Ahmednagar Sahodaya School Complex Meet 2022

Date: 24th September 22

Time: 12 pm to 2 pm

Venue: Conference Hall, APS Ahmednagar

Minutes of the Meeting

1. After ushering-in of all the esteemed Principals and Directors of the member schools, the meet officially started at 12.10 pm.

2. Light symbolises hope. To invoke the blessings of the Almighty, the auspicious lamp was lighted by the office bearers, viz, President, Mrs Dipika Nagarwalla, Secretary, Mrs Pallavi Bahadurge and Treasurer, Ms Nutan Mishra.

3. After lightning of the lamp ceremony, the member schools witnessed a musical venture wherein, students from the Host school presented the Welcome song followed by the School song.

4. The President of ASSC, Mrs Dipika Nagarwalla presented the Welcome speech to start the proceedings of the meet.

5. Mam shared the six areas that have been identified for collaboration amongst the Sahodaya Schools-

I. Educative Management

II. Evaluation

III. Human Resource Mobilization

IV. Professional Growth of Teachers

V. Value-Oriented School School Climate

VI. Vocationalisation of Education.

6. Mam expressed the desire to extend the presence of Ahmednagar Sahodaya School Complex beyond the geographical boundaries of the city.

7. After the President’s Address, the Treasurer, Ms Nutan Mishra updated the members about the Sahodaya Account Status. She also shared the expenditure incurred on starting the Sahodaya Website, which was willingly sanctioned by all the member schools.

8. After the account status, discussion of best practices of the school and exchange of ideas for the Academic Calendar started on an open forum.

9. Mrs Nutan Mishra, the Treasurer, Principal of APS Ahmednagar, shared the best practices of her school like the various SEWA activities, summer Internship programs, establishment of ATL and NIOS. She invited Sahodaya members to collaborate for SPIC MACAY and Musical Night events planned for January’ 23 and November 12th 22, respectively. Musical bands of the member schools of Sahodaya were invited to perform in the Musical Night event which is a charity event.

10. Then Mrs Dipika Nagarwalla shared the vision of her school and also the idea behind starting Sahodaya. When the students leave the portals of the school, they should be holistically developed. Progressive methodologies to be used to transform the students into self learners. Times have changed and with that we all must change. The mindset has to change and the curriculum can be reworked upon especially upto VIII Grade.

11. Dipika mam also mentioned about the need to make a Calendar for Sahodaya. Member schools are expected to align their school activities with the Sahodaya calendar. A Google Sheet will be floated for the same. Schools can club together to host certain workshops and teachers from member schools can attend that.

12. Mrs Pallavi Bahadurge, the Secretary of ASSC, also emphasized on the need of training for teachers and suggested that we can have resource persons like Mrs Rana to train teachers of the member schools. Just the way students aren’t interested in Online meetings, similarly teachers also don’t take much interest in them. So we should plan for Offline Training sessions only.

13. Mrs Dhupar and Mr Cyril Pandit, Principals of Galaxy National School and Yashshree Academy, respectively supported the idea of Offline training in one of the host school and others attending it. Mrs Dhupar shared the learnings of Mr Swarup Datta’s last Offline Training hosted by Yashshree Academy which was so beneficial to all the attendees.

14. Senior teacher from Shriram Academy, assured her full support in case any member school wishes to host a Training session for all. As Shrirampur is a rural area, there are less resources in that place. However they are ready to explore better ideas and improve upon the Trainings for Teachers.

15. Mr Anil Darkunde, Principal of Uddhav Academy put forth the idea of having a Career Fair, wherein resource persons from foreign institutions can be invited. Career counseling of students for IIT, NEET, NDA etc are already there, why not have career counseling for non-conventional subjects like English, Music, etc. Exposure about rare subject combinations like Physics + Drawing- such options can be explored.

16. Mrs Aradhana Rana, Director of Icon Public School stated that a Career Fair is scheduled for December with Resource persons from Pune. If enough number of students register for this, this fair can be taken up on a larger scale. She emphasized on the advantage of online training that it can reach out to many people at a time and especially those teachers who cannot attend Offline training due to distance or other factors can also benefit from onlinetrainings.

17. Shriram Academy suggested topics which can interest the teachers to attend like- How to motivate the students to revert back to serous mode of studies, How to bridge the gap in learning which the Pandemic has created, etc. The challenges in this place are altogether different- that of convincing the pare nts to send their children to CBSE schools and also explore more subject preferences.

18. Mrs Nagarwalla informed about Jnyan Prabodhini institute which is Pune based Educational institution that conducts Aptitude Test etc. They are looking for venue to conduct a session in Ahmednagar. Sahodaya members can collaborate and invite them for career counselling sessions. Expenses would be involved, of course.

19. Ms Nondita D’Souza, Principal of St Michael’s School emphasized on the need to let a child experience the process of choosing a career. She shared her school’s experiences of having a product designer, a food critique and an event manager as resource persons. She said that first we have to show children how things work before letting them decide on their careers. We should have integrated projects and sustained learning.

20. Mrs Nagarwalla pointed out that students should be exposed to career options right from VI Grade to trigger their minds at an earlier stage. Students should be allowed to explore their potentials and all possible opportunities should be provided for the same.

21. Importance of Counselling sessions was highlighted by Mr Anil Darkunde wherein he shared memories of the Alumni Meet in school. Since students aren’t clear about their choices, there are around 20% dropouts from MBBS courses every year.

22. Mrs Dhupar admitted that she must be the only Principal who encourages her students to explore Humanities or Commerce as the career options.

23. Mr Stephen D’Souza, Principal of Chitrakoot School reiterated the need to have a common platform for completing the mandatory twenty five hours of training suggested by CBSE. A two day workshop program can be planned on weekend wherein teachers of the member schools can get trained by a common resource person.

24. Ms Shailaja Sunil Lotake, Principal of Agney Gurukul added that parents should allow their children to have career choices. For this parents should also be counselled. Parents should never pressurise their children.

25. Mrs Jayashree Potghan, Principal of Shriram Academy supported the thoughts of Ms Lotake and also added that in rural areas, parents want foundationcourses for their children by hook or by crook. Things will change only after thorough Trainings of teachers and parents as well.

26. Mrs Nutan Mishra, summarized all the points discussed in the meeting. To have career counselling sessions and to have workshops, the mode should be offline.

27. Frequency of Sahodaya Meetings to be decided with everyone’s consent. If not offline, at least online meetings can be conducted to continue the exchange of ideas amongst the Sahodaya Schools.

28. Mrs Namrita Ohri, Principal of Dr Vikhe Patil Foundation School, invited two or three teachers per school for First Aid Training as the school has back up of Nursing College. The training would be without any payment.

29. Mrs Jayshree Mehetre, Principal of Takshila School, District Coordinator of CBSE affiliated schools of Ahmednagar, concluded the discussion by saying that students should be given exposure to various career options right from Class I. There are lot of drastic changes and behavioral issues amongst the students.

Mam, shared the incident wherein she got to see B.Sc Economics being offered as one of the course which is a rare combination of subject. Similarly, we also need to widen our horizons.

30. When asked about the repititive training courses offered by CBSE which the teachers have already completed, the District Coordinator replied that there are enough courses on other training portals like NISHTA, DIKSHA etc which will suffice for another four ye. Mrs Nagarwalla suggested about registering for 3030 Eklavya courses. Mrs Bahadurge suggested about the Academic websites and selecting training tabs on them. Certified Trainings on Microsoft etc are provided there which are absolutely new.

31. On being asked about Migration Certificates, downloading of the same from Digilocker was proposed..rs Nagarwalla informed that colleges are accepting Downloaded Certificates with school’s stamp and signature.

32. All the Principals were requested to share a brief write up and their photograph for the Ahmednagar Sahodaya School Complex website. A Google Sheet would be floated for the same. Mrs Rana urged all the members to let go off our own individualities and work together for one cause- of making Ahmednagar an educational hub. With the implementation of NEP, lot of things will change and things would be much more challenging. So we all need to collaborate. We are not in competition with each other, rather we all must rise together. We must strengthen our teachers to handle the changed conditions in Education system.

33. APS Ahmednagar brought to the notice of Sahodaya members, it’s requirement of a Special educator. The School is taking online help from APS, Kirkee as of now but that’s a temporary solution for this problem. Eventually a special educator would be required in the city who can render his services to all the members of Sahodaya Complex.

34. Ms Varsha Darkunde, Principal of Dr Balasaheb Vikhe Patil CBSE School, Shevgaon, brought forth that their school got CBSE affiliation for Grade XI only in 2021. Parents attitude in the place is really demanding. They do ot want any Co-curricular activities. They want their children should be taught only Maths and Science. She also mentioned about the problems faced for Registration of Class XI and no response has been received from COE, Pune. However she expressed her gratitude towards all the members and for the opportunity she got here.

35. Discussion on shuting down of all coaching institutes was initiated by Mrs Ohri. She felt that Government should intervene in this matter. Mrs Dhupar pointed out that schools are the foundation of education system. Coaching institutes just brush up the concepts which are already being taught in schools.

36. All said and done, Mrs Bahadurge was requested to propose the Vote of Thanks.

37. The emcee requested the members of Ahmednagar Sahodaya School Complex to proceed for the Group photo.

38. All the member schools were requested to register their valuable feedback regarding the Sahodaya meet in the Visitor’s Book.

Regards

K Shashikala

Coordinator for ASSC

APS Ahmednagar