Sandhya Rastogi

CREDENT : Your brief intro Family Background, Education, Achievements

Mrs. Rastogi: I belong to a forward looking educated family from agricultural background, where emphasis was always on education. Though being eldest and a female child, I was given enough encouragement and facilities to pursue my studies as I wanted. I was fortunate enough to get married into a freedom fighters’ family with very broad outlook. They have been very supportive and appreciative of every milestone crossed by me in my career. It is largely due to their and my husband’s whole hearted support that over the years, I have worked as TGT, PGT, Education Officer, and now as Assistant Commissioner in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

I did my B.Sc. from Nainital, UP and completed M.Sc. in Physics in 1972 from University of Roorkee (Now IIT Roorkee) a very prestigious institution for Technical Education and Research.

CREDENT : How did you start your educational career?

Mrs. Rastogi: After completion of M.Sc. in 1st Division from Roorkee University,I taught in R.K. Telreja College Ulhasnagar, Maharastra and in 1978 applied in Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan for the post of TGT (Maths). In 1982 I got selected as PGT (Physics) in KVS and continued to work in that post till 1996 when I was selected as Principal.

As a Principal I had the opportunity to work in three different schools, KV No.1 Air Force Academy, Dundigal, Hyderabad, KV No.1 Salt Lake, Kolkata and KV INA Colony, New Delhi.

All three were big schools starting from classes I to XII having all the streams of Humanities, Commerce and Science. All the three schools though being Kendriya Vidyalayas had their own special characters because of the different states in which these were located. Being big schools, ample opportunities were made available for organizing large number of activities connected with Academics i.e. Youth Parliament, Maths/Science Olympiad, Quiz Competitions, Essay Competition etc, co-curricular activities e.g. Tritiya Sopan, Rajya Puraskar Campus, KVS State Scout Rally for 700 students alongwith their escorts stayed in school for 5 days. Cultural Fest for various schools and various sporting events at cluster and regional level.

CREDENT :Please give a brief introduction of your  organization. How do you feel as a Asst. commissioner of KVS?

Mrs. Rastogi: Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) is a premier organization in India administering 1073 schools as on 1.9.2010 known as Kendriya Vidyalayas with 10,30,654 students as on 31.3.2010 and 48596 employees (including outsoursed) on rolls as on 1.8.2010.

Since its inception in 1965, the Kendriya Vidyalayas (Central Schools) have come to be known as centres of excellence in the field of Secondary and senior secondary education ,promoting national integration.

The Kendriya Vidyalayas have a four fold mission, viz

1)      To cater to the educational needs of children of transferable Central Govt. including Defence and Para-military personnel by providing a common programme of education;

2)      To pursue excellence and set the pace in the field   of school education.

3)      To initiate and promote experimentation and innovations in education in collaboration with other bodies like the CBSE and the NCERT etc. and

4)      To develop the spirit of national integration and create a sense of “Indianness” among children.

House System in KVs The students of schools were divided in four houses for curricular and co-curricular activities of the Vidyalaya.These competitive activities are held in school throughout the session in CCA periods assignes for this pupose in time table.

Games and Sports System in KVs – Students of School play at Vidyalaya level, cluster level, Regional level, Zonal level, National level therafter the selected teams of Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan participate in SGFI .National level games are organized by different regions on rotation basis and is a mega event where more than 7000 students participate.

CREDENT : Please share your contributions towards education system. As an educationist, do you feel any changes in society regarding awareness towards competitive and modern education pattern?

Mrs. Rastogi: As Assistant Commissioner I have to see that all 62 Kendriya Vidyalayas situated in different parts of Rajasthan function to the expectation of Sangathan. It is an onerous task specially because of scarcity of well education teachers having good communication skills in English and Hindi. Some of the schools are in remote locations, like Dabla, Jalipa Cantt, Suratgarh Cantt, Anta, Baran etc. and it is very difficult to get qualified teachers there. Even when regular teachers are posted there, they try to move to new stations as soon as their tenure gets over, sometimes even before that by using political influence.

As an educationist who has been in the field for more than 30 years, I have seen the sea change in the attitude of parents and society not only towards education of their wards but also towards teachers.

Parents are much more concerned about the education being imparted to heir wards. Besides the bookish knowledge, they have also understood the role of co-curricular activities in the personality development of students. The “Jack of all trades is master of none” does not hold true now. Every parent wants that his/her child should acquire as many skills as possible along with good amount of knowledge. Number of educated parents has increased a lot.

Earlier large number of illiterate parents could not contribute towards intellectual development of the child but now generation of educated parents are ready to make many sacrifices so that child gets the best possible educational facilities.

I, as Assistant Commissioner have tried to ensure that all Kendriya Vidyalayas of Jaipur Region are able to fulfill these expectations.

Students as well as staff members are given  national and international exposure. Encouragement for teachers are provided in the form of Innovation Award, Incentive Awards at National and Regional level while students participate in various activities like Maths ansScience Olympiad,Scout Guide Activities, Youth Parliament, various sports, Social Science Exhibition, Science Exhibition etc. All these activities are held first at School level, then Regional level then at National and subsequently at International level wherever possible.Teames of students are every year are sent to Japan under JENESYS paogramme.

As Head of Jaipur Region, I have emphasized on improving communication skills of teachers and students in Hindi,& English both. There has been an emphasis on increasing use of I.T. for making class room learning experiences more interesting, so that learning taking place is of world class category. I have worked closely with the development of “Sakshat” an educational portal launched by Ministry of HRD, Govt. of India in 2006, which provides total educational solutions to school education.

CREDENT: What measures would be taken to improve study pattern, which is used right now in schools?

Mrs. Rastogi: School curricula in India even now is largely based on acquiring knowledge while our Endeavour should be to prepare students to use the gained knowledge in different walks of life   We need to teach application based learning which can happen where we give more activity/project based teaching so that creative and critical thinking skills of students get maximum opportunities of development. Creativity has to be respected and encouraged rather than route memory.

Lesser student teacher ratio, lesser subject matter and more activity based curricular will help in the growth of critical thinking. We need to produce more scientists and inventors and give them recognition from school itself.

CREDENT: What is your vision or future plan towards KVS?

Mrs. Rastogi: For last few years KVS has consistently produced excellent results in CBSE Board, it is now time to concentrate on improvement of quality and innovations. For that to happen large number of recruitments for teachers have to be done and high quality of training has to be given to staff. Systems have to be developed for sustained professional growth of teachers to ensure that quality does not suffer. Schools have to be equipped with all the required technological support systems also.

CREDENT: Should grading system be implemented in 10th boards examination? Is it useful or harmful to education system?

Mrs. Rastogi: Grading system has been implemented by CBSE in IX and X class. Every new practice faces opposition, so is with grading pattern also. Western World has been following grading system for quite sometime now and they have found no adverse effects by implementing it, rather it has been felt by large number of educationists that it releases the stress which is associated with our present examination system. It helps in decreasing stagnation also. Only thing to keep in mind while implementing Grading system is that every teacher has to be only knowledgeable but also dedicated towards the responsibility which is entrusted to him/her. Mediocre and indifferent teachers are going to cause irreparable damage to the growth and development of child.

 

CREDENT: Any tips for the students who are pursuing boards

Mrs. Rastogi: Prepare well but CBSE is not about route learning, it is also about applications and skill and therefore regular practice will make you perfect. ‘ Slow and steady’ do not win races now. ‘Steady and fast’ will win every time.

 

Sandhya Rastogi

Assistant Commissioner

Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan

(Jaipur Region)