Teaching has always been very close to Pushpalata’s heart from a young age. She started her career early when she was just 16 by voluntarily taking up teaching assignments at several secondary and higher secondary schools as an English Teacher in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. Within no time she realized her true calling was teaching. She loves to be in the company of children and to bring positive changes in them. She has been in the field of teaching and administration for almost 19 years.
The processes followed in a traditional school always disheartened Pushpalata. She never understood why syllabus played such a pivotal role in a school? Why our education is teacher lead? Why is it so exam oriented? Why focus so much on copying things in the note books? At SHANA, a life-centric curriculum was developed with the cooperation of mentors. Children are helped to acquire skills which are necessary for their age. The school implements Differentiated Model of Learning through various Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. SHANA does not follow the “One size fits All” policy.
In a traditional school environment access to the principal comes with its own protocols but at SHANA Pushpalata is approachable and students as well as teachers call her “Mother for all”. She thinks the role of a principal is to mentor, mould and mend.
For majority of children in India, school is associated with tests, exam stress, scolding, projectors, screens, loads of plastic toys and being judged. The school realized that today’s children don’t need so much stimulation as they are already born with lots of gadgets and screens around them. What they need is Dopamine Detox. They need life around them which can create an atmosphere of learning. SHANA has mud and cow dung painted walls. There are planted pots inside the classroom. No more than 20 students are accommodated in each 500sq.ft classroom. The whole campus buzzes with various life forms such as butterflies, squirrels, birds, bees, flowers, plants and trees that are part of classrooms.
The practices at SHANA International School promote inquiry, curiosity, observation, working, doing, and experimenting. The cardboard and thermocol projects are banned in the campus. Instead, students are made to work on projects like apiculture, inter-cropping, hydroponics, irrigation and micro greens. There is a small piece of land that is reserved for conducting various activities to teach children sustainable development.
When children come to school, they are full of love, curiosity, excitement, forgiveness, compassion, and creativity. But our modern education system robs them of all these beautiful qualities. Pushpalata’s purpose of life is to see those children who come to SHANA, retain their human qualities and help this world to make a little better place to live in. Let’s link learning with life.
The practices at SHANA International School promote inquiry, curiosity, observation, working, doing, and experimenting. The cardboard and thermocol projects are banned in the campus
