Guruvani: Principal of Kalyan's school shares his biggest challenges

What is the biggest professional challenge that you face in your role as a principal?One of the biggest challenges is being an instructional leader in an era where many still believe in the concept of traditional rote learning and judge students' learning on the basis of how many marks they get in exams. I strongly believe that we all should start understanding the importance of conceptual education and research-based learning as that is what stays with the students throughout their life.Once a teacher, always a teacher. Do you agree?A teacher takes up major responsibility in shaping young minds that will be the future of the society. It doesn't matter which subject you teach, what matters is how well your children connect with you. A true teacher's lessons come from the heart and they keep inspiring young minds for a lifetime.Success has become an obsession with people of all ages nowadays. Your comments.These days many people confuse success with happiness. They count their achievements by the number of awards they have won; they find joy in the money they have earned. But little do they realize that a successful person with all the riches in the world can also be sad and depressed. This is because happiness is a choice. You will know true happiness only when you follow your passion, and realise the value of family, love and nature.What emphasis do you put on teacher training?In my opinion, teacher training is of utmost importance as it gives teachers a learning platform to discover new horizons and strategies to make classroom teaching more interactive and interesting. I believe we are all learners and we as educationists need to modify our teaching methodologies as per the generation we are addressing. When teachers are trained for their work, not only does it boost their self confidence, but also increases their ability to manage the classroom in a better way. Teachers should be getting training for reflective learning and core skills.What, in your view, is GenNext's biggest strength? What are key areas of improvement?It's important to take care of their short span of attention. The generation is comprised of people constantly trying to better themselves, incessantly looking for the next best thing.How can the elderly contribute to a student's growth?When experience meets young talent, the result is bound to be outstanding. Elderly people and the youth can be connected very well for an effective mentoring. The young generation can teach elders about new technology and trends. There should be more activities and programs that connect young and old to ensure mutual benefits.What according to you is the role of media in education?Using social media, students can definitely connect to the world and educational institutions can benefit through various teaching strategies practised around the world. It is very important to be active on social media platforms in the 21st century. But valuing the media is as important as learning how to use it effectively. On the one hand, media is assisting in developing creativity and imagination among educationists and learners. On the other hand, making everyone aware about cyber safety and digital wellness is equally important.