Parents should raise themselves before raising their children

Parents should raise themselves before raising their children

says Mrs Vartika Sharma, Director Academics, Victor Public School, Maujpur

Ideally, what are the roles of an academic coordinator in an institution?

A coordinator is the bridge between the Principal, management and the teachers—looking after the lesson plans, checking assignments, observing classes, day-to-day teaching learning process, listening to the problems of the teachers and the management and finding a suitable solution to that, facing the emergencies (that may arise in a school anytime), meeting parental aspirations to some extent are a few to mention. 

Do you believe in monitoring teachers? How do you give them feedback?

It is one of my primary duties as academic coordinator. There is the need of an eye otherwise the teachers also become lethargic. They also might have some doubts and questions in their mind. Class observations make the entire thing lively and energetic.

Feedback is shared with the concerned separately, in my office, never in front of the kids. 

Mrs Vartika Sharma, M Sc, M Ed, has a rich experience of 16 years in the field of education. Under her leadership and enriched wisdom derived mostly from experiences of her life, National Victor Public School has reached a certain height. Mrs Sharma is currently working as Director Academics in Victor Public School (the mother branch), Maujpur. She has played the role of Incharges in the Examination department, CCE, Environment Club, Discipline etc. She has attended several workshops and seminars and she is zealous about making education relevant to the demands of modern days. Mrs Sharma is currently pursuing law. She is a disciplinarian  and practices what she preaches. She can be reached at [email protected]

How tough is it to meet parental aspirations?

There is no end to it. The area we are catering to is less advanced in terms of education standard. Parents we cater to are not bothered whether their children are gaining knowledge, they are bothered only about marks. And, they are not wrong when the cut off is soaring higher every year. Point is, they do not realise that the fault is in the system. Pressurising a student might have adverse effect. How can you feed one beyond his or her limit?

Parents have a weird complaint nowadays that their children are not able to speak in fluent English though they pay a hefty amount to the private schools. Now, who will explain them the language acquisition theory! Even if one tries to explain, they are not ready to be convinced that home atmosphere matters a lot. We can drill the children in school for maximum 6-7 hours but what is beyond that! Anyways, teachers are working their level best.

Parents should understand that it is more important to be a good human being rather than just becoming an English speaking individual. Parenting in present scenario is really challenging. It is tough to be parents. They should raise themselves before raising a child. Teachers, of any standard and school, always try for the betterment of a kid.

Tell us something about your association with Victor Public School. How have you influenced the growth in the development of this school?

I had joined another branch of this school (National Victor Public School) at IP Extension in 2008 as a Science teacher. In 2009, CBSE had introduced CCE. A huge change came in the education pattern. Vast data were to be stored. It was literally impossible to maintain that manually. Use of computer was very limited to National Victor at that time. I had requested and convinced that time Principal Smt Krishna for establishing a computer lab for the teachers so that the vast data of CCE could be stored. She lapped up the idea and I was fortunate to garner her support and soon we made a smooth shift from manual to digitalised  working.    

I had also handled the disciplinary issues very strictly. A couple of months back, I have joined this mother branch of National Victor Public School. This area is relatively less advanced as I have mentioned already but we, as a school are doing our best.

Nowadays I am working in close association with our Principal Mrs Pooja to bring about a positive change in school culture which is conducive for the growth of teachers as well as the students.

I am lucky that school management chose me for this branch and by the grace of God we got the overall trophy of zonal competitions of this year too.

Do you also bang on the catch line ‘100% result’?

Yes, we do. Results in hundred percent indicates that there is no compartmental in board classes and we really do not have any. I think people confuse this with 100 percent marks.  Many students these days are scoring 100% and that too in languages and Social Studies!

Do you think it is feasible to score 100% in languages?

At least I do not know the tricks behind the same. In Science or Mathematics, it is accepted that 100 out of 100 is scored but in languages, there is not a single spelling mistake, punctuation error or stylistic error! …is tough to comprehend. I do not understand what kind of moderation policy CBSE is using! These high scores are creating a rat race among the students. Knowledge has taken a back seat. Those who are below average or average are struggling like anything to go with the flow. To make the base rock solid, our focus should be on the primary level.

There again lies a problem. In India, we grow with a concept that everyone can teach primary kids. It actually spoils their future. Not everyone can be a teacher.

CCE was rolled back too quickly. It was introduced suddenly but in the field of education, it takes time for reform to reach to the grassroots. What would you say?

No doubt, the concept of CCE was  good but it failed because of the lack of sincerity of the teachers and because of the lack of training. The implementation was bad. Instead of implementing the same in all the schools, they should have picked a few, test it, iron out the flaws and then roll out. In most of the schools the strength of a class is 40 plus. CCE literally became a pen-paper information for many schools, for many teachers. 

Would you like to share any message with our readers?

Teachers have to have enormous patience. If they do not have patience, they should work on it. They should cultivate their mind every now and then. And, the primary kids should always be the centre of attention because they are the future of a nation. If a kids’ formative years could be shaped, the next phase will be tension free.