Tweet, collaborate & partner for betterment of education
The HRD ministry is likely to release this week the broad guidelines for public and private sector to come together and develop institutes. This was announced by Anil Swarup, secretary – school education, MHRD at SLN Leadership Meeting held in New Delhi recently.
Emphasising on the collaboration between school leaders of private and government schools, he said, “There is no point blaming each other. The issue is how do we come together?” The meet was held to answer this question and explore the power of social media, especially Twitter, in connecting educationists with each other.
Speaking about the power of social media, Swarup highlighted an incident when his tweet about a primary school teacher, Sandip Gund inspired change across the country with various schools replicating the ‘Gund’ model of teaching. Gund is lauded for converting an ordinary zilla parishad school in Pashtepada, Maharashtra, into a ‘solar-smart school’ where students no longer carry books. Instead they study on solar-charged tablets and use digital pens.
Swarup urged people to use hashtag #nexusofgood to share positive stories, good practices/deeds with the whole world. “Let good people come together and generate goodness,” he said.
His views were echoed by Dr Swaroop Sampat, member, Central Advisory Board of Education. “Social media (Twitter) helps people connect well,” she said.
Speaking about the power of social media, Anil Swarup, secretary – school education, MHRD, highlighted an incident when his tweet about a primary school teacher, Sandip Gund inspired change across the country with various schools replicating the 'Gund' model of teaching
With more than 330 million monthly active users, Twitter is growing exponentially in terms of tweets by influential world leaders, corporates and celebrities who engage globally, for all types of formal and informal announcements. How can, then, educationists stay behind? “Politicians, celebrities, marketers, almost all have made good use of social media (Twitter). We educationists too need to catch up,” said Dr Ashok Pandey, principal, Ahlcon International School.
Highlighting the need for the community to get engaged online, Mahima Kaul, head – public policy and government, Twitter India, asked school leaders to use the medium in their classrooms as well. There is a need for digital literacy courses in schools so as to educate students about the appropriate online behaviour, she said.
Conducted by Twitter India, School Leaders Network Foundation and Ahlcon International School, the SLN Leadership Meeting is being held in different parts of the country to spread awareness about the role of Twitter in engaging with educators and school leaders globally, and the need for private and government schools to work together for the betterment of education in the country. As Francis Joseph, co-founder, School Leaders Network Foundation, puts it, “There is a lot of power in collaboration.”
Do you feel strongly about something? Have a story to share? Write to us at info@thepeepertimes.com or connect with us on Facebook or Twitter
