Education Stalwarts 2021 | Ritu Kochhar, Principal of MD International School | Leaders in Education

Ritu Kochhar, Principal of MD International School, one of the top Leaders in Education is with EducationToday sharing her experience.

I consider myself extremely lucky to be born and brought up in a small, close-knit family comprising of my father, mother and elder brother in a blissful and serene environment of the city of mythical beauty, Dehradun. My father was a businessman and mother, a devoted home-maker. I, being the youngest of all was the most mollycoddled one. We all shared a very close bond. 

On the educational front, I was fortunate enough to be a part of two eminent schools of Dehradun- Convent of Jesus and Mary, where I accomplished my secondary education, and St. Joseph’s Academy from where I completed my senior secondary education. I opted for a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in commerce from Dehradun, and subsequently earned my B.Ed degree.

After marriage, I moved to Meerut and chose to attain another Master’s degree in English.

Teaching as a profession always attracted me and in order to initiate my ideology of “Teacher by choice, not by chance”, I began my career as PGT Economics and Business Studies at Meerut Public Girls School, Meerut. In my ten years’ tenure at this school, I also served as HOD of the Commerce department, and House Mistress.

In 2007, I got the opportunity of working as the school Principal in Meerut. I also got the school affiliated to CBSE. In the year 2015, I was appointed as the principal at Edu. Comp and was posted to Punjab.

1^st January, 2016 was the fortuitous day when I joined M.D. International School, Bijnor. Since then, it has been a success journey. We have been acing in the city and have left no stone unturned in our race towards excellence. As an outcome, the strength of our school has phenomenally increased to more than 3200.

As an educationist, I believe in empowering the facilitators and creating lineage which would benefit the future of our country. 

Contingencies in our life tend to make us strong especially when we strive to care for the most eminent people in our lives. One such incident that though initially shook me to the core but extracted a stronger and better side of me, was when my parents met with a severe accident and I was the sole one to weather the storm in that emergency situation. I was too shaken to act but I fought my emotions and dealt courageously when my parents battled in the ICU. That was the first time I realised that life can be really cruel.

Time healed everything and my parents emerged out hail and hearty but this experience taught me that one evolves in life after overcoming struggles.

While we all understand how essential education is to shape our lives, it has also been a major problem in our country. There are several issues that the Indian education system is grappled with. Over the years, the comprehensive purpose of education has evolved. When I began my journey, education was more of books, lectures and exams. The students would sit in libraries for hours looking through books for content and material. They were supposed to memorize the factual information about the subject, and information was considered as knowledge. Whereas today, education is more about developing perspective based on information as the content is already available to us at our finger tips through the  internet. Hence, the curriculum today is more focused on development of perspective by comparing, contrasting and discussing information. We cannot deny the fact that the Indian government and institutions have been working to reform the existing education model. However, there are still several issues which are required to be taken care of. 

Our education system still has the features that the colonial educators had built. Education is not always about becoming a big, rich person. It should be about humanism. Students must also be taught in-depth about the morals of life and should be inculcated with humanistic values. They should be taught that life is much beyond money, and success is not measured with money.

Principals are facing challenges each day towards improving student achievement in the campus. Every principal faces some of the biggest challenges to control student behaviour, recruit teachers and staff, promote personalized learning and improve teaching effectiveness, student retention, parent support, and more.

Amongst the major challenges, I would like to mention some such as paperwork, decision-making, scheduling, recruitment, faculty evaluation, attendance and discipline, curriculum design, student outcomes, parental involvement, student outcomes, and  communication and  collaboration.

I believe that M D International School, Bijnor adopted the right style, right strategies, and the right system to be where it is today and to position it as an excellent benchmark in the society. I strongly emphasize the need for continuous innovation in whatever we do.

My personal inspirations are my parents and influential family members. Professional inspiration comes in many forms, whether it’s important people in my life or my career mentors. For me, however, inspiration comes from solving big, meaningful problems with people I admire and love to work with.  I can see time and again that I was most inspired and did my best when I was trying to solve big problems.

I am honoured to have been awarded with the Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Award at the International Educators Conclave & awards by IITA in 2018. I have also been felicitated with the Shikshak  Shri Award and Shikshak Ratna Award  by Rashtriya  Samrasta Manch in 2017 & 2018, and have been awarded with the 100 Highly Effective Principals of India 2017 by AKS, ‘Educationist of the year award’ by Silverzone Foundation in 2018, ‘Leaders the Pillars in Education Award ‘by EducationToday  in  2018, 50 Highly Effective Principals award by EducationToday, and many more.

My first and foremost support system is my parents, who were with me during all my highs and lows. They bore the weight of my hopes, dreams, desires, plans, thoughts and actions, no matter what the world threw at me. Then comes my husband, who provides me with mental, emotional and practical support whenever I need it. His appreciation and love is the foundation of my life. There has never been, nor there will ever be, anything quite so special as the love and support between a mother and her children. The bright and gleaming faces of my children are my true grit that never lets me fail or falter in this journey called life. 

Serving as a teacher is more than knowing your educational content, systematic planning, and instructing students. If there’s anyone who is in a position to bring positive change into the world every day, it’s a teacher. Don’t ever think that your efforts as a teacher are insignificant and make no difference. There is no telling what positive effect you will have on someone’s life, especially a student’s. Be brave, stay passionate about your kids and your work, and don’t give up—ever.

Do check out experiences shared by our top 50 leaders in education. All of the Leaders in education who have shared their experience with us have been motivating and life changing.

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