Masterclass With Fearless Educator

Radhakanta is the School Leader of Chirag School. He is a Stronge ducation professional with a Master's degree focused in Education from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. He is a experienced School Leader with a demonstrated history of working in the education management industry. He has been an educator for the last 10 years in various capacities and in various national and international schools. He is a lifelong learner and leader who believes in the value of building trust in children through a fear-free and joyful learning environment and is passionate about teaching in the educational setup as a means to create a learning organizational culture across the organisation.

Work Experience

1. Working as school principal at Chirag School, Nainital (2019 onwards)

2. Worked as a teacher at Mirambika, New Delhi (2009 to 2013)

3. Worked as a teacher at Heritage School, Gurgaon (2013 to 2017)

4. Worked as a consultant at Foundation for MSME cluster, New D

Born in 1966, Bodhirupa Sinha spent her childhood and part of her college days at Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, the Ashram set up by Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore, which later became a Central University of repute, specialising in indepth research in Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, World Literature, different kinds of art forms and above all, in educational pedagogy. Later she moved to Kolkata in pursuit of higher education. The ambience of her childhood imbibed in Bodhirupa certain inclinations and values, which have paved the path for her future life.

Bodhirupa has been actively associated with the world of education initially as a teacher and later as an Academic Administrator since the past three decades. For the last fifteen years, Bodhirupa Sinha has been associated with Patha Bhavana, Visva Bharati at Santiniketan in the capacity of Principal . In her long career as an educationist and academic visionary, and also as someone deeply influenced by the Educational Philosophy of Tagore, Bodhirupa has delved into the world of education extensively, in particular Pre- Primary, Primary, Secondary and Higher secondary education. Bodhirupa Sinha has attended numerous seminars , conferences, workshops etc at home and abroad and has several publications to her credit

Director of Engineering - Zoho Corporation.

After dropping out of IIT-Madras as an Engineer in Electronics and Electrical Communication, Rajendran was part of the founding team at Zoho Corporation, then called Vembu Systems. Later, he spent seven years at Xerago, Asia's largest New-Age Marketing Entity, as their Chief Algorithms Officer, managing projects and services for clients including Citibank and Sify. After rejoining Zoho Corporation in 2004, he has been serving a triple role at the company. He spearheads mobile development at Zoho, with a multi-talented team that builds mobile Apps for its 45 million+ customers.

He is the President at Zoho Schools of Learning, Zoho's own ongoing social experiment seen by many as a viable alternative to conventional college education. He is also a TEDx speaker and a technology evangelist who tries to share hard-earned advice and best practices from his two dozen years of professional experience. Beyond work, he is a contra-academician at heart. Feeling strongly that the education system in India needs a reboot, he also walked the talk, doing his own small bit by ‘free-schooling’ his 20-year-old son at home. His son graduated out of Zoho Schools of Learning, and is now his colleague, at Zoho Corp!

Short form:

Rajendran is the business solutions evangelist at Zoho Corporation. His vast expertise in conceiving and nurturing creative concepts into full-fledged software applications and his role as President at Zoho Schools of Learning, Zoho’s ongoing experiment in alternative education, make him a much sought-after speaker and panelist. A diehard Apple fan, he believes in aspiring to be ‘insanely great’ at anything he attempts.

CEO, TEACH FOR INDIA

Shaheen grew up in 5 countries around the world, and returned to India when she was 18 to start Akanksha . F or 17 years, she worked with teachers and students, building Akanksha to provide children from low- income communities the kind of education that would maximize their greatest potential. Today, Akanksha serves 9300 children through their School Project and after-school centres in Mumbai and Pune. In 2008, Shaheen founded Teach For India , with an audacious vision of providing an excellent education to all children across India through building a pipeline of leaders committed to ending educational inequity in India. Today, Teach For India directly impacts approximately 32,000 children across seven regions in India. Shaheen has also created projects like the Maya Musical , the Kid's Education Revolution which explore student leadership, creating platforms for student voice and partnership, and TFIx , which is a year-long incubator program for passionate entrepreneurs who are willing to adapt Teach For India’s model to their context and region in rural areas. Shaheen serves on the boards of Akanksha Foundation, and Simple Education Foundation. Shaheen has been an Ashoka Fellow, a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum, and an Asia Society 21 Leader . She is the author of the book, Redrawing India and the Miss Muglee Children’s Books. She has a Bachelor’s Degree from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai and a Master’s Degree from the University of Manchester

Current involvements: 

In the year 2003, Shukla started the Parkirma Humanity Foundation - A roof-top school in Rajendranagar in Bengaluru with 165 students from the slums. Today, with over four schools and one junior college, Parikrma Humanity Foundation continues to offer high quality education and support to 1500 children from four orphanages and over 80 slums in the city and was awarded the No.1 Social Impact School in India 2019-20.

A TED speaker, Shukla Bose has been contributing towards shaping and influencing education policies at the State and National level. Shukla is a member of the Karnataka Knowledge Commission (KKC) - headed by Dr. K Kasturirangan. She is the academy Member, HundrED Organization, Finland. She has published three papers in international journals and contributes opinion pieces for national dailies on education and policies. 

She has been nominated as the chairperson to draft the Karnataka school education policy, and works with the Karnataka State Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), IQ Education Excellence Task Force, to check on quality in education. A member of the national CII Education Committee, Shukla helps in drafting the national policy for schools. She is on the board of a few private and public sector organizations for prevention of sexual harassment of women at workplace. 

Past work experiences:

She was with Oberoi hospitality group for 13 years and was the CEO of RCI for 11 years. She volunteered with Mother Teresa for 7 years.  Her experience with slum and street children greatly encouraged her to make the development of under-served children as her mission in life. 

Awards and recognition:

Shukla was awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1995, the Bharat Gaurav Award in 1996 and the Woman of the Year award in 2000. 

A TED speaker, Shukla was awarded the Pride of Karnataka Roundtable International in 2015. 

She was nominated as a Bangalore Hero in a Bangalore Mirror (a national daily) campaign in 2014. 

Qimpro Platinum Standard Award in Education in 2017. 

Woman Achievers Award 2018 from FICCI-FLO. Times Power Women award 2019. She was recognized for her contribution to the education of the poor by the Save Government Schools initiative 2019.  She was awarded the international Excellence Award for Education Development from the Global Achievers Foundation and the Parivathan Inspire Awards for women and child development in 2019.

Founder at Flurn, Co-founder at Sahaj Natural Learning Centre, and Defender of children's right to Freedom, Respect and Play After having completed her chartered accountancy from Ahmedabad, Ishani started her career with Ernst & Young in Mumbai and the stint lasted for a year till getting married and shifting base to Udaipur. Ishani’s heart and passion have been elsewhere: she always had a strong urge to inculcate life skills in young adults and, with this intention, founded Flurn in 2011 in Udaipur; ever since its inception, Ishani has been conducting workshops for young children.

Her early childhood explorations began with her motherhood. When her daughter was 5 months old, Ishani read about the life-transforming tools on respectful parenting by Magda Gerber and her life started evolving. She found answers to the questions that had been haunting her throughout the growing up years. As she introspected about her own life journey and what she had been learning, a realisation dawned upon her that if we need to change the world, we need to re-imagine how we treat our infants and toddlers. She commenced facilitating process-art workshops and Kids Life Studio workshops for the youngest children before co-founding Sahaj in Udaipur.

Sahaj is her activism, it is her way of defending the child’s right to play, it is her way of advocating for a more equal world for children. It is her reform project to transform the world by gifting secure, loving, trustful, joyful formative years to children. When she observes children learn naturally and joyfully at Sahaj, it gives her an assurance that the young children of today will create a ripple effect in the world by upholding the democratic principles of Sahaj while leading a happy and content adult life ahead Her experience of being a conscious parent has inspired her to conduct parent cafes, listening circles in Udaipur, Calicut and Bangalore. At Sahaj, she continues to work with parents by empowering them with highly effective and useful tools to be respectful and conscious parents.

Founder Director – The Teacher Foundation

MBA (Education Management) with distinction - University of Leicester, UK;

Diploma in Journalism with distinction - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, New Delhi

B.Ed. - Delhi University;

B.Sc. (Botany Honours) - Delhi University

Maya has been in the field of education for over 3 decades. Her areas of professional experience include conceptualizing, designing and implementing a wide range of school and teacher-related projects and services – including the Wipro Applying Thought in Schools Teacher Empowerment Project initiated in 2001 and Safe & Sensitive Schools initiated in 2009 and most recently the development of the Indian Social and Emotional Learning Framework (ISELF) – an age-banded set of standards for Social & Emotional Learning for Indian schools. In 1988, she set up the Newspaper in Education Programme for The Times of India in Bangalore. Her interests include school effectiveness research and whole school improvement, teacher development, collaborative approaches to teaching and learning, interpersonal communication in the classroom, leadership and strategic management of schools. 

She has been a full-time teacher trainer since 1996, conducting professional development programmes for heads and teachers of schools across India and abroad. She has trained several thousand teachers across the past 20 years. She has presented at leading education conferences both nationally and internationally. She is an Accredited Teacher Trainer for Jenny Mosley Consultancies (UK) for training teachers on Whole School Quality Circle Time across schools in India. Maya has written on issues concerning educational practice and management in leading publications like The Times of India, The Economic Times, Education World, Teacher Plus, Mentor etc. She has written a chapter on Addressing Teacher Quality and Training in a book titled Accelerating Access to Quality Education, a Brookings India 2015 publication. She has also been been a member of the British Council India's Policy Think Tank for Continuing Professional Development. She was also invited to be on the National Technical Committee set up by National University for Educational Planning and Administration(NUEPA) for developing Standards for School Leaders.

Savitha Ravi has a degree in Bachelor of Commerce after which she did her Technical Communication from the University of California, Berkeley. She has completed the certified training in Inclusive Education, Early Intervention and pre-primary Montessori Education. She completed her certification from the Cambridge International Diploma in Teaching and Learning (CIDTL). After working in schools like Kensri Academy of Excellence, Head Start Montessori House of Children with children from varied backgrounds and age groups, she has now Co-founded Pramiti School which is an inclusive school that has learners from pre-school to Grade 12. She is also the Co-founder of Ekayana Learners Huddle Pvt. Ltd. that works towards using Science as a base of education right from pre-school years. She was awarded by the Brindavan Education Trust for her contributions and outstanding work in the field of inclusion. She has conducted several workshops and developed curriculum for various subjects across varied age groups. She has also conducted the Mock United Nations at Kensri Academy of Excellence and worked closely to develop the International Baccalaureate Curriculum. She participates in conferences, seminars and panel discussion that encourage interdisciplinary learning and inclusive education. She also trains passionate individuals in developing interdisciplinary teaching methods and curriculum. She believes in the joy of learning and will continue her work with children and adults to spread education as means of learning to live together and work together in harmony. She believes in inclusion of people, methods, ideas, thoughts and processes that have the common goal of helping every child to learn effectively and joyfully. She encourages learners to question, wonder, explore and find answers while strengthening their skills of observation, self-assessment, thus enabling them to be proactive learners.

Dr.(Mrs.) Shayama Chona

“Awarded Padma Shri  and Padma Bhushan by the President of India, former Principal, Delhi Public School, RK Puram

Dr.Shayama Chona,  Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan Awardee, is former Principal of Delhi Public School RK Puram, New Delhi - a world class institution.  Her efforts to break the barriers of schools to include the poor and the handicapped are unprecedented.  She has launched major initiatives to strengthen school teaching of STEM subjects: Science, Technology ,Engineering and Mathematics  which now also includes Arts and has moved from STEM to STEAM. She is a strong advocate of critical thinking and believes that it should be promoted since childhood by parents and teachers alike. 

Dr. Chona has been serving as a member of over 99 Advisory Boards, Committees , Educational Institutions and is a member of UNESCO. She has been associated with the Special Olympics, Concerned Action Now’ and the Society for Human Development .She has been named in the Limca Book of Records 2007 as the woman who has received the highest number of awards. She firmly believes and lives by the principle that “We also live in a wider world, a world in which we bear enormous responsibility”.

 Dr. Chona has given concrete shape and direction to her transcendent principles, by setting up 3 centres for the mentally challenged: ‘Tamana Special Centre’, Tamana‘Nai Disha: Skill Development Centre’ and the Tamana ‘Autism Centre’.  As their Founder-member, she has been working for the upliftment of the multiple-handicapped children since 1970, and celebrates humanity with the dictum, “Numberless are the world’s wonders, but none more wonderful than man”. Not only has her contribution been recognized and felicitated time and again, her investment in the field of education and social welfare has given concrete shape  directly to the nation’s education policies and welfare programmes.  

She is the proud recipient of over 65 awards, the most prestigious being the Padma Shri in 1998, Padma Bhushan in 2008,two National Awards in 1997 and 1994 and two State Awards in 1993 for her investment in the field of education and social welfare. For over 5 decades, Dr. Chona has served the community and the society at large, with distinction and timeless dedication.  Her mission to educate and empower both the well-to-do and the needy, the abled alongwith the disabled, and the ‘haves’ with the ‘have-nots’, has never known any boundaries, and has led to the full realization of the human potential. Overall, Dr. Chona’s work may be best described as a confluence of deep and abiding compassion for everyone and humility in the exercise of vast responsibility.  She indeed stands among the very best.

Ph.D. in Agriculture from Indian Agricultural Research Institute

BSc (Ag) and MSc (Ag) from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University 

Current work: 

Executive Director, Centre for Sustainable Agriculture

Expert Director, Sahaja Aharam Producer Company

Earlier selections and work experience

1995: Indian Revenue Service (IRS)

1996: Agricultural Research Service (ARS) till 2004 

Contacts: [email protected], http://www.ramoo.in 

Focus of work

• Working on public policy issues impacting on food systems and farmers livelihoods and a framework to ensure income security for farmers

• Working with farmers in AP, Telangana, Maharashtra in establishing ecologically and economically sustainable agriculture models

• Building a Community marketing System ‘Sahaja Aharam’ linking farmer cooperatives directly to consumers.

• Working on building rural entrepreneurship

• Working on Open Source Seed systems

• Working as a resource organisation supporting the programs of state and central governments. Currently working Government of Andhra Pradesh in promoting natural farming, with Society for Elimination of Poverty, Telangana, with Maharashtra State Livelihoods Mission in building the capacities of the staff and organisation involved in the program.

• Working with NABARD in supporting establishment and strengthening of over 120 farmer producer organisations in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.

• Initiated ‘Kisan Mitra’ to improve the last mile delivery of all support services and their governance. Currently working in three districts of Telangana and one district in Andhra Pradesh

• Started ‘Grameen Academy’ which runs regular courses on Agroecological approaches, farmer producer organisations and Rural business enterprises, public policy for agriculture

Awards

• 3rd Badshah Khan Memorial Award by ITM University, Gwalior -2019

• Rytunestham Lifetime Achievement Award-2019

• Won best rural innovation award in Maharashtra Rural Innovation Award in 2014 for ‘Community Managed Sustainable Agriculture’

• Won best rural innovation award in Bihar Rural Innovation Award in 2014 for ‘Non Pesticidal Management’

• Won World Bank Development Market Place Award in 2005

Others

• Author of several books and articles on sustainable agriculture and public policy

CSA work featured in 8th Episode of Satyamev Jayate ‘Toxic food’