Dr. Bhardwaj emphasised to sharpen leadership skills of students

Bangalore, March 15, 2014: State Governor, Dr. Hans Raj emphasised on solutions to address the leadership crisis in India through school education. He made the assertion in his special address to students on the subject after unveiling the theme of the symposium 'Bridging India's Leadership Gap through School Education' debate at the Indus Leadership Symposium in Bangalore on 15th March 2014.
In his address Dr. Hans Raj Bhardwaj, guest of honour at the symposium emphasised on human resource development. About the problem of leadership crisis, the Governor said this crisis should be solved by citizens themselves, that is the true essence of a democracy. There is almost virtual collapse of political parties and he called for higher investment in education and research to change the current political system. Comparing the American and Indian system the Governor said that a lot needs to be done to improve the political system.
Honorable Justice Dr. Santosh Hegde, in his keynote address pointed there is greed in the society and no one is serving the society and we need to bring about the change. Dr. Mohandas Pai in his keynote addresses shared his thoughts on what schools should do to help fill alarming gap of nationwide leadership crisis.
Harish Bijoor, Dr. Malathi Holla and Ashwin Mahesh - in conversation with Gen. Arjun Ray, on Value Education in Schools said that one helpful thing would be to enable school children to visit different places, watch plays and have various hobbies that can help to give children "shared cultural experiences" with those who are from different classes and backgrounds and it will empower them to deal with various issues, as they grow.
Earlier, in his welcome address, Chairman of Indus Trust Sushil Mantri said that while each school dreams of having numbers to be proud of, high scores on standardised tests, high percentages of college acceptances, and even high percentages of students that graduate from the schools, what is increasingly becoming important is to inculcate leadership qualities in children which will go a long way to help student pursue their aspirations decisively.
Gen Ray, CEO of Indus Trust who made the opening remarks said that the very fact that dignitaries like the Governor and eminent leaders like Justice Hegde, Mohandas Pai have come to the function to address young students, shows the remarkable progress that the school has made in establishing a strong leadership curriculum that goes beyond the books. He recalled that Indus was perhaps the only IB School that engages students to get involved in social activities.
Talking about Servant Leadership, he said that when we speak of true servant leaders he could think of names like Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Nelson Mandela who left their profound influence on the world.
Each of the distinguished guests, in their address speach made specific recommendations about short term and long term programmes that schools can take over in order to redress the imbalance.
The Indus Trust which runs schools in cities like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune, lays a strong emphasis on leadership development in its leadership camps that involve goal-setting, life long learning, creativity and localism, living with diversity and leadership competencies for students of all grades. Community-based activities are included in the curriculum, to build qualities like citizenship, compassion and empathy.

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