Smt. C Rama Devi
Principal, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan`s Public School, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, AP
Bhavan`s Vidyashram`s vision is to produce citizens of tomorrow by instilling confidence and leadership qualities in children, helping them grow into worthy human beings and befitting members of the society and nation
What is your vision for quality education in your school?
The mission of our school is to provide opportunities for students to achieve their personal best, become responsible and productive citizens, and embrace life long learning in a safe and positive environment. To achieve excellence in education, using a blend of traditional and modern technology based learning to face the challenges of the future. Bhavan`s Vidyashram`s vision is to produce citizens of tomorrow by instilling confidence and leadership qualities in children, helping them grow into worthy human beings and befitting members of the society and nation. The school emphasises the core values of empathy, righteousness, secularism, cooperation and acceptance.
Please tell us about the curriculum and learning methodology followed in the school.
Dramatisation, animation, power point presentations, role-play, circular time audio-visual aids and group discussions are among the means used to enhance teaching and learning at our school. All the teachers are computer literate and use ICT extensively for teaching lessons. Curriculum needs change and it is important to develop processes, upgrade facilities and train constantly. Meditation and spiritual activity are an integral part of the curriculum as are music, dance and dramatics.
What are the initiatives taken up by your school for integrating ICT in education?
At Bhavan`s Vidyashram, technology has been integrated into various spheres, right from the classroom to school administration. The school has three state-of-the-art computer laboratories, both teachers and students use extensively to generate and store projects.
With ICT, teachers are able to create their own material and infuse their subjects with new insights and methodologies, thus, ensuring that classroom teaching remains exciting and fun. Technology is used to complement other aspects of good teaching rather than replace them.
What are the major challenges as far as integration of ICT is concerned?
While the use of ICT is beneficial to the education process, there are some concerns and problems with integrating the same into everyday curriculum and functioning. Maintenance and troubleshooting of ICT equipment; inequality in access to computers at home; information overload among student; and fast pace of changes taking place in technology; plagiarism as in blindly copying from the Internet; and slow connectivity and power issues, are some of the challenges.
How do you build teachers` capacity in rendering technology mediated education.
Teachers are acquainted with Teaching Thinking Technology (TTT) and have completed courses. They have been trained to develop students` critical thinking and collaborative skills. All the teaching staff have received various stages of training through Intel programmes.
How do you see Public-Private-Partnership for enhancing proper use of technologies in school education.
ICT enhanced curriculum requires significant regular funding for keeping abreast of the changes, maintenance, etc. Technology changes rapidly and it is for schools to keep abreast of these changes. Having a dedicated fund towards ICT education is one way of managing, while a public-private-partnership may also work out in some cases.
What are the future initiatives/plans for integrating ICT in school education?
For integrating ICT in school education in the coming years, training should be provided to teachers on web designing to update their class activities. Moreover, online forums should be used for interacting with parents and for improving knowledge and teaching techniques.
