11 November,2010 07:21 AM IST | | Kranti Vibhute
Teaching is a noble profession, and when clubbed with a novel idea it becomes a perfect blend of both.
The principal of Satyamevajayate International School (SJIS) has introduced its students to the concept of entrepreneurship, and the lessons are open to students of Std I to X.
Hina Shah, principal of Satyamevajayate International School
The students form a group of four and borrow Rs 50 as loan from the school Bank. Then they set-up a stall in the school and sell their products to earn a profit and return the loan to the bank.
This concept teaches the students about products, loans, pricing, rate of interest and profit margins.
Novel concept
Hina Shah, principal, said, "Besides the regular syllabus, we have started an entrepreneurship model for children.
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Through this course they absorb the much-needed entrepreneurial characteristics like goal setting, info seeking, opportunity seeking, systematic planning, problem solving, etc."
And a host of foreign educational institutes are now interested in the concept and have flown down a team to study the model.
Experimental
The teachers, educationists and students from the Hathaway Brown School, Cleveland, USA visited the SIJS this October to study how entrepreneurship is taught at the school. They studied the model in detail and are keen to learn more to adopt it in their school.
The experiential development inputs give students opportunities to correct themselves and they start developing entrepreneurial characteristics like goal setting, info seeking, opportunity seeking, systematic planning, problem solving, etc. This behavior reflects in their real life situations also.
"The competencies are already evident in the children that they stand apart. These children will grow up to become job creators and not job seekers. Now this recent month we got guest from abroad schools who wanted to start this concept even in their school," Shah added.
Proud parents
Nischal Darji father of Stuti from Std VIII said, "I see a distinct difference in Stuti compared to her friends and cousins when it comes to being assertive and taking decisions.
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She comes up with creative ideas whenever she has to decide on which product she should deal with in terms of her business idea in a particular term."
Hemant Gairola, father of a student Sambhavi, said, "Sambhavi's understanding of finances and interest rates really surprises me, something that I perhaps understood only 3 years down my professional life.
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This new concept has worked wonders for my daughter."
