The leadership role of a school principal is of crucial importance. Expanding over a number of responsibilities, the role is said to assume professional, ethical, moral, legal, and supervisory responsibilities and accountability with the primary task being to create a school culture or environment in which children can achieve their full potential.
The Principal of MODY SCHOOL, Lakshmangarh, Ms. Nishi Rana, encapsulates a brilliant mix of these ideals and attributes – redefining what responsible modern educators are all about.
Weaponizing Ambition
Nishi Rana is the kind of educator who aspires to bring about a real difference in her field of work. She began her exciting journey in South India where she received her early schooling. After earning a four-year Integrated BSc-B.Ed. (Bachelor of Science and Education) degree from the Regional Institute of Education in 1993 and her MSc in 1995. Ms. Rana taught in the same school in Goa from where she had completed her class 12 as gratitude and gave back to the alma mater and the community by volunteering to become a mentor.
Later, she moved to Delhi and taught for many years and rose to the position of Vice-Principal from 2011 to 2016 in BRCM Public School, Bahal. She was promoted and held the post of Principal in the same institute from 2016 to 2018. Soon enough, she took over as the Principal of MODY SCHOOL, Lakshmangarh in 2018, a position she thrives on to date.
For Ms. Rana, education is less a profession and more a vocation, where educators get to mould young minds to become part of the responsible citizenry of tomorrow. It is one of the noblest missions of great social significance. She has always been passionate about making a difference in society, and education is the one field where she felt, she could feed her passion in bringing about positive and constructive change.
Mother Teresa, the selfless missionary, has been a great motivating figure throughout much of Ms. Rana’s growing-up years. She instilled in her the values of courage and honesty in all endeavours. These qualities have carried Ms. Rana forward in the journey of her life.
The MODY SCHOOL, Lakshmangarh
MODY SCHOOL is the result of the lofty vision of Sh. Rajendra Prasadji Mody, the founding father of Mody Institute of Education and Research, Lakshmangarh, the foundation of which was laid in the year 1988. Since then, the institute has attained great heights and has transformed into a centre of higher learning. Being an English-medium residential school exclusively dedicated to the education of the girl child, the school has attained the highest standards of academic and administrative efficiency. Being ISO 14001:2004 certified is proof that love and awareness regarding the environment is a priority for all on the campus. It is affiliated with the CBSE and the International Baccalaureate (IB) of Geneva, Switzerland. The IB Diploma Program is a two-year educational program for students aged 16-18 years.
The MODY SCHOOL is also a member of the prestigious Indian Public Schools’ Conference (IPSC) and as such aims to teach its students the values of equality and camaraderie. It is a member of the International Round Square Organization and the centre for International Award for Young People program. The school also hosts and participates in Model United Nations Conferences, both at national and international levels.
The students have brought laurels to their alma mater by qualifying through competitions to enter prestigious engineering, medical and law institutes, NIFT, NID, CPT, besides making a mark in several national-level sporting activities. Academic excellence is the target for Mody girls, and many have indeed proved it by scoring a perfect 100% in several subjects including maths, geography, social studies, and others.
The school motto “ तेजस्विनावधीतमस्तु ” which means ‘Strive for Excellence’ is not merely a motivational statement from the Upanishads, it is a way of life at MODY SCHOOL.
Changing Tides
The school management observes a paradigm shift in teaching and learning. “Today, we are constantly and irrevocably engaged in the business of optimal returns, so far as the learning of our students is concerned. E-learning or digital learning has become the mainstay for MODY SCHOOL, as it has for the majority of academic institutes across the world. Once, it had been a tool to facilitate the instructor. In the months of lockdown, it became the only means of instruction!” they said.
These digital platforms have been greatly supported by the MHRD and NCERT among several other departments, so there is wide acceptance of the idea of online education. Ms. Rana is of the opinion that it is the academic face of the future, enabling both the teacher and the students to learn. “Let’s face it, the pandemic has compelled us, as academicians and educationists, to reinvent the traditional mediums of instruction and incorporate them with novel tools and methodologies,” says Nishi Rana.
The idea is not to resist technology but to embrace it. The best thing is that new ways are frequently being discussed to make the entire process of teaching and learning more effective, more interactive, and more productive. The major challenge now is to turn the course of the teaching-learning process towards normalcy following the pandemic. Nishi Rana believes that several academic organizations across the world have confronted the issues of student absenteeism, non-payment of fees, in many cases, fatigue that has been brought on by using only digital platforms of learning, measuring the extent of actual learning that has been achieved by scholars are only some of the tests that are being faced by principals and educators today.
Education as a Tool for Empowerment
Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru could not have better emphasized the need to empower the nation’s womanhood for a stronger and developed India. During Ms. Rana’s tenure as principal, the MODY SCHOOL has been able to introduce and implement several measures to ensure that the girls acquire the 21st century skills that will stand them in good stead to face the challenges of tomorrow.
“We give them opportunities to engage in the process of learning everywhere – be it the play fields, the boarding houses, the refectory, or the scriptures dotting the campus,” added Ms. Rana. Facilitating them in this grand and uplifting venture is a committed and zealous group of teachers, their alumni, and parents. The cultural ethos of the school stands as an exemplar for girls of this school to imbibe and practice all that is good and noble around them.
Awards and Accolades
Throughout her illustrious career, Nishi Rana received many awards and accolades, some of them are as follows:
- Best Teacher’s Award -1998
- Appreciation for Academic Excellence in 2012
- Academic Excellence Award in 2014
- India Education Icon Award 2018
- Received Award in the capacity of Principal for Outstanding Residential School of Rajasthan 2019 by CEGR (Centre for Education Growth and Research)
- Leading Schools of the Country Award for the period 2019 – 2022 by Leading Schools Corp. USA
- Certificate of Excellence among Top 50 Effective Principals 2019 by Education Today
- Principal of the Year 2019 by Global Gurus Pragyaan Brahma at Chinmaya Mission in New Delhi
- Received award in the capacity of Principal of MODY School for the Best Residential School for Girls in Rajasthan for 2018 in National Education Summit and Awards at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
- Received award in the capacity of Principal of MODY School for the Best Residential School for Girls in Rajasthan for 2019 in Asia Education Summit and Awards at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.
- Received Uttarakhand Ratan Award 2021 under the aegis of The Principals Progressive Schools’ Association (PPSA), Uttarakhand on 13 February 2021 at Dehradun.
Aspiring to Make a Difference
Ms. Rana reiterated noted American philosopher, William James, saying: “Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.” Balancing the self and work has become imperative in the competition that abounds in the world today; multi-tasking is the name of the game. But Ms. Rana also believes, that if you love what you do, you will never be unhappy; emphasizing that the aspiration and final end of all work are to be a good human being—nothing more, nothing less. She adds, “We must, as educators, be passionate about making a difference to the society, and this is one field where I feel, we can bring in positive and constructive change.”
No doubt, it is a difficult, and often challenging and time-consuming job, but it is an adventure itself to undertake such a task with aplomb.
With the announcement of the new education policy (NEP), the citizens of this country are facing a whole new vista to radicalize classrooms and transform them into exciting hubs of learning. Innovation is the key to implementing, in spirit, the changes in the curriculum and enriching it by holding workshops and training sessions for the staff. Someone has rightly pointed out that teaching children is an accomplishment but getting them excited about learning is an achievement. That is what Ms. Nishi Rana and the MODY SCHOOL are looking at!
