When I started Vidya Mandir, my goal was not merely to help students increase their grades, or aim at marks – but to establish a connection with them, in a way that they would learn more about themselves, and about life, through the process of studying at Vidya Mandir. I believe that there’s a lot to learn about yourself as you’re grasping information that’s new to you – the way you look at it, whether you question it, your interest in a specific method, or if you think it’s of no use to you. Yes, how you treat new knowledge has a lot to do with how your life shapes up!
To me, it has always been important to not just impart education in terms of scoring better in the sciences, but to help each student get more in touch with themselves through this process of learning. I’ve seen students transform from being shy and passive for two years, to being confidently curious and scoring better marks because of the change in the way they grasp the classes at Vidya Mandir.
We’ve always been friendly and less authoritative, and we’re mentors to our students if they want us to be. Education at Vidya Mandir is focused on the individual, and their personality development – and for this reason, we choose to apply the teaching methods that we do. This includes assessing students, their personalities, their friend circles, and how they perceive their environment. This process includes a fair amount of perception of the students by the teachers themselves.
I would never want to approach teaching in a technical form – where students are simply taught subjects. I would always prefer to look at teaching as an ongoing, dynamic process that moves beyond the subject matter to the larger philosophy of life. It’s heart-warming for us to be contacted by our ex-students when they cross important milestones of their lives and remember us. We’re touched by a phone call by a student who would once be the most talkative and naughty child in class, telling us about his most recent career accomplishment.
I wish the best for every pupil who comes my way – and always hope that our lessons here are more than just Mathematics and Science to them. A class is always ready for discourse, but we do aim at finishing portions and reaching targets for students as well. Somewhere, the specialized time we assign to our students makes our institute different from schools and colleges, where our time with our pupils is highly limited, and our focus, centered. Somewhere, in this short journey with our students, I look at them more than just a pupil, but an individual with different perspectives, and different sensitivities. After all, there’s so much a teacher learns in his experiences as well.
The doors of Vidya Mandir are always open to those eager to learn, and even more so, take back more than just subject matter understanding – great friendships, teacher-student relationships, and learnings for life.
