SHEMFORD Group of Futuristic Schools to organize 10th ShemEmpower Residential Teachers’ Training Programme - a platform for teachers to meet and learn from the education sector’s experts, pioneers and veterans

SHEMFORD Group of Futuristic Schools, one of South Asia’s fastest growing school chains, is all set to inaugurate the 10th edition of its ShemEmpower Annual Residential Teachers’ Training Programme at the campus of SHEMFORD Futuristic School, Pinjore- to enhance the skills of teachers and prepare them for challenges that they may face as educators. The 4-day Training Programme, starting from 24th June 2019 is expected to be attended by more than 200 School Heads & Teachers from all across the country.

The comprehensive & insightful Residential Training Programme has been designed by a team of expert & experienced educationists under the ace supervision of Mrs Meenal Arora, Founder Director – SHEMFORD Group of Futuristic Schools. She is one of India’s leading educationists and a distinguished parenting expert. She is the recipient of the reputed ‘#100 Women Achievers Award’ by the Ministry of Women & Child Development, Government of India.

The training programme comprises of innovative and effective modules such as From Vision to Action, The Brain and Beyond, Measuring what Matters, The Kinesthetic Classroom, and many others. Apart from sessions of informative modules and enriching presentations, this 4-day event will help the School Heads and Teachers to refresh and rejuvenate their mind, body & soul with several exciting & fun-filled activities like Excursions, Yoga, Aerobics, Trekking, Gym, Gala Party, etc.

This year’s training programme is special as the year 2019 marks the completion of 30 years of SHEMROCK and SHEMFORD Group of Schools and 10 years of the Senior School Venture- SHEMFORD Futuristic Schools.

Dr. D.R. Arora, Chairman- SHEMFORD & SHEMROCK Group of Schools & Dr. Mrs. Bimla Arora, Founder Director – SHEMROCK Group of Preschools, will host the training programme in the lush green campus at the foothills of the Shivalik Himalayan range.

The Inauguration ceremony of this ‘Festival of Learning’ will be presided over by Major General Sunil Chandra, Former Managing Director - Army Welfare Education Society, as the Chief Guest on 24th June (Monday). Prof. Sanjay Gupta, Vice Chancellor, World University of Design will join the inauguration ceremony as this year’s special guest.

Dr. R. C. Mishra (IPS), Additional Director General of Police, Additional Director General of Police (Vigilance) Haryana has consented to attend the Culmination and Award Ceremony of the Programme on 27th June (Thursday) as the Chief Guest. Dr. R. K. Soni, Regional Officer & Director, AICTE North Western Regional Office (NWRO), Chandigarh will join the Culmination Ceremony as the special guest.

Additionally, the participants will have a wonderful chance to listen to revered Brahmkumari Sister Neha as she is going to take a session on ‘Emotional Intelligence - Being In Tune With Emotions To Benefit the Teaching And Learning Process’.

About SHEMFORD Group of Futuristic Schools:

 SHEMFORD Group of Futuristic Schools is the Senior School Chain of SHEMROCK – one of India’s oldest Playschool Chains. After establishing a landmark in the field of 'Preschool Education', the organisation realised the scope of bringing the same concept of stress-free learning to the 10+2 school segment too. Keeping this in mind, in the year 2009, SHEMROCK launched a nationwide chain of Senior Secondary Schools by the name SHEMFORD Group of Futuristic Schools. Today, the Group has 650+ Preschools, Primary Schools and Senior Schools across India, Nepal & Bangladesh and more than 4,00,000 children have already received a foundation for success from these schools.

Vice Chairman & Managing Director - Shemford Group of Futuristic Schools

 Expectations from the New Modi Government on behalf of the Education Sector

Authored by

Amol Arora

Education is the sector, which gives the Highest ROI for a country. The current education surveys paint a dismal picture of the manner in which we are preparing our future citizens. However with every new government- there comes new hope and therefore we hope that the new government will look at reforms in education which will power the country into the 21^st century.

Here are my 4 expectations from the new Modi Government in the education sector:

1.       Create Competition: Currently it has been noticed that any schools tend to fleece the parents by putting unnecessary demands and hikes in fees and parents have no choice but to comply. Naturally, the complaints combined with populism results in legislations such as fee control – which hurt everyone –the schools, the teachers (who get pay cuts) and eventually the students as innovations come to a halt as the focus of school is purely on cost control. Instead of trying to “curb” the schools the government should create and environment toincrease the supply of school so that parents have a choice and the resulting competition will push up quality. In such a scenario – to attract the best of capital and minds to the sector; the government could also permit education models, which allow return on capital models in education without any scope for profiteering.

2.       Better PPP Participation:The task of educating the millions of the country cannot be done by the private or government sector alone. There is a trust deficit between the government and the private sector, which needs to be bridged. If the two can join hands with their respective strengths - the country can become the knowledge hub of the world. The Government tends to announce "well meaning" schemes in education but the is poor in implementation. Therefore it needs to Involve the private sector in implementation of schemes at the local level with clear outcome parameters defined. Else there is a danger that automation will take over the majority of jobs which our 19th century designed education systems is designed to create

3.       Encourage Education Startups: The current education system is broken- how can something, which was designed to produce workers and conformists for the assembly line work for the disruptive times of today? The solutions are not going to come from the current institutions or the government but through Education Startups especially Edtech. However, the school and college acceptance of new products and services is slow.The government should give income Tax and GST exemptions, SEZ type facilities for such solutions providers which are involved in up skilling, giving services to schools as the cost of the tax is passed on to the students. Furthermore, such Tax exemptions will enable them to stay afloat for a longer periods.

4.       Start the Voucher System: The Government should also experiment with the voucher system under which the government gives a "prepaid" voucher, which the parents can "spend" at any government or private institution. In this model the private and government sector would have to compete on quality to attract all segments of the population as opposed to the current system wherein the "haves" tend to go o the private school and the "have nots" (which are a majority) tend to join the government sector. This healthy flow of vouchers in the hands of the majority will attract the best of talents can capital to this much-needed sector and those who cannot compete will fail to survive. The customer will be truly king as he will have "choice"

 India is unique country – we have populations living in sub Saharan conditions and need education to break the poverty cycle we have people who aspire to compete with the best in the world. Our challenges are unique and our solution to these challenges will be unique. Looking at Singapore, UK, Finland and imposing their “best practices” will not work. India has to look inwards and take the lead in education reform and I am positive that with the right intent- we shall find solutions to our challenges. With the new government – a new start we have to make a difference. The World is waiting for India.