46th NPSC Annual Conference organised
The 46th NPSC Annual Conference was held at India International Centre. The conference which saw a participation of member schools from across the country was centred on the theme, “Reading Between Lines: Defining the Progressive” wherein numerous, engaging sessions were taken up by eminent speakers.
The pre-conference session for the same was held with Performative reading of Gandhi ji’s letters and staging of the play Bhagi Hui Ladkiyan. The conference started with Sadhna Bhalla, Chairperson NPSC welcoming the guests and member principals and Malini Narayanan, Secretary, NPSC reading out the Annual report.
The Chief Guest for the first day was Dr Anantha Duraiappah, Director of UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development, who shared some alarming data and emphasised the role of emotional intelligence over intellectual intelligence. Pavan Verma, former MP, diplomat and author, traced the growth of ‘progressive’ and called it our legacy.
The sessions for the first day were taken forward by Mahesh Rangarajan, Dean of Academic Affairs, Ashoka University, Gurcharan Das, Author, thought leader and commentator; Vanita Uppal OBE, Director, The British School, Chanakyapuri; Ameen Haque, Story Coach, Innovation Consultant and Diversity Champion.
The second day started with the screening of Yasmin Kidwai’s thought provoking film “A Sticky Feet” followed by Mohit Satyanand, Chairman and Founder, Teamwork Arts, education consultant, economist and entrepreneur, advocating the growth of counter culture and divergent thinking and Padamshree Shovana Narayan sharing her thoughts on Embracing and celebrating diversity. Post tea sessions were taken up by Anirban Ghosh, Nicholas Shaw, Senior Academic Manager, North and South India, British Council, Anurag Kundu, Member, DCTR Monal Jayaram Poduval, Programme Director, Piramal School of Leadership; Vivek Sharma, Programme Director, Gandhian Fellowship and Prof. Nirmalya Samanta sharing their thoughts on failure, effective teaching-learning and transforming schools into learning organisations. The valedictory address was given by Smita Thaand roor, Founder Tharoor Associates, Motivational Speaker, Coach, Mentor and Mindfulness Practitioner and the vote of thanks was proposed by, Sudha Acharya Joint Secretary, NPSC and Principal, ITL Public School, Dwarka.
The two day conference also honoured award winning essays by teachers of NPSC schools. A calendar of students painting was released by Rajiv Chandran.
Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh organised an exhibition ‘Sankalp Se Siddhi’ depicting a kaleidoscopic history of India. The exhibits encapsulated India’s progression in accordance with 17 Sustainable Goals set by the United Nations. The Chief Guests for the occasion were His Excellency Rabie Narsh, The Ambassador of Lebanon, Ira Sehgal (IAS), Sub Divisional Magistrate, Ssumier. S. Pasricha, Indian Actor and Comedian, Kousuke Noguchi, Director for Japanese Language and Japanese Studies. Other guests of Honour present on the occasion were Y.P. Purang, Retd. Deputy director of Education, Anima Horo, Deputy Director North West A, Divya Talwar, Sr. Creative Director, The Quint, Mumbai.
A glittering bonanza of skits, musical performances, orchestra dance presentations was staged along with a galore of exhibits wherein the students unleashed their creativity. ‘Future Ready School’ was the highlight of the Exhibition.
The Chief Guest reiterated the fact that the need of the hour is to focus on environmentally sustainable economic growth. Vote of Thanks was proposed by the Principal Alka Kapur.