Being an effective principal is a balancing art. The role of the principal covers many different areas including leadership, teacher evaluation, student discipline, and several others. A good principal is balanced within all their roles and works hard to ensure that they are doing what they feel is best for all constituents involved. Anju Dheman, Principal of Fahaheel Al-Watanieh Indian Private School (FAIPS) is positive, enthusiastic and believes in balancing her work to take her school to higher Levels.

The Best School Contributor 2011-12 Award for the IIK Young Reporter Program which was launched by IndiansinKuwait.com was bagged by Fahaheel Al-Watanieh Indian Private School. Highest Number of Student contributors as IIK Young reporters are from this school. FAIPS was felicitated during the IIK Young Reporter Award Nite held on 2nd May 2013 for this fabulous achievement.

“I appreciate the efforts taken by IndiansinKuwait.com to take such an initiative to inculcate good writing habits in children." says Anju Dheman, Principal of FAIPS in an exclusive chat with IndiansinKuwait.com.

IIK: We Congratulate you for winning Best School Contributor 2011-12 Award for the IIK Young Reporter Program can you tell us the secret behind this?

The children are talented everywhere it is only that an opportunity should be given to this children to exhibit their talent. Once they saw an opportunity they rose to the occasion.

IIK: When IIK proposed to your esteemed school about IIK Young Reporter Program how did u take it and how did your students respond to such activities?

When this initiative came from IndiansinKuwait.com what we did was first we contacted the language teacher i.e. the English department and other subject teachers who could really give inputs to the children. They then spread across the message to their students. Notice was put up in all classes and that is how the children came to know of it. We have an editorial board in the student body who took this forward.

Whenever students have anything creative we have our Editorial Board, House Board, lot of other creative activities, debating clubs and all, so there are lot of activities available within the school which children come together and give their ideas. So this helped students to start contributing for this Program.

IIK: How does FAIPS differ from other Indian schools in Kuwait?

Children are all the same. It is just that we take pride in the fact that we give lot of avenues and opportunities to our children to display different kinds of skills, be at sports, cultural activities or scientific skills or for that matter anything. We believe in holistic development so whatever opportunity anywhere we believe to take part in it. If other school is doing something from which we can learn then why not learn and improve ourselves. Why treat others as rivals or competitors. Everyone is here to teach us something so why not learn from everyone.

IIK: FAIPS students excel in both Education and Extra-Curricular Activities. How do you balance this?

Credit goes to my children and teachers. We always walk an extra mile with the children and for the children. I mean to say if the child needs help even after school hours the teachers make themselves available. We recently took part in Shastrotsav and teachers worked over time for their projects with a smile on their faces.

Infact in all Delhi Public schools this is the culture we have evolved with and believe in taking it forward.

IIK: How would you involve parents in the education of their children?

Nothing is possible without the support from the parents. These days’ parents also understand the concept of holistic education i.e. Education goes beyond classroom and goes beyond text books. A degree or education is not an end it’s an on-going process. If one set of targets is achieved you have another set of targets to achieve. Parents understand this. The support we get from the parent fraternity is commendable. Never ever we had a situation where parents said that we cannot or we won’t.

FAIPS is an open forum. Parents can come and meet teachers here any time. Though we have our own schedules of parent teacher meetings, still they can keep in touch with teachers anytime or if teachers feel the need they can get in touch with parents any time.

IIK: How will you identify the educational needs and values of the community?

It’s a global village. We may be miles apart but yet we are linked with each other. So the values which we give is respect each other, respect diversity and understand the fact that as individuals we cannot accomplish anything, it’s the team which succeeds and survives and that’s how the education has to be perceived.

IIK: How do you perceive yourself among the students?

To be a good teacher you have to be a good learner. For me learning is a 24 / 7 process. That’s what I do, that’s what I believe in and that’s what I trust in. Learn all the time as there is no age for learning.

IIK: Two of your students who were in the lime light recently are Aheli Gupta, for her trip to NASA by Iken Scientifica and Immanuel Adriana Rakshana who won best IIK Young Reporter 2011-12 Award. Can you tell us something about these two students?

Aheli is a true child prodigy and an all-rounder and responds well to a given stimuli both she and even her parents. Adriana Rakshana is also a Child Prodigy though she no longer studies here but we miss her presence in the school. I still remember we had once a coral recitation competition and it was self-composed by Adriana Rakshana. Children recited this and won the competition. Both are brilliant children.

IIK: What are the extra-curricular activities the school provides for the students?

We have Sports Activities, Cultural Activities, we believe in teaching children organisational skills, we have social service, community awareness programs, safety awareness programs , we have this thematic class assemblies where one class is given the responsibility to organise an assembly and from conceptualisation to an execution, preparation everything is done by the children and it’s a theme based assembly. The theme can be anything Time management, stress management, handling peer pressure, importance of discipline among other themes.

IIK: What has been your schools role in imbibing the latest technology among the kids who are highly influenced by it?

Technology is to be used as an educational aid only. We do not encourage children to bring any expensive gadgets into the school. We want their minds to be text savvy and not body as salves to technology. Technology should not be a platform for children to bring that entertainment factor into school premises.

IIK: Future plans?

We hope to strengthen our infrastructure very soon. To have smart class rooms. We are working on school automation system. These are some of the immediate objectives which need to be achieved and in our priority list.

My Dream is to see my children win in National Events.

IIK: What’s your vision of FAIPS in the coming Years?

Happy Children who enjoy their learning, content parents who speak of the institute in pride, dedicated teaching faculty and an institution which should be looked up to in such a way that when any individual says ” I am from FAIPS” heads turn around to see who that Boy / Girl is.