Innovations must for excellence in academics

The standard of education in the city has deteriorated over the years. We hope to help change this with a center of excellence at the primary and secondary level, Mr. Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director of Zydus Cadila, said recently.

He was speaking at the concluding lecture of a four-day open house on “Achieving Excellence in Education” organized by the Zydus School of Excellence, an upcoming school in the city and the Ahmedabad Management Association .

Mr. Patel said Zydus school was his father’s vision. The healthcare group had decided to select the highest level curriculum so that the students would be able to compete at, not just the national, but the international level.The topic for the day was “Creating a Learning Experience – Innovations in Teaching”. Guest speaker, Fr Lancy Pereira, former principal of St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, began by saying that a teacher who ceases to be a student is not a good teacher.

The learning experience comes when the teacher and students come together. The teacher has to draw out what there is in the student. For that, he or she must respect the student and create an atmosphere conducive to learning,” Fr Pereira said. According to him, the teacher should let the student learn at his/her own pace but stimulate him or her continuously. A teacher will not be able to impart much education by just sticking to the curriculum.

In answer to a question, he said that earlier years of schooling should be in the mother tongue so that the students get a flavour of the local culture.

On the question of how much authority a teacher should wield in the class, he said that students will accept discipline if they saw meaning in it. Fr Pereira also described his own style of teaching, where he tried to reach the average student in the class. In private, he would spend time with both very bright and the weaker students.

Republished from The Asian Age