Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership Award 2022-23: Dr. Gita Karan

An alumna of Osmania and Agra universities, Dr. Gita Karan is the Hyderabad-based founder-principal and director of the Gitanjali Group of five K-12 schools in the city of pearls. These schools have an aggregate 7,000 children and 500 teachers on their muster rolls. After a short stint as a teacher, she discerned a paucity of schools offering holistic education in Hyderabad and founded the CISCE-affiliated Gitanjali School in 1985. “Teaching was my true calling, I could not have achieved more in any other profession,” says Dr. Karan. The pioneer K-12 co-ed Gitanjali School established on a 1.5-acre campus in downtown Hyderabad was enthusiastically welcomed by upwardly mobile citizens of the city. Subsequently, with the school having attained full capacity and under pressure for admissions, Dr. Karan started a senior school in 1990 affiliated with the CISCE and Cambridge International, UK boards. Subsequently she promoted Gitanjali Devshala affiliated with the CISCE board (estb.1997); Gitanjali Devashray School (CBSE, 2003), Gitanjali Devakul (CBSE, 2014) and Gitanjali Vedika (CAIE, UK, 2020). Since then under Dr. Karan’s leadership Gitanjali schools have evolved into contemporary citadels of holistic K-12 education and have graduated hundreds of children, many of whom have risen to high positions in government, industry, business and social sector organisations. The pioneer Gitanjali School is routinely ranked among the Top 5 co-ed day schools of Telangana in the annual EducationWorld India School Rankings with all Gitanjali Group schools ranked among the Top 10. For her pioneer and exemplary contribution to the development of K-12 education in formerly united Andhra Pradesh and India, Dr. Karan has received numerous awards and encomiums. Currently she is the president of the AP/Telangana Association of CISCE schools. In 2004, she was awarded the National Award for Teachers by the Union HRD (now education) ministry. Dr. Karan is also the recipient of the National Integration Award of the Telangana state government. The trials and tribulations of children with special needs occupy a special place in Dr. Karan’s heart and mind. This prompted her to qualify in special needs education and establish elaborate, contemporary learning and development facilities for children with special needs with the objective of integrating them into mainstream schooling and higher education. Moreover, she produced a 45-minutes feature film titled Rihla, based on the life of a mentally challenged child from the school, which was showcased at several film festivals in India and abroad. “The purpose of education is to teach children to make a life and not a living. The skills and values which children pick up while still young helps them develop decision making skills. Sensitivity must be re-awakened to graduate integrated creative adults free from conflict and friendly towards mankind and nature,” says Dr. Karan. In appreciation and acknowledgement of her sustained effort to raise teaching-learning standards and for contemporisation of K-12 education in Telangana and India, the Editors and Board of Directors of EducationWorld are pleased to present Dr. Gita Karan the EW Lifetime Achievement in Education Leadership Award and induct her into the…