Women are the symbol of strength, power, growth, and empowerment. In today’s age, they stand shoulder-to shoulder with men in every industry and domain. Many successful women have made tremendous accomplishments in the field of education. They have introduced revolutionary transformations in teaching–learning procedures, while ensuring that each student succeeds academically and builds a bright career for themselves.
An inspirational personality in the field of education, who has made a massive impact through her dedicated endeavours is Manisha Gupta, the Promoter of Manaskriti School. She feels that to be an educationist, one has to forgo the stereotypes that they have been raised with. They must juxtapose the wave of new learning pedagogies, the talents, the creativity, and the passion with ‘today’s’ desideratum.
The dynamism of Ms Manisha’s parents comes as a part of a legacy to her, giving back to society in the form of raising a literate community being central to her upbringing ideals. Hence, she has always striven to raise the bar for ushering dynamic education pedagogies for a community’s enrichment.
“With two of our premier and oldest schools in the Faridabad region- Vidya Mandir Public School and Vidya Niketan School, my vision unfolds the most in Manaskriti, where I have rooted the values of sanskar and pyaar through gyaan as a mode of seeping into Indian diaspora, embedded in international methods of robust yet key methods of cognitive child development strategies,” shares Ms Manisha. The journey is ongoing, and she is metamorphosing to best of her abilities.
Inspiration Behind Success
Ms Manisha expresses her gratitude and respect towards her family for the strength and support they consistently provided her with. She believes that especially for women, their progress begins at home. She has always regarded family being the nucleus of one’s outward progress.
Ms Manisha expresses, “The stepping stones for my entrée into education industry was well chartered by the unswerving ideals of my parents. Beginning with my father who was an entrepreneur and an educationist, my mother who balanced her life between an educationist and in being her key self, being a mother”.
She feels humbled to acknowledge that her pursuit as an educationist is the vision and legacy bequeathed to her by her parents, to which she is only adding wings of creativity. “Well, apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, I am glad to be the apple of such a visionary and dynamic family,” shares Ms Manisha.
Redefining Learning Procedures
As the global education community strives to support the students through online methods, Ms Manisha strives towards building an ecosystem, a niche for her school family. As an educationist, she has focused on the creation of a community which looks at innovation and creation for the young learners. It may be in the form of regenerating learning through plays, continual interaction with the teaching staff, laying foundation to the building of the school’s organic garden, experiential labs, online discussions, and so on.
About Manaskriti School
With the intent of nurturing deep thinking and self-belief, Manaskriti School believes in an experiential learning process. The experiences are value driven and authentic. These empower the learners to be passionate and mindful of their inner strength and are interwoven with the entire learning community to positively impact society.
At Manaskriti, the natural curiosity of learners is encouraged. Students are nurtured to think independently, consider different views and ideas, and reflect on their learning to follow their dreams and turn passions into reality. The curriculum framework at Manaskriti emphasizes deep learning and realistic experiences through classroom discussions, integrated labs, collaborative projects, problem solving opportunities, and a comprehensive and regular assessment program.
Beyond the core academic classwork, the school’s curriculum emphasizes on skills that are the building blocks of the young minds. These include organisational skills, creativity, time-management, presentation and expression, relevant discussions, and so on.
The design thinking lab, integrated science lab, makers lab, pretend play zone, theatre, pottery barn, and learning studios are tangible resources provided to the students to supplement the experiential pedagogy.
The curriculum is taught by experienced educators who use innovative instructional methods to design and deliver classroom experiences that capture the students’ interests and inspire life-long learning.
Overcoming Challenges with Efficiency
As per Ms Manisha, no success comes without facing challenges. However, the way one perceives their challenges, defines their journey towards their destination. Ms. Manisha always sported her hurdles as challenges through which she would be able to learn something new, to be equipped against its future impact.
She expresses, “Leadership for women seems like a perception to me, but surely it is a gradual process as with the ever-expanding opportunities of working from home, has become a way of the world”. Ms Manisha further expresses that women have to broaden their horizon of the stereotypical image of running only home and taking care of kids.
Working Together for Better Learning Outcomes
Ms Manisha shares that the last 2 years will always be remembered as the zeitgeist which revamped our whole idea of existence. “72 years into the Post Independent era and we saw people coming from all walks of life, relying on the conventional, sometimes, obsolete methods of sustenance,” she states.
Ms Manisha further expresses that to exist in harmony, to work for and survive for the greater good, and to work as a force always felt like the cultural patent of corporate giants. But the year 2020 and 2021 taught us not only survival but resilience and gratitude.
She assisted in extending support to teachers, support staff, drivers, and maids and guards financially and emotionally in their hard times. She expressed, “This had been a phase of
experience where to embed these metaphors of resilience and gratitude outsized my life as a leader of my workforce”. Ms Manisha has always known all her staff members. But, in these last two years, she got to know their families as well. She feels that it brought everyone closer to each other not only as a team but as a bigger family.
In her opinion, education is not only about providing knowledge, but also the ability to spread wisdom and compassion through learning to the community.
Words of Inspiration
Ms Manisha believes that education is a transformative journey of learning and the true joy of learning does not showcase through the marks and grades that children get, but the true success stories that they write in their life.
Ms Manisha suggests that students should remain flexible to the everchanging diaspora of education and evolve themselves to adapt to the new emerging trends. However, in doing so, they should not lose the true essence of education which means to bring about a society that is culturally strong and united.
Taking the Next Step
Ms Manisha states that Manaskriti’s philosophy is built on the belief that students learn best when they have a strong sense of belonging to their classrooms and have pride in their school. “Manaskriti minds are encouraged to be active independent learners, who set goals, and challenge themselves in order to achieve personal excellence,” she opines. Under Ms Manisha’s guidance, the school strives to provide a supportive, nurturing, and challenging learning environment for students to build their learning.
Furthermore, the school’s management believes in the idea, “it takes a village to raise a child”. “We strongly value the relationships that we build to help raise happy and successful children,” expresses Ms Manisha.
