October 2010
Teacher's Day is a day of celebration and reflection.
We have reason to salute Indus teachers today, very specially. The Education World
and C Fore survey for the year 2010 has ranked and declared Indus Bangalore the 3rd
most prestigious international school in India, moving us up from last year's 4th position.
To add to this great news is the fact that Indus Hyderabad has earned 12th position in the
same survey, in the short period since its inception, a distinction that is as gratifying as
it is unexpected! We are justifiably proud , appreciative and thankful to the firm and dynamic
leadership of the Principal, Mrs Sarojini Rao, her fulfillment of whole-education (but not at the cost of academics),
commitment to academic rigour, and the professionalism and care each one of you have shown.
Teacher's Day is also a time to pursue and reflect on the changing roles of teachers in the
21st Century. If we do not, then posterity will indict us for trying to move into the future with our heads in the past.
The first change we are witnessing is that a teacher's role is merging and
sometimes even overtaking the role of parents as mentors, as guides. Teachers
are required to teach not just their subjects, but teach the whole child. Teachers
will now be value-creators. Are we intellectually and emotionally fully equipped?
We must prepare.
The second change is even more palpable - the shift from teaching to facilitation.
Technology, especially the Internet, is enabling students to become their own teachers.
They are now playing a proactive role in self-study, formative assessment, and remediation.
The challenge for teachers in the 21st Century will be to teach what Google cannot teach.
Are we ready? We must prepare.
The placement and acceptance of our outgoing students in Diploma Programme are
a matter of pride, but they all point to one thing. The supreme importance of
academic rigour. This underpins every plan, every sphere of activity and every
thought behind our aspirations. I will point the way towards your prime duty on
this very special anniversary. Inspire, demand, persuade, cajole and ensure in your
students the necessity for making academics their priority. School, anywhere in
the world is about this, and THIS has not changed, over time or over geographical
boundaries. It is the bedrock of success.
The most exciting breakthroughs of the 21st century will not occur because of
technology but because of ideas, because of creativity and innovation, and because
of an expanding concept of altruism and humanness. This is what leadership is all about.
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