CII’s Conclave on School Excellence
focuses from “Best” to “Next” Practices

Confederation of Indian Industry Coimbatore Zone along with the CII Institute of Quality Bangalore organised a two day ‘Conclave on School Excellence’ – From “Best” to “Next” Practices on 26th and 27th November 2008 at PSGIM, Coimbatore.

“The need of hour is to address the issue of the transition from best to next practices in school education that needs leaders who can create change and set an example for others to follow” said Mr C N Ashok, Chairman, CII Coimbatore Zone while delivering the keynote address. “If there are change creators, then change seekers will follow, if there are change seekers, change will happen. More often than not, change gets a lot of resistance initially, but that’s the only way to reach from best to next practices. Next practices in the school education sector will go a long way in addressing many of the issues that we have today” Mr Ashok said. He suggested that the Coimbatore region which was blessed with many private and government schools could show the way for the other regions in the country in setting new benchmarks in quality. “The school education sector needs examples of excellence to improve its overall quality. As a ladder that holds the responsibility of making the best citizens for our country, it is indeed imperative that we have a common vision, that has inputs from the management, staff, principals, students and of course higher education institutions” he remarked. He also highlighted the role of CII in promoting the cluster approach amongst school in promoting of the sharing of best practices between them, and thereby motivating the schools to think of next practices.

Mr C N Ashok, Chairman, CII Coimbatore Zone delivering the Inaugural Address at the Conclave	Delegates at the Conclave

The panelists for the unique panel discussion on “Changing Paradigms in School Education – The Stakeholder perspectives” were Ms V Muthulakshmi, Student, PSGG Kanya Gurukulam, Mr B H Murugan, Staff, Shree Saraswathee Vidya Mandeer, Ms Prasanna Radhakrishna, Principal, GKD Matriculation Hr Sec School, Mr Arun Lakshminarayanan, Correspondent, ALG Matriculation Hr Sec School & Prof Suresh Kumar, Director – School of Management Studies, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology. The session, moderated by Dr Senthil, Senior Counsellor, CII-IQ generated many ideas on understanding the future paradigms and the stakeholders expectation from the school education.

It was well established that the tools and skills of TQM include Group problem solving, Process thinking, Planning, Data gathering and analysis as well as listening, Preventive and resolving conflict and building cooperative relationships at schools can empower a teacher to become a research scientist in the class to discover the hidden talents in students. Ms Selvi from TVSLM Hr Sec School, Madurai & Mr. R M Krishnan from SRF Vidyalaya, Chennai shared how they use quality tools for planning, organizing lessons as an effective teaching tool, to understand and evaluate the students for academic as well as administrative processes. Two schools located in a metro and in a non Metro location also shared their experiences with the delegates.

Clustering, among various approaches for quality, is a popular approach followed by industries in India. Applied to educational institutions, School Excellence Clusters concept is a group of 10-12 institutions / schools which work together towards improving their practices and performance, through mutual sharing & learning. These schools could be from the same Board, Location, Management & Common philosophy. They develop and follow a commonly agreed roadmap for moving towards excellence. CII IQ had initiated many such clusters at various locations including Coimbatore. Mr A Rajkumar, Principal, Corporation High School Sharma Nagar, Chennai presented the Corporation Schools Experience & Benefits from the Cluster programme & Ms Meenalochani Elangovan, Faculty, PSG Sarvajana Hr Sec School presented on the Private Schools Experience. The key message emanating from this session was how clustering also helped in learning from other cluster member schools.

Mr Ashok Bakthavathsalam, Managing Director, K G Information Services P Ltd & Ms Lovelyn Andrew, National Delivery Manager, NIIT Ltd addressed how technology can help the schools to manage their campus with fact based decision making and enhancing various processes in the session “Technology for Excellence”.

Mr A T B Bose, Secretary, Ramanujan Museum & Maths Education Centre & Mr P Suryakumar, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research shared how one could teach or help students to learn in a thoughtful way in subjects like science & maths. The focus was on how classrooms could integrate various simple teaching technique and create a shift from ‘learning about’ and ‘learning for’ – to ‘learning in Excellence’.

In a thought provoking tutorial, mainly focusing on school managements & top leadership, was conducted by Dr A Senthil Kumaran, Senior Counsellor – Education Excellence, CII Institute of Quality. He stressed that in a globalized world, educational institutions are facing and shall continue to face new competitive issues from external factors. To remain original and creative, they need to equip themselves to face challenges through enhancing institutional self innovation, capabilities to create value and encourage management innovation. Regardless of Government, government aided or private educational institution, size, structure, or maturity, to be successful, education institutions need to establish appropriate management framework with a clear purpose.

“Teaching is not a profession, it’s an opportunity” said Dr. B K Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman, Bharitya Vidhya Bhavan, Coimbatore while delivering Valedictory address. “Quality of education will improve if teachers have enthusiasm and involvement. If you can bring change in yourself you can bring change although the change process is very slow. Change can come only when self satisfaction can be achieved. Good infrastructure can be created in no time, but good teachers are required to create an environment for learning. Only academic results should not be the indicator of good schools. It should act like a catalyst for social change. Teacher training and motivation is the need of the hour to bring quality in education” he said.

Some of the key learnings emanating from this conclave included :

• Create a roadmap for institutions to identify and understand their stakeholder needs, create policies & strategies implement them and measure through different tools, review them for its effectiveness.
• Integrate technology for various process enhancement and integrations
• Invest on human resources for enhancing the performance for betterment of the community in which they exist.
• Offer holistic long range global perspectives yet preserves intrinsic knowledge & values
• Collaborate with the community, industry, alumni and other schools for creating an environment for cross learning

This maiden conclave offered dynamic learning and networking opportunities for over 120 decision makers such as Administrators, Management Committee Members, Principals and Teachers from Government, corporation and private schools, NGO’s and Corporates across Tamilnadu.