A post graduate in Economics with a degree in Education, Soumita started her teaching career in 2003. Under her leadership, Sunbeam School achieved several milestones in a span of three years, including the “Startup School” certificate of recognition, “The emerging School of the year” and “Winner Earth Day Schools” 2021. She has herself received a certificate of recognition for outstanding contribution in the field of education and serving the community through excellent leadership by Chandigarh University in September 2022.
Soumita’s journey as a change maker began in the year 2020, amidst a really challenging period of uncertainty and crisis. The school was launched during this time. She realized that education has to be dynamic, flexible and adaptable in order to combat such an unprecedented catastrophe which was beyond one’s control. The children of pre-primary and primary grades needed a lot of compassion to make them feel that everything was not lost after all and there was still hope, hope for coming back to normal. Therefore, Sunbeam acknowledged that EQ was perhaps more valuable than IQ in the broader perspective of learning outcomes.
The staff continuously sensitized to the needs of the students sitting remotely trying to battle all kinds of inhibitions. One of the skills of students which were greatly and adversely affected during the pandemic was social skills. Hence, Sunbeam’s teachers put in all their efforts to build up social skills of students.
The pandemic also taught that life skills were an essential tool for survival. At Sunbeam, the focus on imparting life skills including crisis management to the students is a priority. Sunbeam promoted 21st century skills and moved away from rote learning. It gained prominence over traditional, textbook oriented learning. Students were made to become more self dependent. Soumita, envisaged a few changes in education in the following years to come as a result of lessons learnt from past experiences during the pandemic. These changes began from the classroom. Especially, it began way before that in the homes of the children.
Parents have to be brought on the same platform as the school, when it comes to the well-being of the students. Good parenting is one area which all the schools have to focus in order to make education progressive in its true spirit. In the classrooms of Sunbeam, they make sure that more evolved and concerned teachers with well equipped 21st century skills impart knowledge to the students. Classrooms are more interactive and student led. It becomes like laboratories where student are busy experimenting and finding solutions to different problems they faced under the supervision of teachers. The classrooms in the future would be guided by skills like critical thinking, creativity, innovation, problem solving and communication. Knowledge would be application based rather than theory based in the future classrooms. These would replace the traditional skills of rote learning. Sunbeam is preparing itself for this stage under Soumita’s leadership.
Lastly, parents, teachers and schools as a whole work in harmony, towards building the social and emotional quotient of students, rather than the intelligence quotient. Thus, traditional classrooms would become more happening and dynamic and not to forget happy classrooms.
The classrooms in the future would be guided by skills like critical thinking, creativity, innovation, problem solving and communication. Knowledge would be application based rather than theory based in the future classrooms. These would replace the traditional skills of rote learning
