Newly launched NEP calls for dramatic changes in the existing school’s functioning. How LEAD Powered schools stay at the forefront?

Education is easily the most crucial sector in India if we consider what India needs to become a global superpower. Our country possesses all the requisite resources, raw talent, natural environment, and traditional solid and holistic culture to reach the position, but where it continuously and repeatedly suffers is the quality of education it offers to its young minds. This issue has been addressed in great detail in the National Education Policy released in 2020.

Since we have entered the 21st century, the world as a whole and the education sector, in particular, have seen many revolutionary changes and shifts in paradigm. Technology has been a key disruptor and has completely changed how education is implemented or disseminated. The speed multiplied during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown when schools and colleges were forced to close their doors at their physical locations, and teachers had to teach students through online video conferencing tools. Smart classrooms, audio-video technology, and automated assessment through artificial intelligence are some of the other new additions to the education sector which point to one plain fact – the education policy governing the country needs to change if India is to take advantage of all the new tools and technologies we have available today.

The country requires a new policy that upholds the traditional foundational pillars of Access, Equity, Quality, Affordability, and Accountability, and at the same time, is suited to the 21st Century needs, which are very different from the period preceding it.
Keeping this in mind, the government released a New Education Policy in 2020. This new policy has replaced the previous policy, the National Policy on Education (NPE) of 1986, which had been the guiding document for the country for the past 35 years. The new policy brings with it many reforms in the education sector and is full of unique and comprehensive considerations for the students of the country, especially students in the early childhood stage. It aims to transform India into a global knowledge superpower and encapsulates within it a more holistic, flexible, multidisciplinary, and vibrant style of education that will undoubtedly nurture and polish each student’s unique, individual capabilities.
The NEP 2020 contains many directives related to –

• Early Childhood Care and Education
• Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (which is a necessary prerequisite to learning)
• Curtailing Dropout Rates and Ensuring Universal Access to Education at all Levels
• Uniform Curriculum and Pedagogy in schools
• Equitable and Inclusive Education
• Efficient Resourcing and Effective Governance
• Standard-setting and Accreditation for School Education
• Promotion of Indian Languages

These are all essential aspects of holistic and integrated education and need to be addressed to have a well-rounded education comparable to international standards.

How are LEAD-powered schools in sync with NEP?
LEAD is making huge efforts to align all schools in India to the grand vision outlined in the NEP. It brings great innovations in the primary and middle schooling systems, emphasized in the NEP as Early Childhood Care and Education. It is also changing how education is imparted in the rural schools of India so that higher student retention and dropout rates can be curtailed. A massive problem in schools in rural areas such as villages and small towns in India is that parents cannot support the students in their endeavors to acquire education.
LEAD academic counselors regularly hold counseling sessions with students and identify students facing problems at home. They then personally contact the parents of those students and advise them on how to support their children better and how to minimize or remove obstacles they face in their studies. They emphatically communicate with the parents the necessity of giving good education and try to make them understand that parental support and care is the deciding factor for a student’s success.

Curriculum and pedagogy in LEAD-powered schools –
LEAD has developed its curriculum for all of its schools from the ground up to be holistic and integrated. It provides all its students comprehensive and well-organized training in all the subjects that a school student needs to know. Students from the younger age brackets, such as primary school-going students, benefit significantly from LEAD’s customized curriculum because they need a cohesive and logical curriculum plan in their formative years.

LEAD has designed its curriculum in consultation with leading education experts and known industry veterans who have contributed their vast subject matter knowledge and domain expertise to create a curriculum that boasts a quality that only prestigious international schools possess. LEAD has studied the international education standards and emulated them in innovative pedagogical structures such as ELGA, our accelerated and personalized language development program.

About ELGA –

The full form of ELGA in English Language and General Awareness, a program that aims to impart English speaking, listening, and writing skills to young students, is pre-primary, to be precise. ELGA’s design guideline was that English should be taught to students as a skill rather than a language because, as the ‘de facto global lingua franca’ of the world, English is needed in practically every field and area of knowledge. Moreover, students can not make sizable progress in any field of knowledge without good English skills. So LEAD’s aim with ELGA is to make every student future-ready and well-equipped to face the increasingly English-dominated modes of communication in a globalized world.
ELGA has been inspired by the Singapore education system and collated with the NCERT syllabus to adapt it to the unique needs of India. Students are taught using –

• Phonics
• Whole words, the length and complexity of which vary according to the student’s level
• Reading and listening comprehension with books of appropriate difficulty
• Grammar with concepts introduced as the students progress from basic to advanced
• Writing and speaking expression with regular practical assessments, including group activities, and demonstrations by the teachers

Students are grouped in classes according to their skill level in the English language rather than their age, which leads to a unique, well-defined, and reasonably-paced education system where students progress with their peers, and no one gets left behind.

More features that uphold the NEP 2020 –
Two other guidelines in the NEP 2020 are related to –

• Institutional Restructuring and Consolidation
• Optimal Learning Environments and Support for Students

LEAD is already the leading driver of Institutional Restructuring and Consolidation since it has formed a unified cohort of more than 3500 LEAD-powered schools in India, all of which follow the unique LEAD teaching methodologies and LEAD administrative guidelines. This unified consolidation of affiliated schools will lead to a streamlined and effective education delivery system as all the schools will receive guidance directly from LEAD academic counselors and will be able to ensure that all their students receive a standardized and high-quality education with a high degree of consistency.
LEAD also provides optimal learning environments and support for students with its technological innovations such as teacher tablets, curriculum management system, student database information system, Academic administration ERP, Standardized Teacher Evaluation System, Insightful Remedial Student Analysis, Parent Communication Module etc.

Conclusion –
LEAD is playing a huge role in bringing Indian schools into line with the newly launched NEP 2020 and is doing its best to tick off every directive and guideline in the policy. Our revolutionary teaching methods and home-grown curriculum will provide the best education to all Indian students who choose to be a part of LEAD-powered schools. Join hands with us to bring this world-class education to all. Contact LEAD at +91 86828 33333 or [email protected].