Kush Sakaria
Trust secretary, Vallabh Ashram Group of Schools, Valsad

An alumnus of Sardar Patel University, Anand (Gujarat) and the University of Ballarat, Australia, Kush Sakaria acquired valuable corporate experience with the Mumbai-based Mexus Education Pvt. Ltd before his appointment as secretary of Shree Vallabh Ashram Trust in 2014. Currently, the trust’s four schools have an aggregate 4,650 children and 250 teachers on their muster rolls.

The Covid-19 crisis has majorly disrupted the education system. How have the Vallabh Ashram schools responded to this challenge?

Disruption creates opportunities. The lockdown gave us an opportunity to leverage technology to make learning from home effective. All stakeholders — management, principal, teachers, parents, and students — are making excellent use of new technologies to continue the teaching-learning process. Working from home our teachers seized the initiative to connect with every child from preschool through to class XII, mentoring them academically and emotionally during this turbulent period.

What are the major challenges confronting Indian K-12 education in the Covid era?

The major challenges are IT infrastructure deficit and poor Internet connectivity necessary to universalise online education; changing mindsets of parents, teachers and students towards online teaching-learning; innovating learner-friendly and pocket-friendly virtual learning pedagogies, and training teachers for this sea change in education delivery.

Several state governments have issued fees waiver/deferment circulars to private school managements. What’s your comment?

We understand these are hard times for parents. Therefore, we have given our parents the option of paying fees monthly and by installments. Parents need to understand that schools are liable to pay teacher and staff salaries and other fixed expenses. It should be a win-win deal for all stakeholders.

What are your Top 3 proposals for reforming K-12 education in India?

• In the National Education Policy 2020, the Union government should include a roadmap to implement digital/online learning across the education spectrum
• NCERT should revise and upgrade K-12 curriculums to develop children’s 21st century skills
• The revised curriculum should also cover development of life skills, values and spirituality starting from early childhood years.

What are your future plans for the trust?

We are determined to boost our digital teaching-learning processes, including LMS (learning management system), and rigorously train teachers to deliver child-centred pedagogies online and offline.