This time at invoked 4.0 I was pleasantly surprised to be interviewed by two kids from the US; Ariel and Ellis. They were doing a series of sessions with the panel speakers, guests and educationists on the importance of leadership. The questions were not rehearsed. Hence my answers were nearly impromptu. The first question about leadership gave me thoughts about what is it that makes a leader? Speaking for myself, is there something that makes or breaks a leader? There are so many vastly different things that leaders do. Certain things are so minute that they could be missed being noticed. Leadership in education comes from being able to win the love and affection of your colleagues, peers, teachers, students and non state agencies. It stems from building trust, credibility and care. For the shared vision of the organisation to be transformed into reality the leader should be able to take the others along through the course of the journey surmounting the obstacles and scaling the peaks. Vision for education transformation is a team effort and calls for collective action. No teacher is the repository of all knowledge or the guardian of all skills. Preparing students for different life situations needs extensive exposure and various models. The next question was about the challenge that I have faced since I completed my education. Experience tells me that the education of the educators is serious business and needs urgent attention.
The next question was about the role of technology in education. Although technology is creating waves and taking over many aspects of teaching and learning, the role of the teacher inside the classroom cannot be substituted. Teachers bring various dimensions of life into the classroom enabling experiences from humour, friendship, respect, collaboration, loyalty and many more. They asked me about the responsibility of students going to school towards non school going children. I spoke about the privilege school provides to students. Those who are going to school may have to take time to think about the neighborhood also. Lastly they asked me about what would I do for children who are lagging behind? I answered that different students attain their targets at different times. There is no need to hurry but the only way I have found to enhance performance among students is to improve their belief and self confidence. I don’t know whether my interview added any perspective to their project but it was definitely cute and heartwarming to be interviewed by two kids.