In Conversation with Dr. Sushma Malik, Principal Sheoran International School, “We Believe in philosophy of Play, learn, Innovate and Experience”

Greater Noida is a well-known educational hub of Northern India with large number of schools and colleges providing exemplary education from pre-primary onwards to post graduation and PhD programs.
Indeed this year another school has opened its gates for children who wish to live by its interesting tagline of “Play, Learn, Innovate and Experience”. Sheoran International.

Greater Noida is a well-known educational hub of Northern India with large number of schools and colleges providing exemplary education from pre-primary onwards to post graduation and PhD programs.

Indeed this year another school has opened its gates for children who wish to live by its interesting tagline of “Play, Learn, Innovate and Experience”. Sheoran International School, situated at sector Omega-1 sector of Greater Noida has been established under the aegis of Jyoti Educational Trust and aims to provide exceptional education to students along with human values and life skills.

Ten News Editor Ashish Kedia spoke with its multitalented principal Dr. Sushma Malik who has a long and illustrious experience of about 25 years in the field of education. Her vision for Sheoran International School is ‘to establish a dynamic conglomerate with all the stakeholders’ partnership that can rapidly create a nice for itself to stride forward assiduously’.

Here are excerpts of the interview:

You had a very long and illustrious journey in the education sector please tell us more about your experiences in this field?

I have worked with DPS for about 16 years, I have worked there as an administrator from there on in 2011, I moved to Quality Council of Education as Assistant Director. Thereafter I joined Bharat Ram Global School as its founder principal and created a success story there. As of now I am at my dream project Sheoran International School and look forward to taking it to great heights.

As head of a budding institute, what challenges do you see in the education sector of the region?

Providing good quality education to students is a big challenge here in Greater Noida because the kind of gentry that we have here are not very used to quality education as of now. So they have to be tuned into a system of education which is child centric in the true sense. I don’t see it currently happening in Greater Noida. So we look forward to providing learning in a fun way where they learn from their experiences. Our tag line is also Play, Learn, Innovate and Experience. Hence to materialize it we have partnered with next education program. We have the robotics lab which starts from class 3 onwards; maths lab starts KG onwards, English language lab from class 1 onwards and a science lab for class 3 onwards. So students go to these labs and take part in different activities, they make use of available resources and teachers guide them to make them understand various how’s and why’s behind different concepts.

What do you consider as the USP of your school?

Mine is an absolute bagless school which means not coming without books absolutely. We have lockers in classrooms where all notebooks and books are kept there. We have no homework policy until class 2. Only homework that we give to others also goes in form of worksheets during weekends.

We also have inclusive education with in-house speech, occupational n behavioral therapists for special needs children. Other than this We have a structured day care program from 8 to 6 and a wellness center wherein free consultation is given to staff, student and parents

Also we have teach next program in our school. We have our entire curriculum mapped out with 2 D and 3D technology which makes education lot more interesting for our students in the class.

What kind of challenges did you face in finalizing teachers for your school?

I had large numbers of applications but we were resolute about not compromising on quality of teachers because they are the ones who would impart education to the students. Hence we had very strict guidelines to filter and shortlist candidates. I believe that people can be a born teacher without a degree and can’t be a real teacher even after having a degree. We also have Staff Development Program which takes care of training the teachers.

Apart from education, what co-curricupar activities will be available at Sheoran International for all round development of students?

We have all kinds of co-curricular activities that any school offers however apart from that I wish to have an exchange program with rural children. I want that children get an idea about the kind of difficulties that kids from rural background face. So I wish to start a week long or fortnight long exchange program with students of rural schools.

What are the things that according to you parents must keep in mind before selecting the school?

A parent should actually be selecting a school which makes learning fun. Learning will always be there at every school but fun learning and technology based learning is the need of time. At our school we make best use of technology so that students enjoy studying. The curriculum is executed in a fun manner. I want my children to be very happy when they go home and come back happy on the next day.

Parents often complain about high fees in the schools what is your take on it?

Fee hike when done in erratic manner always pinches the parent’s pockets. I believe in value for money, parents should get value for every penny they pay and if that happens I guess no one will have any problem.