Staff Reporter
“A leader is the one who thinks the unthinkable, who achieves the unachievable, and who sees the invisible. Every Principal is a leader and they should provide impetus to create leaders,” said Dr Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM, Nagpur during the inauguration function of 8th International Principals’ Educational Conference 2023 (IPEC 2023) conducted by The South Public School underway at Chitnavis Centre in Civil Lines. The theme of the IPEC-2023 is ‘New Song With Old Composition -- Thought Behind Present Education System.’ SIP Abacus, Ashmi Road Carriers Pvt Ltd, FIITJEE, Sunflower Publishers Pvt Ltd, Tychee Publishing and Magik Pitara supported this three-day conference. While talking about leaders, Dr Metri gave the example of Sunil Bharti Mittal who founded Bharti Telecom Limited way back in 1986. At that time, Mittal claimed that every Indian will have mobile phones in next 10-15 years and sim cards will be available in ‘Paan shops’. “What Mittal predicted, it became reality exactly after 15 years. This is called a leader can see that what others can’t,” said Dr Metri. “Principals must have to play the role of a mentor for their students. For example, Homi Bhabha was the mentor of Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan was the guru of former President of India and Bharat Ratna Dr A P J Abdul Kalam. This is the way a leader can create a leader,” said Dr Metri.
While talking about the New Education Policy 2020 (NEP 2020), Dr Metri said, “NEP 2020 is the collaboration between the old education system with the new one. It is all about inculcating the ancient knowledge of India with modern education system.” He further said, “All education philosophy talks about ‘active learning’ and it comes when students are engaged and involved. If you look into old education system of our country, you can see games and sports were involved to teach unity and team work among students. It helps to build confidence and courage among students and also help to create leadership among them.” India is on a path of becoming a ‘Vishwaguru’. When our country is on the top then our institutions will also on top of the world. Therefore, it is our (principals) collective responsibility to work as a team to create a skilled and talented future leadership, said the chief guest of the conference. Dr Sudhirkumar Barai, Director, BITS Pilani was the guest of honour of the programme.
Vijay Phanshikar, Editor, ‘The Hitavada’ and the Principal Advisor of IPEC said, “NEP 2020 is nothing but an ‘Old Song with New Composition’. A mother is the first ‘Guru’ for every individual. The fact of education has not changed. The role of teacher will never change and NEP 2020 also has the same fact and the essence of our ancient knowledge.” Phanshikar also explained the theme of the conference and the objective of IPEC. The ‘Nachiketa Awards’ will be conferred on Friday at the hands of the guests. More keynote addresses will be held on day-two of the conference. In the beginning, Dr Mrunalini Dasture, Convenor, IPEC-2023 welcomed the guests and delivered the welcome address. Dr Metri and Dr Barai were honoured with ‘Sarvottam Nachiketa Puraskar’ during the event. They were felicitated with mementoes.
Deaven Dasture, Director, TSPS, CB and Joint Treasurer, BJP, Nagpur; Rajesh Ghai, MD, Sunflower and Tychee Publishing and Patron; Pranay Sharma, Director, FIITJEE and Patron also shared the during the event. All Scrutiny Committee members including Dr Satish Sule, CA Girish Deodhar, Dr Rajiv Mohta, Shashikant Chaudhary, and Dr Kanchan Naidu were honoured during the event. Similarly, Advisory Committee Members of IPEC 2023 including Neeru Kapai, Mukta Chatterjee, Prakash Somalwar, Abha Meghe, Reena Dargan, Dr Mini Deshmukh, and Dr Rasika Dasture were also honoured at the hands of the guests. A large number of principals, teachers, lecturers and scientists were present during the programme. Mangesh Chinewar, Vice-Principal, South Public School proposed a vote of thanks.
Teachers are a role model for students: Dr Barai
“Teachers are role model for students and they want their role models to be the best in every form,” said Dr Sudhirkumar Barai, Director, BITS Pilani during the event. “In the era of technology every principal and teacher must know about modern technologies. For teachers, knowledge of technology can be used for value addition in their profession,” said Dr Barai. “We have to be very focused and creative. We must have the vision to identify the weaker part and the skills of our every student. We should be a cheer leader for our students to encourage them always,” said the Director of BITS Pilani. “A principal or teacher mush have curiosity to learn new things from others even from their students. It will help to create bond between teacher and student,” Dr Barai added. “In BITS Pilani, we follow the project based learning technique in all faculties. It is just like fun with learning,” he added.
There is no age for learning: Prof Sheode
Prof Alok Sheode, a retired lecturer and an insect photographer delivered a lecture during the first session in which he talked about the life of insects and how he adopted his hobby as his career. “There is no age of learning. I am still learning in my middle age. Photography was my hobby but when I start clicking photographs of insects then I realised and started learning about the minute life of insects. I quit my job and adopted my hobby as my profession,” said Sheode. Sheode also showed insect photographs that he clicked in and around Nagpur city during the event. He explained his view of learning in form of his photographs which was appreciated by the august gathering.