Fostering Connections with Orphanage Led to Impactful Community Engagement

Surjeet Khanna the Founder Principal of Delhi Public School in Greater Faridabad, shares details of her transformative journey from her early days as a teacher to establishing a stellar institution in a conversation with Education Post's Prabhav Anand. With immense dedication and visionary leadership, she navigated the challenges of setting up the school, incorporating innovative educational philosophies and practices. Her commitment to holistic development, skill-based learning, and technological integration resonates through the school's curriculum. Under her guidance, DPS Greater Faridabad has not only excelled academically but also addressed prevalent social issues, leaving a lasting impact on the local community.

Q. What inspired you to establish this school in Faridabad?

My professional journey as an educator commenced in 1987 and has seen me travel through eminent institutions like VTC, Delhi Administration, IHE, Delhi University, and onwards to schools of repute. Joining DPS Noida as PGT English in 1995 and evolving through an outstanding foray of new initiatives spread over my 16 years there to the position of a Headmistress saw me grow phenomenally in my skills, vision, and understanding of the power of an educator to build lives. Immense learning, mentoring by outstanding Principals like Padma Shri awardee Late Mr. SL Dhawan, Mrs. Neena Sehgal, Mrs. Kamini Bhasin saw me hone my leadership skills and build a creative perspective on new possibilities. Opportunities provided by The DPS Society to set up DPS Roorke, DPS Bikaner, DPS Khanna, DPS Kashipur, organize national Teacher Camps, Conferences, etc., added new dimensions to my people and resource management skills. Becoming a Principal at DPS Vidyut Nagar in 2011 paved the way for the landmark moment of my life in being assigned the responsibility by The DPS Society to set up DPS Greater Faridabad. This was a sudden, unexpected development and amidst both trepidation and excitement, I stepped into the role of becoming the Founder Principal of this stellar school.

A very able HM, Ritu Jain, a gritty small team of founder teachers saw us take off in April 2013, creating our dream school based on MI of Gardner as a base, new thoughts of Emilia Reggio, De Bono, a bit of Nai Taleem, Shanti Niketan and a lot of pride in our cultural heritage added to the basket. Reading books, co-curricular abundance, scientific spirit in learning, art integration, jointly developing the green cover of the 14-acre school, and conceiving new initiatives every day across school domains - it consumed us completely. To all these, we added strong relationships, accessibility, and leadership in myriad ways ensuring that communication flowed and no ideas were lost, no child or teacher left behind in terms of personal development. Astonishing all by crossing 1000 Dipsites in the first year, carefully adding ‘mad about school’ educators to the team, this school influenced the development of infrastructure and population flow alongside motivating the setting up of a plethora of new schools in the area around it.

Absorbing the changes around and developing a strength of approximately 4000 today testifies to it having successfully established a culture of excellence, both scholastic and co-scholastic. Sports ATL, Robotics, Literary publications, student exchanges and project collaborations with Japan, Egypt, France, Germany, Denmark, UK, Korea, and more, Student Development Clubs, Home - School partnership platform, Principal’s Choice Period, GRASP, Know Your Roots, SPICMACAY, 100% participation mega cultural celebrations - a long list of ideas and action-driven initiatives got seamlessly woven into the rich tapestry of learning and achievement that DPS Greater Faridabad today embodies. In achieving all this, I received a free hand with abundant support from the Pro VC, Rohit Jain, and guidance from the esteemed DPS Society. On 31st Oct, 23, I retired as the Founder Principal, with an established identity, a plentiful of national and international awards like ISA, GiSA, Manak Inspire (Govt of India), Robert Bosch Foundation Award, ARC Legend in Sustainability, Education World Rank 1 in Greater Faridabad, Education World STEM Jury Award, IDA National Award, FICCi Arise National Award, SOF, Brainfeed, AKS Global School Award, and plenty more sitting proudly in the record of the school’s history. We rode the wave of COVID-like conquerors and established new benchmarks in tech integration and online creativity. We were the only school in the wider region to set up Covid Seva Kendra at the school campus and helped many with the gift of life and support in challenging times. For me, DPS Greater Faridabad has been my prayer in action and life’s greatest reward.

Q. With the introduction of the National Education Policy 2020, how does DPS Greater Faridabad plan to adapt its curriculum and teaching methodologies to align with the policy's objectives of holistic development and skill-based learning?

In 2013, while setting up DPS Greater Faridabad as our ‘dream school’, my team and I kept our aspirations for the students who will come at the very forefront. We borrowed little from ready sources and daringly plodded our way through a huge reservoir of possibilities to select our curriculum tools, define and express our Vision and Mission statement which incidentally, we have revised it thrice over the ten years to accommodate the changing dynamics and our goals. We were honest in evaluating our endeavors, learnt, revised, and moved on. Hence, learning by doing and play, creative use of hands and mind, collaborative activities, inter-disciplinary projects, tech-integration into academics, abundance of art to build aesthetics, engagement with school’s arboriculture to build conservation and sustainability values, science through hands-on experimentation and research, a strong reading culture through Ignited Minds, the library and awards of I Read I Lead on lines of Scholar Badge, India connect through information display, exhibitions, festivals, Know Your Roots, Agrani for student action on community service, Cyber skills based mega events - all such activities and programs came to the fore with NEP2020 drawing attention to a progressive value system.

At DPS Greater Faridabad, these areas were already well entrenched through our ahead of times programs and gave us a beautiful edge in the community of learners and parents alongside internal validation of the curriculum, calendar of activities, and policies designed by us as a school team. The school is promoting a greater thrust on Vocational education, prominence to mother tongue and regional languages, bringing CBSE portals of learning alive, preparation for initiatives like SAFAL, SQAF etc to move strongly with the opportune times for national transformation. I always saw a direct link between our own growth and the country. Preparing responsible leader citizens with time-relevant skills is a responsibility I wanted to deliver on strongly.

Q. Technology plays a significant role in education today. How has DPS Greater Faridabad integrated technology into its classrooms to enhance learning experiences and prepare students for the digital age?

Tech integration at school reflects beautifully my teacher leadership at work because it was the school IT teachers who designed, executed, and progressed tech interventions across all subjects and levels. A WiFi-friendly campus, five state of art IT Labs, Robotics, ATL Tinkering Lab, Mindbox Lab, interactive boards (Nur-12), projector-enabled classrooms, and iPads for classroom activities were our broad base. Into it stepped in tech-assisted Projects, Game-Based Learning, Assessment platforms for performance analysis, effective collaboration through sharing of files, using modes like Kahoot, paddler, mind maps etc. Student leadership clubs facilitated Summer Camps, hosting of Intra and inter-school tech fests, promotion of new areas of learning like SDG via technology. Huge effort was made to develop skills of Game designing, App designing, Website designing, Photo-editing, Movie Making, AI based skills, solving social issues via AIOT are few other features of tech at work. 100% Google Certified teacher empowerment, tie up with tech giants to bring Google, Microsoft Apple, Niti Ayog, Mahattatva etc to school has also worked positively for the school. In my opinion, freedom to ideate and encouragement to attempt, without any fear of failure or criticism, has made huge initiative by school teachers and students possible. Great team spirit has moved our mountains and kept us progressive.

Q. From your perspective, what are some of the prevalent social problems or challenges that students in Faridabad encounter, and how does DPS Greater Faridabad support its students in navigating these issues?

As a school leader, watching like a hawk for external world influences shaping choices within the school by students, parents, and teachers was a constant priority. No school is an isolated entity or an island. Contemporary influences emanating from the social fabric, tech pace, media influences, material attractions, altered family support structures, shrinking world through info flow - all this and more travel with students in the bags and the state of mind they bring to school every day. Being a happy, communication-rich school, with easy accessibility to Principal and educators to talk anything, plenty of leadership and interest-based activities alongside an empathetic approach did help a lot. Yet issues arising from tech overdose and dysfunction influencing student thoughts, food habits, dressing, language, cyber habits, sleeping, peer interaction, life choices, interpersonal overflow or isolation, digital addiction, cyber temptations etc were real issues and demanded everyday attention from all educators, alongside GRASP, the Counselling Cell which was empowered to design and conduct effective interventions all year through for all levels. Teacher empowerment, parent awareness, student education proceeded hand in hand with clear display of school policies on positive behavior choices, zero tolerance for bullying, helpline numbers display, installation of Suggestion box, democratic election of Student Council by students, initiatives like Khayal by Student leaders to address student issues, awareness of school family on POCSO being particularly important. The general strategy followed by all educators and principals was to Care, Observe, Document, Engage, Listen, Guide, Design goals, Document, Encourage and repeat the process. I made a persistent and strong effort to differentiate the child from the choice of concern and focused on guiding for the right choice ahead, without any labeling or denigration. No relationship was lost. This has really helped the school. Yet, the challenge continues to take on new forms and demanding a bias-free approach.

Q. What do you envision as the long-term impact of DPS Greater Faridabad on the local community and the educational landscape of Faridabad?

DPS Greater Faridabad has been a wake-up call and a transformative influence on the educational landscape of Faridabad. Few schools have grown to a position of prominence, with leadership on every recognizable front, as DPS Greater Faridabad has. Its strong blend and recognition of myriad and widely diverse languages of excellence beyond academics were discussed skeptically by old schools as a sure-shot recipe for failure. Unfazed, we continued full steam. Today, all schools are endeavoring to follow its fine balance of all things educational and allowing a greater voice to students' and parents' aspirations. Even teachers are altering their roles and places to become facilitators and support system to students in other schools. I see DPS Greater Faridabad poised for continued leadership, and growth in its universe of new pursuits, continuing to be the choice of parents looking for an internally and externally rich school with integrity of effort and character. As its Founder Principal, I hope fervently that its strong roots built from 2013 - 2023 will enable it to be an institute of long-standing and timeless value. My school staff and I celebrated the school’s first decade through a mega celebration titled, Adamya-the invincible, under the stellar support of the Pro VC Rohit Jain shortly before my retirement, with pride and joy. The sentiments linger on and fulfil me.