This techie parent is super impressed with his son’s computer skills

Devashish Gupta is a Program Head for Quality with Coforge, an Information technology company, while his wife Aritra Gupta is a private music teacher. They have two children, Aritra and Debangshi. The former is studying in class 2 of Apeejay School, Noida while the latter is pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from College of Art – Delhi University. In an interview, Devashish highlights the role of teachers in nurturing curiosity among children.

Your daughter studied from a different school, so what made you pick Apeejay for Aritra?

I always wanted Debangshi to study in Apeejay. My office is in Noida, so I have seen the school’s sprawling campus, mighty infrastructure and the overall ambience at close quarters. The school’s academic achievements too are extensively covered in newspapers. Unfortunately, my daughter didn’t get through the nursery admission round. She secured admission in Apeejay International School – Greater Noida, but the school was located far from my house, hence, I had no other choice but to admit her to a different school. Luckily, my son cleared the admission process and he’s now happily studying in the school.

How has your journey been so far?

It has been fruitful till now. I would like to specially talk about the pandemic period and the pro-active response shown by the school. Aritra’s class teacher, Kamna Ma’am, took great pains to ensure there’s no compromise on learning. It’s difficult for kids to focus and stay engaged during online classes, but teachers through personalised attention have helped Aritra improve his concentration and productivity. I can also see noticeable improvement in Aritra’s reading skills. He can now pronounce big words with ease and as a result his confidence has soared. Though, what surprised me most about Aritra is his command over computers, the credit for which goes to his computer teacher.

Being a techie yourself, it must be great to see your kid doing well in computers.

Of course (laughs). It gives me immense pleasure to seem him grow and prosper in the field of computers. He has a good understanding of MS Office and other basic computer skills including all keyboard shortcuts. Let me share an anecdote with you. One day my wife brought to my notice that the bluetooth mouse connected to her laptop was not responding. Upon scanning the settings, I realised that Aritra for some reasons has disabled the mouse. I didn’t teach him how to do this. It’s only because of the encouragement he got from the teachers that he’s learning the nitty-gritty of computers. He sometimes shares with me tricks and hacks about computers that are novel even to me. Teachers in Apeejay nurture curiosity in children which is the most important skill for a kid to learn.

You seem to be extremely happy with teachers.

Why shouldn’t I be? They are doing a great job. Keeping an eye on each student during online classes is no walk in the park. If a student switches off his/her video for even a second, the teachers immediately call out the student to switch on the video. I sometimes scratch my head in disbelief as to how a teacher can effectively monitor 40 students on a virtual platform.

“When Aritra was taught about the solar system in the class, he got so interested in outer space that he started researching everything about our solar system. As a result, he knows a lot about space. He repeatedly asks me tricky questions such as, ‘Papa, what if Earth is swallowed by a Black hole?’”

–Devashish Gupta