Ms Komal Singh is the founder Principal of ‘Learning Paths School’ which started its journey as ‘The Millennium School’, Mohali on March 24, 2008. Ms Singh’s teaching career happened by accident and there is no looking back since then. From just doing a job it became a passion, a sort of vocation and she decided to pursue teaching as a serious career.
Ms Komal Singh, Founder Principal
She worked for Yadavindra Public School, Mohali for 27 years, the last 15 years as Vice Principal.That experience helped her raise an exemplary school, on the lines of a true public school making LPS win “Best Emerging School- North” at 2016 India Education Awards.
Recalling her past, she feels that her journey as an educational administrator has been a delightful challenge as she got a chance to put into practice all that she learnt as Vice Principal under the guidance of stalwart Principals like Air Cmde Sharma and Dr. Harish Dhillon.
Her subject is English but she hasn’t been teaching for some years as her admin work keeps her very busy. However, she does guide her teachers and she is also a teacher trainer for Cambridge University.
She strongly believes that English is an important language for purposes of communication and a well-spoken person is appreciated everywhere. Therefore, in Learning Paths School a lot of emphasis is laid on spoken and written English.
She firmly believes that children need a benevolent atmosphere to thrive in. She points out, “There should be firmness, and an obedience of all school rules, but an administrator in a school has to remember that we are dealing with children and each child is unique and sometimes rules need to be moulded to suit a child’s needs.”
Punishment in a school should be benign, targeted towards reforming a child and not blindly chastising him/her for some mistake committed. Children are learners and will make a lot of mistakes in their journey of life—they need to be guided in the right direction.
She strongly feels that, academics need to remain the main focus of the school despite laying emphasis on sports and co-curricular activities. ‘Achievers’ Day’ is held every year where not only the students with high scores but also those that have shown a marked improvement in their grades are honoured. Children vie with each other to win this honour. ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ is an adage we are all familiar with. She feels that students need an outlet from the academic routine and also need to pick up skills like public speaking, life skills like team work, group activity, solving problems and the like.
The School has a very strong House system and the students are divided into age groups for competing with each other. Serving the Society-The School has a very active ‘social service’ cell too called ‘Advantage India.’ Students of classes VI to X are members of this cell and take up social service activities that will make a difference to society. The latest project to be undertaken is the ‘paper bank’—here students collect unused notebook paper, bind it, give it an attractive cover, and sell the same at a nominal rate.
While discussing about technology in teaching and learning, she mentioned that, technology has made it possible to adopt various methods of teaching to suit the different types of learners who are now getting recognition in the education world.
When asked her opinion on implementing Virtual Reality curriculum in schools, she says,it is comparatively a new field and has not been explored much in the Indian context. But it seems to be an exciting inroad to the teaching methodologies and should add to the liveliness and interest created by using normal technology in the classroom situation.
She proudly declares, “The students of LPS are well equipped to face the challenges of the 21st century.”
For more information visit http://www.learningpaths.in/
Contact information:
Telephone: 0172-5134300
principal@learningpaths.in, contact@learningpaths.in