Education in today’s world is undergoing significant transformations and is equipping its individuals with the much needed skills for the 21st century. With a rapidly changing global landscape that aims for social development and economic progress, Education acts as a catalyst for positive change, building a brighter future and meaningfully contributing to society. The norms that were followed for years have taken a shift with the technological advancements and Uma Mohanchandar, Secretary, National Model Group of Schools also shares the same opinion that being an educationist in today’s world is a hard and dynamic job. But by adding interesting inputs and creating better understanding of the subjects will make for good facilitators in this fast-paced world.
We had the wonderful opportunity to interact and interview with Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar on her 20 years long journey and the insightful experience gained educating both grown-ups and school-aged children.
Stepping Into Professionalism
Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar graduated from Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore, with an academic qualification in B.E. Computer Science and took the first step towards her career as a professor at PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore. In 2006, she claimed responsibilities as a secretary at National Model and has been with the school for the past 18 years and above. The school has broadened its academic repertoire by branching out to diverse locations such as Coimbatore, Nilgiris and Udumalpet. With a sense of professionalism, Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar shared about her switch to a higher secondary level of education, “I had to start thinking according to their levels and start designing a pedagogy that can help them to learn, grow and thrive in an environment that we set-up for them”.
She takes up her role at the school with a team of 20, developing plans for the upcoming 3 academic years while having an interactional discussion on the short-term as well as long-term goals. According to the pedagogy opted for, she ensures the start of the training process alongside the execution of drafting lesson plans with a team of curriculum developers who design and restructure in a way for better student understanding. This helps children grasp the subject and also creates an opportunity to reflect on the various aspects of improvisation for the child to learn and thrive in a classroom setting.
Unique Factors of Distinction
National Model follows a centralised education system in the campus. With the curriculum developers redesigning the books and lesson plans, the teachers are trained accordingly on how to execute them while reflecting on how well-suited it is for the students. Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar shared, “The centralised theme is what helps us grow and standardise our learning”. She believes and practices care and equity in the classrooms which helps every child participate, learn and progress. It is ensured that all students are involved and play an active role in the teaching-learning process. Elaborating on it, she continues with our above discussion, “The journey of learning is what keeps us ahead of others or keeps us apart from others”.
“The only way we could better it was to keep them engaged and active and collaborative during the learning time”, Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar shared her strategic encounter with the pandemic. Though she believes that nothing can equate to face-to-face learning, under her guidance, the pandemic was well-handled on a virtual platform. She made sure that the virtual experience was no different to the offline mode by making learning an active process with student-teacher understanding, valuable contributions and collaborations. The school also followed revision concepts for students post-pandemic, to cope up with the existing years subject content.
Aspirations For The Long-term
The school has its branch at 7 locations and plans to stabilise it for the next 4 years until good leaders with great ideas and plans emerge for the next level of expansion. She has constructed ideas for a well-rounded education by making certain that children enjoy with the same spirit in the classroom as they do on the playing field. The ability to voice out thoughts and ideas aloud requires good communication and they make it their responsibility at National Model to make it possible through proper strategies and collaboration.
Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar perceptively shared, “Education teaches you life. It’s the first place that teaches you life. And when you know the subjects better, you start at a whole new level than the others”. She makes it a point to communicate the importance of education through her school curriculum and also by citing examples of people thriving and making it big in life because of their academic background. She plans and collaborates with her team to fulfil both their short-term and long-term goals.
Mantra For Success
With an understanding family, one can go a long way in their professional life and Mrs. Uma Mohanchandar of the same opinion shares, “When you have an understanding family, everything is possible”. In continuation to our above conversation, she ecstatically said, “Home is a joy, School is also a joy” and that she was able to grow and evolve because of the support system that she found at home. She also shared that it feels wonderful to go back home satisfied knowing that she had done something for her students. On a concluding note, she added, “That’s the only goal we all come to school with, leaving them with a great day and joyous learning in the classroom”.
