Manit Jain
Co-founder, Heritage Group of schools
Manit Jain is co-founder of the Heritage Group of four K-12 schools in Delhi NCR with an aggregate enrolment of 3,467 students. In the latest EW India School Rankings 2020-21, the group’s showpiece Heritage Xperiential Learning School, Gurugram is ranked India’s #1 co-ed day school.
Degrees of satisfaction with Heritage Xperiential’s switch to the online mode of learning.
Heritage Xperiential was one of the first schools countrywide to transition to virtual learning when the pandemic struck. This transition was comparatively smooth for our teachers and students as the school had already invested heavily in strengthening its technology infrastructure, as well as teacher training. Our smooth and seamless transition to online learning is reflected not only in high attendance and participation in online classes, but also satisfactory learning outcomes of students and heart-warming feedback from parents.
Experience of other schools in the Heritage Group, viz, Heritage International, Heritage Rohini and Heritage Vasant Kunj.
The substantial investment we made in all our schools much before the pandemic, ensured their readiness in terms of technology infrastructure and digital pedagogies usage. All our schools have developed customised LMS (learning management systems), used regularly so teachers and students are familiar with it. Moreover, our teachers undergo 300 hours of professional digitally-enabled training every year from global and Indian education experts.
Readiness of Heritage schools for reopening and safety precautions. We have been prepared to welcome teachers and students on our campuses for a while now with well-defined SOPs (standard operating procedures) and changes in infrastructure. All protocols are in place with strict adherence to Covid-19 guidelines issued by the government and medical fraternity.
Remedial education plans post-pandemic. Our schools will initially focus on restoring the socio-emotional well-being of every child and help students reconnect with peers and teachers before enforcing academic agendas. We have devised systems to assess learning gaps and bridge them expeditiously across all subjects. We are also studying strategies that have worked well in countries that reopened schools some time back, and will incorporate best practices that might be effective in our situation.
Advice to digitally under-served education institutions.
Technology cannot be separated from the educational ecosystem and will drive the education sector, as most sectors of the economy. Education institutions have to find ways and means to build digital learning infrastructure and train teachers to switch to digitally-enabled learning. Students’ aspirations should not be disregarded by institutional managements unable or unwilling to invest in new technologies-enabled education. It is now the new normal.
Advice to government to make up for academically lost ground. We need a concerted effort towards re-opening schools asap. I urge the Central and state governments to devise detailed safety guidelines and take the initiative to reopen schools which have experienced prolonged lockdown. Vaccination of teachers as frontline workers and introduction of vaccines for children aged 12-18 are immediate priorities.
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