CEO's Message
01-April-2021
We believe that students need a new type of intelligence - innovative intelligence, to succeed, to transform, and to be competitive.
Consequently, for the past two years, we have been experimenting and prototyping AI technologies and systems and processes, to transform school education. These are at different stages of readiness.
a.Robot teachers - being introduced in Indus Schools after extensive proof of concept trials.
b.Startup School - on successful completion of six months of the experimental model, we will start the 2021 session with the prototype. This will be open to students and other age 13 and above.
c.School of Future - We believe that the present education system is 'completely broken' and needs a major reform. 2021 will, therefore, be spent in seminars, conferences and brainstorming sessions to finalise a radical concept. Therefore, we will experiment with a recommended model in 2022, before firming in for the future.
CEO's Message
01-March-2021
The Startup School is in its fifth month, and the impact on our young entrepreneurs has been positive and encouraging. Keeping in mind that they are doing a dual curriculum - IB and Entrepreneurship, the rewards are impressive. We asked parents on how the programme has impacted their children? Their feedback was unanimous: 1.Thinking horizons have expanded. 2.Sharing ideas with greater conviction. 3.An increased sense of responsibility with the ability to make choices. 4.A noticeable change in asking What If questions. Such feedback reinforce the purpose of education at Indus - life entrepreneurship.
CEO's Message
01-February-2021
The Startup School with about 200 students is completing four months. These students have elected to follow a twining curriculum - the IB and the Startup. While the IB is an individual responsibility, the latter is a collaborative venture. In a short span of time, the overall impact has been impressive by all accounts. This combination has not been at the cost of academic performance. In fact, because of collaborative learning, reflection skills, and a better system of organised work, students have improved their academics scores. Going by the present rate of progress, we expect a minimum of 7.5 % overall improvement academically, before students take the final examination.
CEO's Message
01-January-2021
2020 has been a defining year for schools all over the world. Many have seen the closing of schools for over ten months as a huge loss in social time and learning. Indeed, this has been unfortunate for schools that did not have an IT infrastructure to support online learning. However, our experience at Indus has been rewarding. In some ways, Covid 19 has been a blessing. Covid 19 has reinforced our purpose of education - to be prepared for all challenges, to be prepared for a future we do not know. We were able to recalibrate our vision and pivot. To be future-ready every student must be startup-ready, not in a narrow business sense only, but as a life entrepreneur. We are reminded of what the Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh said, "All human beings are entrepreneurs." It is during this pandemic that, we launched an experimental model of the Indus Startup School. 200 students and 60 teachers from across our three schools are undergoing a twining programme - IB and entrepreneurship. Nearly 30 parent-mentors are supporting us in this great initiative. Despite Covid 19, all three Indus Schools are in the first ten Best International- Day-cum-Boarding schools in India. Indus Bangalore is ranked #1 in the country for nine consecutive years. What a grand achievement! What an inspiration for everyone. Our achievements are a tribute to the legacy and creative-mindedness of principals, teachers, students, and parents. We owe our gratitude to each one of them. We wish everyone a Happy New Year, and an early turn to normal school.
CEO's Message
01-December-2020
One of Einstein's popular quote was, "Education is what remains, after one has forgotten what one has learned in school." What Einstein meant was that real learning happens only after one has graduated from school - only real-life experiences can educate a person about life. Had Einstein been living today in the World of VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) and Artificial Intelligence, he would possibly have said that, education must happen in school. That is the meaning of education. This is what Indus stands for - that at the time of graduation a student should bear future-ready. To be future ready, one must be startup-ready. A Startup-You.
CEO's Message
01-November-2020
Covid 19 has driven home the message that, the age of uncertainty has arrived and is going to stay with us in the future. There is going to be no respite. Psychological factors like an underperforming economy, uncertainties in jobs and career, and an increase in the "unknown unknowns", are going to remain for some time. As a result, the present is unclear and the future remains uncertain. The positive answer to this great challenge is to embrace uncertainty; to turn it into an advantage. In a world where change is the new normal, there are three constants: our higher purpose, the vision to that flows out of it, and to be startup ready. We should look at being startup ready not in a narrow business sense, but as being life entrepreneurs. This implies acquiring competencies to re-skill and re-invent ourselves, competencies to take bold risks, and welcome failures as an inescapable requirement for success. This is the mantra we follow at Indus.
CEO's Message
01-October-2020
The purpose of school at Indus is reimagined - to be startup-ready in a world that is uncertain, chaotic and fluid. Being startup-ready should not be viewed in a narrow business sense as the desirability of establishing startups. This is one option. There is another wider option, and that is to be a life entrepreneur. In a leadership context, to be a life entrepreneur is the pursuit of excellence. The word 'excellence' is one of the most misunderstood words and needs clarification. There is a difference between "being excellent" and "pursuing excellence". Being excellent is quantifiable, as it is the quality of being unique, being an outlier. On the other hand, excellence is a way of life: (1) a journey and process for one's self-renewal; and (2) for realising one's potential and happiness. Excellence is, therefore, the art of living.
CEO's Message
01-September-2020
The uniqueness of Indus, and the Indus legacy, is founded on liberal education. Traditional education believes in preparing a child to score high marks in examination, get a good college placement, pursue a career (not withstanding that jobs are becoming obsolete), and be successful. Liberal education, on the other hand prepares a child for life, to be future-ready. To be future-ready is to be startup-ready - a Startup-You.
To be Startup-You and be innovative, is a combination of academic excellence and innovation. They are not mutually exclusive. You cannot one without the other. This is the 21st Century learning model.
CEO's Message
01-August-2020
It took Covid 19 to remind the world that, online teaching, learning and working is not a substitute for classroom teaching, but an alternative. The present pandemic has shattered this glass-ceiling. Regrettably, most teachers continue teach online they way they taught offline. This is the gravest default that will lead to irreversible consequences when children become adults. Even from a neurological perspective, it is unsound and unhealthy, because the plasma medium is vastly different to the paper medium. Online learning is empowering, because it helps a child to take responsibility for her / his learning. Moreover, unlike classroom teaching, a teacher can effortlessly personalise the learning of individual students. The greatest gift of online learning is in developing competencies. This is because it emphasises non-linear learning through self-learning and greater imagination which inevitably leads to creativity and innovation. We should welcome this big shift, as it will afford children greater opportunities to be innovative - the only way to succeed in the future. The future of learning will be blended - a mix of online and offline learning. Likewise, the future of work too will be a healthy blend of work from home and office. This future has already arrived and children and parents should adapt readily.
CEO's Message
01-July-2020
Everything will change in a post-Covid 19 world, and schools will be no exception. Given the heightened and protracted state of uncertainty, coupled with chaos and ambiguity, all corporations, governments, businesses, schools, and even individuals, are in a war zone. Everyone has to be startup-ready! Only the innovative will survive. Indus will be at the forefront of this change. The purpose of education at Indus has been re-calibrated. When the student graduates s/he will be startup ready. To be startup ready is an intrinsic part of our innovation culture: a triad of (1) the Startup School for 42 students from grade 9-12 in each of our schools; (2) each teacher to be a Mini Principal for 10 students; and (3) teachers to be encouraged to be intrapreneurs. If you want your child to be an entrepreneur and succeed in the post-Covid 19 world, Indus is the right place for her/him to be.