21st Century Indian Schools To Be The Next Big Thing, Claim Industry Thought Leaders

Online, February 4, 2013 (Newswire.com) - The traditional industry of school resources may pose to be the real building blocks of a school but somehow it has always stayed out of the limelight. Keeping this in mind, Creative Children Media recently organized India's first ever exhibition on school education and resources in Gurgaon. The event, World School Resources Expo witnessed participation from the principals and key management of over 500 schools from North India, especially Delhi NCR, through various interactions and discussions, aiming to enrich the learning environment in schools and help young people develop skills and knowledge to thrive in a 21st century globalised world.

At World School Resources Expo, exhibitors like Hitachi, MBD Alchemie, AllSchoolStuff.com, Wipro Knowledge Tree, Building Blocks Robotics, Mind Power Educational Aids and AIETS-INNOVATIVE LEARNING SOLUTION generated new leads and established long-term buying relationships with professionals who evaluate, influence and make the purchase decision for facilities and resources in schools of North India. For these exhibitors, the Expo turned out to be a great place to launch and market new products in front of their target audience.

According to Mr. Rahul Gupta, the CEO of Creative Children Media, "This forum is a great platform to bring forth the industry of school resources & education infrastructure to everyone's notice and let them know about their relevance to education as a whole. I feel that such a forum with individual focus on all the areas of concern will benefit the overall industry including the stakeholders, schools, policy makers and private education entrepreneurs."

Meanwhile, Senior Management leaders from renowned corporate houses such as Pearson Education India, Wipro Knowledge Tree, Everstone Capital, Wazir Advisors, Edumedia, Education Initiatives, Extramarks Education, Kunskapsskolan Eduventures and the National Progressive Schools Conference graced the Schools Management Conclave, a parallel conference in the backdrop of this expo. Apart from these corporate honchos, the speakers at the Conclave also included eminent educationists like Mr. MM Pant, Dr D.R Saini (Principal, Delhi Public School, R.K Puram), Mr. Rajaram Sharma (Joint Director, CIET, NCERT), Ms. Paramjit Kaur Narang (Director, Pathways School, Gurgaon), Ms. Richa Agnihotri (Curriculum Head, Step by Step School) and Ms. Neeta Bali (Principal, GD Goenka World School). These thought leaders deliberated upon issues like creating an ideal school environment, experiential learning, alternative methods of resource generation and importance of sports and extracurricular activities in education.

It has been estimated that the number of Indian schools will be hitting close to one million in a years' time and the Delhi-NCR, especially Gurgaon, shall be contributing to the majority of that percentage emerging as the next education hub of the country. "With the escalating population of India, the demand for quality education is also receiving a heated ignition, thus establishing the willingness to pay. This new found trend of education with improved and world class facilities and activities is going to see accelerated growth in the future. The growing number of schools in the country will show us a deliberate shift of power in the hands of education providers in years to come," asserted Mr. MM Pant.

At the Conclave, the school resource providers who help in creating world class education infrastructure and allied services got along quite well with the thought leaders and academicians from numerous schools to brainstorm on the various challenges facing the school education industry. Undoubtedly, the industry received its fair share of recognition and is all set to move a step ahead towards providing top quality education.

As to the introduction of new innovative teaching methods, Mr. Pranab Kothari, the Head of Mindspark Development & Mindspark Centers Project at Educational Initiatives said, "It is now time for the students to learn the tech way in schools. They are thrilled at this concept of innovative and interactive learning process and are hoping it will make education not only fun for them but would also enhance their performance."

What added to the event's grand success was the Navikaran 2013, a recognition that saw a list of key achievers felicitated for their out-of-the-box thinking and innovative services that have changed the way education is being provided across India and abroad. India boasts of an incredible young crowd population in the world that is poised to increase further in the coming decade. At a point when the country has set a target of skilling millions of country's youth from both organized and unorganized sectors by 2022, it is necessary to start the process from the scratch, the basic school education with proper school infrastructure and resources which would gradually benefit millions of those young lots in creating an empowered nation. Henceforth, a forum like WSRE will prove to be a significant step towards actualizing the target as it would ease on the functioning of the school resource and infrastructure industry, which is a major contributor towards the set goal.