‘At Apeejay, teachers know kids better than their parents’

Bikash Panda is Director of Technology Operations at Ocean Technology Group, UK while his spouse Pooja Dash is a Yoga practitioner and Fitness Expert. Their daughter Anwesha Panda is a class 7 student of Apeejay School Kharghar. In an informal chat, Bikash elaborates on how the school is contributing to the holistic development of her child.

What made you pick Apeejay?

Let me tell you a bit about myself…my father was a teacher in the same school where I studied. I was lucky enough to receive a holistic education and I wanted my kid to benefit from the same. I believe in an education system that pays attention to the physical, emotional and mental well-being of a student. Anwesha did her pre-schooling from Singapore and we all know that its education system is consistently ranked as one of the best in the world. It encourages project work, problem-solving and creative thinking. Teaching is coherent, drawing on a range of pedagogical traditions, both Eastern and Western. When I shifted to India, I was looking for a school that focuses on the all-round development of a student. However, I was dejected to discover that most of the schools in my area were heavily commercialised. Their focus was not on the core aspects of child development. I found a ray of hope when I visited Apeejay Kharghar. My expectations were raised when I met with the Principal and the faculty.  When the Principal interacted with Anwesha, she immediately realised that Anwesha needed to work on her Hindi skills. There were primarily two languages spoken in my house at that time– Oriya and English. Therefore, Anwesha’s Hindi was weak. The principal assured us that the school will do the needful.   It was quite amazing to witness that based on a small interaction with Anwesha, the Principal unearthed her nature, strengths, weaknesses and potential. After being fully convinced, I got her enrolled in Junior KG.

How has your experience been till now?

It’s nothing short of amazing. Within 3 months I could see a drastic improvement in her Hindi skills. Now, she possesses excellent speaking skills and her knowledge of English grammar is extensive. She has given numerous online and offline presentations. We are grateful to her English teacher, Ms. Bindu Patnaik. Her Math skills too have improved by leaps and bounds. She was an average student in the subject till class 5, but after that, she has become great in Math. She participates in every extracurricular activity and as result her leadership skills too have improved drastically. In fact, she got elected as Academic In-charge in the year 2021. Also, she is equally good at computers. For instance, some time back, Apeejay students paid a video tribute to former President Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam. They had to record a video message. I was amazed to see Anwesha using her computer knowledge to merge different clips into a single piece. Being a software engineer myself, it was indeed a proud moment for me. 

Tell us about the teachers.

They are meticulous with their preparation and focus on strategy-based teaching. The efforts that they had put in during the pandemic is commendable. To make the class engaging, they interacted with every student. Even with parents they share an excellent rapport. During the parent–teacher meetings, we get detailed feedback on the progress made by our children. In fact, sometimes it seems that they know kids better than their parents.

Share with us your most memorable moment.

There are so many of them, it’s difficult to pick one (laughs). However, if I had to list one it would be an incident that happened on the last day of her class 2. Anwesha was deeply attached to her class teacher, Usha Ma’am. She was overwhelmed with emotions because in class 3 she would have a new class teacher. When Anwesha went to see Usha Ma’am, she sprinted towards her and Ma’am too hugged her tightly like her own kid. I was in tears.