Shalini Nambiar, director of the Gurgaon-based Excelsior American School (EAS), was recently bestowed with two prestigious awards — Bharat Jyoti and International Gold Star — of the India International Friendship Society (IIFS) for meritorious service to Indian education. IIFS is a voluntary organisation established in 1995 to promote unity and integration among non-resident Indians. The society is chaired by Joginder Singh, former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, and among its previous awardees are Mother Teresa, Sunil Gavaskar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and movie stars Sunil Dutt and Dev Anand. Nambiar was felicitated this year for her role in developing the K-VIII, CIE-affiliated EAS into a new-age international school offering holistic education to children.
An economics graduate of Delhi’s Lady Shri Ram College, Nambiar began her career in the travel trade and was a ground hostess with Royal Jordanian Airlines until her marriage in 1985 to Manoharan Nambiar, a Delhi-based business consultant. In 1994, she switched to a new tack as music teacher at the G.D. Goenka World School, Delhi where she also taught social studies. In 2002, she was invited to join The Heritage School as coordinator and was promoted to headmistress within a year. In 2006, she accepted the offer of the Excelsior American School.
With 300 students and 30 teachers on its muster rolls, EAS bills itself as a school with a difference, following a unique alternative education philosophy. “Students of each class are grouped on the basis of ability and given the freedom to peer-learn at their own pace. At EAS, our philosophy is to inspire love of learning rather than impose it upon children. Good learning is about acquiring knowledge and insights in a manner that is relevant, meaningful and memorable,” adds this zesty academician who believes in investing faith in big dreams and working hard to realise them.
A strong critic of conventional rote learning and memorisation recall, Nambiar prefers to instill values such as time management and discipline in early school children. “At EAS our objective isn’t to prepare children for IIMs and IITs, but to follow their hearts,” she says.
To encourage that, Nambiar imparts some words of wisdom to academics and teachers: “Let’s teach our children the beauty of being imperfect. Let’s listen, question, respond and remember that each student is unique, so that she will never say education ruined me.”
Amen!
Natasha Pathak (Dehradun)