Vision for the School - By Dr r. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

‘Students should be emotionally mature and spiritually awakened’

 

By Dr r. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam

Vision for the School

Does vision it reflect a school having a big building, having a big laboratory or having a big infrastructure? Not at all. Great schools will have great teachers who love teaching and with great vision. The vision should be to make a beautiful school, generating righteous youth, happy youth who are professionally sound and morally upright.

Hence, it should generate quality youth who are an asset to the nation. Can the schools create a Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Nobel Laureate CV Raman, a great mathematician Ramanujan, a great pain remover Mother Theresa, a great economist Amarthya Sen or a poet Bharathiar? Can we generate the environment needed for promoting the creativity leading to development of such type of personalities by the school?

I visualise a principal in an ICSE school far away from the city from district headquarters - close to the village panchayats. As soon as the principal takes over the school, Principal has to plan with the assumption that he is going to be in the school for at least 7 years. Principal has to decide the positive changes that he would like to bring about for the development of the school into a great institution within that period. Normally people will be discussing the performance of the school in terms of percentage of passes with distinction. 100% will be considered outstanding. 90% very good, 80% good. This is the present method of evaluation of the schools by the parents, by the govt or by the management. I feel that there is a need for paradigm shift in thinking in the evaluation process.

According to me, the best school is one where the students complete the school up to 10+2 after 25000 hours of education in the campus. The student has to become full-fledged responsible citizen for the nation who will be able to realize his dreams and not be frightened of any problem. He should be groomed to be physically fit, academically sound with capacities for research and inquiry, innovation, use of high technology, moral and entrepreneurial leadership. He should be emotionally mature and spiritually awakened. For nurturing such an individual, what is the role and what should be the vision of the principals. 

Principals should have a one line statement of vision “my vision is to give to the students all-round capability that is always creative, observant, aim to acquire knowledge continuously leading to the generation of an excellent performer with sterling character built with the unique tradition of the school”. In this process, the education system has to develop the five minds as described in the book “Five Minds” for the future by Howard Gardner.

* The disciplinary mind: mastery of mind in different schools of thought including science mathematics and history and proficiency in at least one professional craft. 

* The synthesising mind: ability to integrate ideas from different disciplines or spheres into a coherent whole and to communicate to others. 

* The creative mind: capacity to uncover and clarify new problems, questions and phenomenon. 

* The respectful mind: awareness of and application for differences among human beings. 

* The ethical mind: fulfillment of one’s responsibility as a worker and a citizen.

The culture of the school and vision of the school will imbibe these five minds among the students.

Dynamics of Smile

When we see a child, we see the innocent smile of the child. When we come across, the child in the Primary School, the smile is reduced, since the child has to carry a heavy school bag. When we see the child in their teens, their smile slowly fades away and the sign of concern appears.

This is because of the anxiety about the future. When they complete their education, the question uppermost in their mind is, what will I do after my education? Will I get an employment? Will I get a proper employment? Can the principals see this dynamics of smiles of the child and preserve the smile in their faces when they complete their school education?

The student should be confident that “he can do it”, he should have the self esteem and the capability to become an employment generator rather being an employment seeker. This transformation can only be brought about by a principal who has a vision to transform, who has the ability to take risk against all challenges, who is a good listener, who is a good innovator, who maintains a cordial inter-personal or intrapersonal relationship and who has the ability to carry the parents, community, media and the teacher for accomplishing the vision of generating an enlightened citizen for the nation. Now let me share my views of an ideal principal. Source : Deccan