children.
She was the founding Principal of Sanskriti School, New Delhi, which is counted among the leading schools of India, achieving the distinction within a short span of 10 years. She has also been instrumental in developing, organizing and conducting training programmes and seminars for students and teachers, and actively disseminating her experiences and learning.
As CEO of The Global Education & Leadership Foundation, Mrs. Ishwaran has been instrumental in developing today’s youth to become change makers.
At the Indian Education Congress, stressing on K12 Education in today’s world, Gowri Ishwaran talks about the real challenge of upgrading our education delivery, making it relevant and meaningful for the students in the coming years.
The Universal Solution to Everything
India has every potential of going global. Gowri Ishwaran said,” I think we, as a system need to have more confidence in what we deliver. We don’t have to run behind other countries for education. We have enough to offer. We need to organize ourselves better having the sufficient infrastructure, branding and marketing that is required. Basically as Indians we need to have that confidence that we have something great to offer.”
In the past, education was about teaching people something. Now, it’s about helping students develop a reliable compass and the navigation skills to find their own way through an increasingly uncertain, volatile and ambiguous world. These days, we no longer know exactly how things will unfold, often we are surprised and need to learn from the extraordinary, and sometimes we make mistakes along the way. It will often be the mistakes and failures which when properly understood, create the context for learning and growth.
A generation ago, teachers could expect that what they taught would last for a lifetime of their pupils. Today, schools need to prepare students for more rapid economic and social change than ever before, for jobs that have not yet been created, to use technologies that have not yet been invented, and to solve social problems that we do not yet know will arise.
Teachers First
The teachers should be treated with greater respect. Unfortunately in our country, teaching is viewed no as an important or valued profession, which is completely wrong. Unless you give social priority why would people go for a job?
Focussing on curriculum and training, Gowri Ishwaran said,” Currently in India, Teacher Training is archaic, outmoded and outdated. It needs to be powered with all the news strategies and global discourse, so that our teachers not become knowledge dispensers but facilitators.”
Innovation over Grades
“You can’t really separate the two completely. But focusing only on grades and percentage is completely wrong. Because a child securing 60% grade can be a great innovator, so innovation is an area by itself and I don’t think it can be equated with marks or grades”, said the educationist.
