 It's time to start off Milan the panel discussion one of the best panel discussions that we are going to have I know have built it up so much but there is a reason due to which I've built it up so much we have. I really have to say this, we have 11 different luminaries from 10 different countries and nine different time zones. We are joining us today for Milan the panel discussion Milan is a very powerful word in Hindi in Sanskrit to very popular Indian languages. It means the union, it means the coming together and today we have the coming together of some of the most enlightened experienced and minds full of perspective, joining us today from all across the world, and we are going to be addressing a very important topic. And the topic is nurturing the 21st century global citizen. Now when I came up with this topic I realized that each one of these words is loaded. Right. We are talking about nurturing. We are talking about 21st century and we're talking about a global citizen. All of these words in many different ways are fluid, as all of us educators would definitely concur with. And we're talking about nurturing global citizens in the 21st century, and honestly considering we have so many individuals from different cultures from different countries. I'm sure we'll get a range of perspectives on this particular question. So without much ado, I am not going to steal the thunder of our wonderful panelists. I'm just a mere moderator. So I am going to introduce each and every one of them to you. We have 11 different panelists, and we will start off with one of our dearest panelists of course all of you are extremely dear to us, but one of the panelists who's most dear to us and for someone who has the deepest respect and gratitude is Lord Baron Evans of Watford Baron Evans of Watford. He's a British publisher and an entrepreneur and philanthropist as a member of the House of Lords, the UK he sits as a labour peer, and also holds a number of chairmanship that span across printing business consultancy charity and healthcare. He also serves as the senior advisor to several organizations and individuals across the world. He's also an advisor to Elpro International School Pune as well. Honestly, if I start talking about Baron Evans of Watford, we probably have to spend a lot more time getting into these introductions but thank you so much thank you so much Lord Evans for joining us he's joining us all the way from Barberos. You also obliged us with a wonderful interview for the curtain razor of Panjia. I'm so glad so that you agreed to join us for this panel discussion. Would you like to say something before we move on. Thank you so much that was an amazing introduction. Exaggerated but amazing. It's my great pleasure to be here amongst friends as I see it, friends and colleagues who are doing such a great job for the children they teach and for the parents who may be watching. I'm so delighted that you chose to send your children to the schools represented by the educators here. It's a great pleasure to be here I look forward to answering questions and thank you very much for your hospitality and great organization Thank you. Thank you so much Lord Evans. We move on to Angela French. Angela French is an educational professional with over 40 years of rich and wide ranging experience in both the state and private sectors. She has a master of education and educational assessment from the University of Bristol and an MA in educational assessment from the University of Cambridge a certificate in education and a diploma in TEFL RSA as well. She is an advisor to numerous institutions across the globe and is also a dear advisor to Elpro International School Pune. Angela thank you so much for joining us today. It's an absolute pleasure. Would you like to say share a few words before we move on. To unmute there. Yes, for me as well this has been absolutely wonderful from the address from Claire and from the performances of the children it was a magical start to this conference. What's particularly special for me is that I don't know many people who are on this network. I know a few of you but through those few that I am aware of the network has just spread and it's so easy to spread a network. You just need to know one or two people and then it can become what we have today which is quite phenomenal and I really congratulate all of those people who've been involved in the administration and the management of this event because it's really very impressive. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Angela. We'll be hearing a lot more from you very shortly. A third guest of honor for today Monir Koshani joining us all the way from Afghanistan. Monir is an engineer by profession and a social entrepreneur by choice and he is currently serving as the founding president of the youth thinker society in Afghanistan. YTS or the youth thinker society is an NGO focusing on leadership development and capacity building of youth through active engagement and participation. YTS under the leadership of Monir Koshani also organized the first model UN conference in Afghanistan under the patronage of the president and first lady of Afghanistan. Monir is a dear friend of mine somebody I know from since his times in India. I'm so glad you're joining us from Afghanistan. Thank you so much for joining us Monir. Is there something that you'd like to share with us before we move on? Hello and good afternoon and good evening everyone. This is Monir Koshani joining from Afghanistan. I'm very much happy that I'm in this panel and I would share something from Afghanistan, a country that is quite popular in the news for different perspective. Thank you Anand for inviting me at this conference. Thank you so much. I look forward to it. Thank you so much. Thank you so much Monir. Moving on. We have principals and school leaders from different schools across the globe. Starting off with Mr. Niraj Bhargav, a legend in the field of education, principal of Abu Dhabi Indian school. He has over 37 years of experience in the field of education and has served as a principal for over 16 years. He is a dedicated resourceful and innovative educationist having extensive experience with reputed Indian and international schools. Mr. Bhargav is a keen strategist, adapted creating innovative strategies and formulating administrative policies for accelerated growth of institutions. Mr. Niraj Bhargav, thank you so much for joining us today. It's an absolute pleasure to be hosting you. Thank you Anj. Next on, we have Ms. Nargish Kanbata, principal and CEO of GEMS Modern Academy, and vice president of GEMS Education. She is the recipient of the first ever GEMS exceptional head of school award with a master's degree in microbiology. She made the transition from teaching to educational leadership, having spent over 32 years in the field of education. Mrs. Kanbata was the convener of the three CISC schools of Dubai from April 2014 to March 2018. A passionate educator, her simple educational philosophy is all children deserve to be given ample opportunity to discover their worth, their interest and their passion in a secure and happy environment for them to grow into confident young adults with a sound intellectual and moral compass to guide them to their goals. Mrs. Nargish Kanbata, thank you so much for joining us today, ma'am. My pleasure. Thank you very much Anj. And thank you to the organizers. I think it's always a pleasure to talk to like-minded people with children's interest at heart. Thank you so much ma'am. Thank you so much. In fact, GEMS Modern Academy is another proud school who is joining us for the event today. I think there was a small errata in the beginning of the event. We forgot to mention GEMS Modern Academy. Our sincere apologies for that. Moving on, we have Diretora Svetlana. Svetlana Hof is a trained neuroscientist, trainer for Montessori teachers. Today she's the academic director of the IEDA school in Brazil, a primary school in the state of Minas. Geras, I'm sorry if I've mispronounced this. Our school, the school works in areas of neuroscience and active methodologies. Svetlana has also been one of the keyness supporters, propagators and motivators for this entire event from the very beginning. We are so happy to see the level of enthusiasm that you have shown. Thank you so much for joining us today, Svetlana. Thank you so much. I'm humbled as well as honored to be here, to have been invited. And it's an absolute dream come true to see such a wonderful opportunity being created for our students all over the world. And thank you very much for inviting us. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Svetlana. We'll be hearing a lot more from you. We also have with us Nicholas Dahlstrom, the headmaster of Kunskapskolan Warburg in Sweden. He started off as a teacher in 1986 and has worked as a teacher for 15 years after which he became the headmaster. He's been a headmaster for over 20 years now, a very renowned educator. He's been the headmaster of Kunskapskolan for 14 years. He has experience of teaching and headteaching both at primary school levels and upper secondary school levels in different parts of Sweden. And at this point in time, he is situated in Warburg, where in Kunskapskolan school, there are over 360 students from grades four to nine studying in the institution. Nicholas, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you very much. And I'm very honored to be here in this event today. Thank you very much. Thank you Nicholas. We now move on to Ernst George Schwann, who is the vice principal of Indian school Alwadi Al Kabir, and the sultanate of Oman. Mr. Schwann has been working with the Indian school Wadi Al Kabir for the last two decades and took over as the vice principal in 2013. He currently heads the kindergarten and primary sections of the school and has taught subjects ranging from English, mathematics, science to social studies in the primary and even taught the middle and high school levels. He has also been awarded the coveted Navin Asharkazi Award for excellence in teaching in 2016 in Oman. Mr. Schwann, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you so much, Ernst. It's a pleasure to be here and I must say in fact it's an honor to be amongst such deputed people. And it's a real pleasure looking forward to contribute and above all, learn more. Because I don't believe I know everything. I'm here to learn a lot from all of you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. We now move on to Mr. Gary Nelson, the proud proud head teacher of whopping high school in central London. Gary brings with him a successful career and headship and an unyielding determination to provide the very best education possible for students. He shares a passion for providing first class learning opportunities for all students, leading to outstanding outcomes which help open doors to open to very happy and successful lives. A little wonder then that he is actually the co-host for Pangea, the global village, and has been an active participant in its entire organization. Gary, thank you so much for joining us today. Thank you, Ernst. You know, it is amazing actually to have so many people here from everywhere all over the world. It's just absolutely terrific. And again, I just want to echo what Claire Ward talked about, about this great opportunity we have in front of us. I feel a bit guilty being the co-host here when clearly Sagandra and yourself and other colleagues there at Elpro have done such an amazing job bringing this all together. Just exciting times. I just want to share this with colleagues just very briefly, if you don't mind. There's a message on the chat here. And we're talking about joining people together and the challenger in the pandemic of getting kids to have joy again in their learning and connections. And there's a message here from Munan. You've probably seen it as well on the chat, everyone. It says, I want to say that when I'm at house and I'm not doing anything, I feel like I could some fun things, do some fun things in school with that time. It hurts. So it's really, really important that we connect kids together because I know talking to my own students have been messaging me directly throughout this meeting today, and they really do need us to do a good job. So I'm really looking forward to this. Thanks very much. Thank you so much, Gary. And last but definitely not the least, I would like to say probably one of the chief instigators of this event and definitely the biggest source of support for everybody who has been a part of organizing this event. I'm Dr. Amrita Vora, Principal Alpro International School with a PhD in education psychology, a master's in education and botany. Dr. Vora has a rich academic experience spanning over three decades, where a dynamic leadership has helped a lot of schools across India incorporate a healthy teaching learning environment. She was recently recognized as a future 50 leaders shaping success by Fortune India. She has also been felicitated with the leader spillers in education award for making a difference in the field of education. Additionally, she was awarded as the best international principal by the Science Olympiad Foundation for three consecutive years and is an honorary recipient of the Uttarakhand Ratan Award, which was presented to her by Principles Progressive Schools Association Uttarakhand in collaboration with the Times of India. Dr. Vora, thank you so much for being our biggest source of encouragement and inspiration, and for joining us today. Ma'am, you're muted. My apologies. Yes. Thank you, Anush. And then looking forward to this discussion. I can see Angela there and Gary and all my colleagues. Very, very looking forward to it. I'm very concerned. I must have forced me for being able to co-host this kind of event. Thank you so much, ma'am. Thank you so much. Let's quickly jump into this panel discussion today. I have a range of questions that I will be posing turn by turn to different members of the panel. I would request you to probably keep your answers slightly brief so that we can move forward with as many questions as possible. We have a great set of individuals who have joined us and I'm sure everybody would like to share their perspectives. The topic, of course, is nurturing the 21st century global citizen. There's a lot that's talked about with respect to 21st century skills in education across the world. Some of the most common things that we talk about include the four C's, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking and communication. We then talk about financial literacy, leadership skills, technological skills, and an entire gamut of skills, apart from the standard foundational literacy skills that are essential for everyone. I'm talking about global citizenship and nurturing global citizenship. In this regard, I would like to ask a very pertinent question and I would like to start off with Mrs. Kambhata. Ma'am, I would like to ask you, how would you define an ideal 21st century global citizen in the context of your educational system and culture? Thank you, Anansha. I think that's really an interesting question and being an opening batsman. I think, you know, I'm taking the liberty of putting perspective to this. So, to my mind, if you develop a hundred 21st century skills, I'm always amazed that we talk about 21st century skills when we're already in 2021. But I just want to say that, you know, you can give children all the skills that's in the world, but if you don't create, sorry, create is the wrong word. If you don't, you know, have students who are open minded and who really understand the complexities of the world we live in, then all has failed. To my mind, an ideal 21st century global citizen is one who really is open minded, understands and reflects in an agile and very empathetic manner to what he or she experiences around him in our complex world today. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mrs. Kambhata, for sharing your views on this. Nicholas, would you like to share your views? What do you think really entails a global citizen or 21st century global citizen? Thank you very much. I'm very fond of metacognition. So I would like to combine the three parameters, knowledge, math, language and so on and skills like creativity and collaboration and character like leadership and mindfulness in the metacognition dimension. In Sweden, we are talking about the importance of metacognition. It leads the process of self reflection and learning how to learn as well as the building of knowledge, skills and character. Basic is critical thinking. You can't do without it. It's more important than ever. And I would like to say that the Swedish school system supports both critical thinking and the metacognition perspective. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing your views, Nicholas. In fact, I'd like to pose this question to a very interesting member of the panel today. We have Monir joining us from Afghanistan. And Afghanistan has been a nation. It's a gifted nation. It's a blessed nation. But unfortunately, it has been ravaged by war over different decades over different centuries too. And in recent times, there has been a lot of unfortunate incidents taking place in the country. In general, when we talk about education, it has been impacted. I had a recent interview with Monir where we were talking about this too. Monir, in the frame of reference of Afghanistan, what would an ideal 21st century global citizen be? Thank you, Anand. I believe the situation in Afghanistan is quite different from the rest of the country. So, say, for example, the U.S., Europe, or even for India, an ideal person in the 21st century would be different. But for us, because we live in a totally different environment, a totally different region, and with different characteristics, it's different. And for us, at the moment, what we are looking in a person of the 21st century, or someone in that, we are actually looking if the person is updated with the knowledge of the world, if the person is actually someone who is an open-minded or someone is flexible to changes that is coming in the world. Because Afghanistan also being a very conservative society. So these are the things that we actually look forward or see in that 21st century person. And then I think those are the ideas for the Afghans at the moment, because, yeah. Thank you so much, Monir. Thank you so much for that perspective. Thank you for asking this question to one last member of the panel, Director Svetlana. You know, we talk about 21st century skills. Honestly, if you ask me, it's the inward in education, at least in Asia. We keep talking about the importance of 21st century skills. And as Mrs. Kambatta very correctly mentioned, we are already in the 21st century in many ways. And, you know, this is a very important word, honestly. In words, and we always have these phases are 21st century skills, given the same level of importance in Brazil and what is a 21st century global citizen in your opinion. Thank you so much for the question, Nash. I think it's, I agree very much so with what Nicholas and Monir have said, in regards to keeping an open mind and developing self critical skills, critical thinking skills. One of the aspects I think that develops in these very large nations as the one that I work in in Brazil here right now is the sense of for better of a lack of a better expression I would say self absorption, because we are such a large country, and we are such a large and diverse itself, a culturally diverse country that we very much tend to stay within our country borders, a lot of times. One very important aspect, I think to this and that indicates this is this is definitely a cultural aspect for us is the fact that we still struggle to teach English in our schools, English language in our schools. And that alone is such a huge border for us to actually cultivate this, this, this collaboration mind with other parts of the world. This is one of the reasons why I think a project such as Pangea is so important for us. And also, for us to take education in our own hands, as far as citizens, I think I speak as as as an educator, not to wait for governmental laws and all bureaucratic aspects that we have which are so complex and so difficult to be resolved into actually think about solutions which will impact the, the majority of our population, such as the initiative of a school has provided to the market, which is a private school, but it tends to the lower classes, working parents that can actually afford and actually look, those of us who can look for real solutions of pedagogical sound content and different kinds of, of way of thinking and way of doing the methodologies and different kinds of way of applying our knowledge and bringing back and and and combining all all this richness that we all have as educators that have been had, have, have had the privilege to travel to different parts of the world. So I think this is one of the most important aspects that we have to develop in our, in our youngsters is the opportunity to actually get to know other parts of the world, even though we can have opportunities here, but it is simply enriching to broaden our horizons and to look for other ways of doing things as well so it, it even though Brazil is not such a conservative society. I think we share very much so the, the, the positions that money has has put here, which is we have to really get rid of these way of thinking that you know, we are here, and why should I do this or that because we are living in different ways and I think the pandemic has helped us see through our borders as well because we have finally broken a huge barrier which was the tech tech tools inside schools, and this is a great opportunity for us to keep developing in this in this direction. Thank you. Thank you so much, Svetlana. Let's move this entire conversation forward. Talking about 21st century skills, the ideal global citizen in this era, there are a range of different skills that exist and we are very best to impart them irrespective of the country and educational system. Mr. Bhargav, if I was to ask you, what are the five most important skills in this era, what would your answer be what do you think are the five most important skills that any individual needs to possess today. Good afternoon, good morning and good evening once again. Yes, I have been hearing about the first part, the 21st century skills, but very important is there are certain other aspects which we really need to teach the children, besides what we have talked about. A very important one is respect for the differences. Very important is that we need to make them understand and respect and value the diversity, which is very important in today's time. We need to teach them that there are all people who are equal. There is no difference. And very important is empathy. Of course, besides that, we need to have curiosity and a desire to learn, learn about others, learn about the other culture. And of course, very important part is to understand that there are people with difference. Along with it, of course, the most important one is talking about the sustainability environment. We need to take, you know, raise strongly, tell them about this part, a part in the curriculum in education. This is very important that we need to make them understand the environment and sustainability, very important for them. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for shedding light on a very important point, the ability to respect and appreciate differences that exist, differences with respect to culture, differences in opinion, something that is becoming slightly more difficult at times across the world today. And I think that's a very important skill that all of us need to possess, the importance of environmental sustainability among a range of others. I would like to pose the same question to Dr. Vora from Elpro International School Pune. Ma'am, in your opinion, what are the five most important skills that you concur with Mr. Bhargav, of course, and I'm sure you'd also have your take on this question. Thank you, Anish. So yes, if I start listening, the five most important skills that come to my mind, number one would be empathy. As the world merges in the global community, global empathy is emerging as a necessary skill, you know, like in India. It is requested to be closer to the laptop. I think you're having a slight audio issue. My apologies. Okay, can you hear me now? Perfect. Right. So what I'm saying is empathy would come number one for me because as the world merges and creates a global community, you know, empathy will go along in making us more profitable. Ma'am, my sincerest apologies, but I think there is an audio issue. I'll come back to you, ma'am. I think there is a slight audio issue at your end, ma'am. Sure. And mute and unmute yourself. I think that might help. My apologies, ma'am. Can you hear me now? Yes, ma'am. You're audible. You're audible. Yes. I'll wait for my turn. I think you can just proceed. Sure, ma'am. In fact, Mr. Schwann, what would your views be on this? What do you think are the most important skills? And of course, being a part of Oman, I believe that you would also be meeting students of a range of different cultures and countries. And I'm sure they come from different perspectives in such an environment. What do you think are the different skills that are essential? Thank you for that question, Aranj. First of all, my apologies. I have not been able to really meet very many students. I have interacted with quite a few Omani students, though, and their perspective is a little different. At the same time, I would say they are the group that actually, you know, strive to very loving by nature, I must say, the entire Omani people. But because we are in Indian school and we are here, one of the 21 Indian schools and the second largest, we have quite a prominent role to play and we are leaders in many ways. But like I said at the start, when you introduced me, I'm here to learn a lot. But at the same time, since you pose this question of skills, I would basically put them under three broad headings, you know, we're talking about learning skills, literacy skills and the life skills is what I would categorize them broadly. And as Mr. Neeraj had said very clearly, empathy is very, very important there. And you're talking about the fact that life skills are kind of, you know, we really cannot teach them that out of a book. I mean, it's also the fact that you meet people, you collaborate with them, you communicate with them, you exchange ideas, and then you see, you use your eyes to see what's happening around you as it's happening around the world. And this very fact that, you know, this event has brought so many of us together. We are here sharing of views and thoughts on the common platform is really encouraging. And yes, these are some of the so-called, you know, skills that I would be always looking forward to and encouraging our students to probably kind of, you know, pick up and kind of, you know, brush up. So we're looking at, like I said, the three broad headings. Technology would be another one. I would put forward as a very important thing today. Without technology, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing right now. You need that very much, you know, and so along with some very important life skills, technology, and of course, like the four C's we were talking about, you know, critical thinking, being creative and innovative to be able to collaborate and communicate. Those are the most important skills for me. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Sean. Dr. Vora is your internet better. Ma'am, would you like to answer this question you were answering? And I apologize. I had to cut you short. I can try my luck. I don't know whether you can hear me. I can hear you perfectly now. So empathy is number one for me because, you know, like, I was telling you that if you've had some difficult conversations, whenever somebody starts with, oh, I can understand how you feel, but, and that first bit of the sentence put you at ease. So definitely empathy is much needed than lifelong learning because in the new technological development, new academic practices which emerge in the market and in the education at a very, very high speed. I feel that, you know, like a person needs to completely reinvent and relearn whatever one has learned all the way. So that's the second thing that I would put across. What would be problem solving? Why? Because, you know, I think we be confront problems all the time. And if we teach students, you know, like how to put your points across, you know, like, and then kind of eliminate what works and doesn't work one by one, right? At the right kind of situations, problem solving is very important. Fourth, I would say would be resilience and who would understand resilience more now, you know, like we've seen very fine times in the past few months. So yes, in trying times like today's resilience is a well-appreciated skill and that helps one adapt oneself to any kind of adversity or problems. And fifth one, the last one I would say, opportunity leverages through technology and I'm putting four things together. One is making use of the opportunities, very, very important and using technology to do that because say what are we doing? We are trying to connect, we are trying to collaborate, we are trying to come together with the help of technology. And then, then COVID to on one side and we're putting on the other. So this is what we're doing is that technology is very, very important. We have to have the kind of skill in spoons where they quickly use technology to overcome any hurdle, any problem that they come across. So quickly I've listed five skills for you and incidentally, Incidentally, empathy is E and Elpro starts with E, life from learning is L, that is the second better than trouble solving is the P there, resilience is the R and O is for opportunity which we can leverage through technology. Thank you. Thank you so much Dr. Hora that was so succinctly summarized for us through Elpro and Elpro keeps bringing these kinds of opportunities and we are so grateful for them. We have talked about Elpro as an acronym for five important skills for Dr. Vora, Dr. Mr. Schwann spoke about the importance of technology and the importance of adaptability. Mr. Bhargav talked about something very important, the ability to appreciate differences, the ability to understand the importance of environmental sustainability. So we have had a range of skills that have been spoken about and now like to talk about another very important point of nurturing a 21st century global citizen. At the end of the day, if we are to nurture global citizens that has to be integration taking place among educational systems that needs to be, you know, a cohesion in what is being taught to students in Brazil and what is being taught to students in India and across the world. And while there are many such steps effectively being taken by governments by educational institutions, some of which are seated right here today. I'd like to ask you that if we really were to take this to a much larger scale. What are the ways in which we can promote integration of educational systems across the world and in fact further student integration. I would like to ask this question to a legendary education is seated with us. Angela French you've been across the world you've been you've seen different educational systems. I'm sure you've seen the differences. If you could shed light on some of these differences and how you believe we can cause further integration that'll be great. I'm not sure I can give you answers about how they can be integrated. It's a huge question because of course we have so many different cultural backgrounds historical backgrounds we have different government views and they change every four years and so on and so but I think one of the interesting things that came across from Claire's talk was how you can make a difference when you're really very young. And I think the opportunity that you have set out here is giving people that chance because sitting in isolation whether you're in Brazil or you're in Oman or wherever you are, you have a very limited perspective of life. As a young person, probably you're in the best place possible to get a sense of what is going on in other countries because you lack the inhibitions, and perhaps some of the social niceties that adults are forced to take, because you just get on with it. When you talk to each other, you have fun with each other and you learn about differences that perhaps you didn't realize existed. I remember asking the question of some students about where they would like to study and they said, Oh, Britain and America and then I asked them and have any of you been there or seen a film about it and none of them had. And I did they just had a bit of a perception a dream of what this other place was like, but this opportunity is giving them the chance to see what real children are like in other countries, and that they have the same issues and they have the same anxieties and they have the same aspirations as other people do. And from that, perhaps they will begin to shape the decision makers whether it's through the school or eventually through Claire and through the political parties, they will make the changes. I don't think it's going to come top down. I think it's going to come bottom up from the children realizing what is available and how they would like to shape their futures. That's a very different take we're talking about a bottom up approach and actually allowing students to define their trajectories with of course a lot of focused approaches being provided by school leaders educators and global leaders to carry what are your views on this. You have been working on a lot of opportunities for integration I know there is a collaboration that exists even between Elpro International School Pune and whopping high school. I know that you have done a lot to get a lot of these global educators together today. What do you believe are steps that can be taken to further integration. I'm glad you've asked me this. And actually Angela, it's no surprise to me that we would completely and immediately aligned you know we, I totally agree that it's a bottom up approaches best really politicians aren't best place to decide what's best for the future to be young people I don't think they are it's about communities and and those young people have voices and they tell their parents some of which are MPs as we heard from Claire before and that's how we find out about what amazing things are going on and it's leaders putting them in those positions which create those opportunities which leads to that giant voice everywhere. I just want to give you an example of what I've done at my school. And other schools do around the world is that we have a wonderful organization in Britain called the British Council, who have been absolutely super friends to whopping high school my school and they actually fully funded a trip to New York for about 12 of my year eight students supported by staff. And up to that, you know, sadly the journey didn't happen because of COVID but the money's in the bank waiting for it to actually happen in the future. But what's come from that partnerships between children. It's not about me connecting to the principal over there in Manhattan. It's actually more about the children sharing their projects and they're learning together. Which is really, really exciting and Elpro and ourselves and your cells and ourselves. We've been starting to do that already and that's what this will lead on to. So there are opportunities as Angela, you know, says that we can take now to get that, you know, first taste of what it's like beyond their own context, beyond their town, their village, their city. And that's super exciting. And we need to listen to them and we need to take the opportunities which come from things like social media and the press generally and tell our stories everywhere. My senior assistant headteacher Nicolette Sauber, who's been huge in connecting us with Elpro and everybody else here is I call her Mrs Twitter because she's always on Twitter sharing amazing stories about what's happening at the school. And you could be, you know, if you're cynical, you could say that's great marketing for us, but it's not marketing. It's just saying the right things to the right people and hopefully getting that message out there. Now I'm glad, and I shall say it again that you asked me this particular question, you know, the opportunities today are fast and we need to make sure we take them. Thank you so much, Gary. I guess questions attract the right people to so I guess both of us are blessed with that you made my job easier. Let's move on to another very important part of this topic. In fact, let's talk about this event we named this event and I'm very proud of the name actually. The name of the event is Panjia, which is a figurative concept, which hasn't been scientifically proven, but is believed to have existed about 1000 years or so back. We're talking about a uniform landmass thousands of years ago in fact, talking about a uniform landmass unity in many ways, you know, promoting the themes of compassion and collaboration and building a double village. You know, the short span of my life of 30 years I am quite certain that growing up, you know, there was a discourse and I think political discourse goes through its cycles. There was this discourse of globalization growing up. I remember the importance being given to globalization during my first few years in school and college being excessive at times you know we actually used to make fun of the word globalization in some of the classes that we had because we just heard that moving forward in today's times you know when we talk about political discourse, it's become a little bit more about nation first across the West and for that matter even across Asia. And I'm sure that irrespective of what we are doing as educators, some of the discourse that exists in society has an indelible mark leaves an indelible mark on students. Lord David, how do you believe we can promote this theme of compassion and collaboration among our students without externalities political externalities coloring their mindsets. Thank you very much. Well, young people are in a context where they are saturated and unindated with issues from around the world with new technologies with multiplying media, etc. So I think it's up to us as educators to teach them cross cultural awareness for example, which some of the panel have covered before. I think that's really important to understand all of the religions in detail so that you can appreciate and respect other cultures. I think that's very important. I also think that it's important that our children have the opportunity to study abroad. In the UK we have just under half a million international students studying in the United Kingdom. Now isn't that fantastic? Maybe because we have some of the best universities in the world, but nevertheless, the idea of children being able to study abroad. I think is such an important context to becoming a global citizen, to experience different cultures, different, I'm afraid, education methodology, which really helps us understand the world and make it much easier when we grow up to be able to communicate, to deal with, and be involved with different cultures, different countries. So as a brief summary, I think that's very important. You've covered all these skills that are necessary to become a global citizen and that has to be part of the curriculum that we teach in education these days. Thank you so much, Lord David. I'd like to pose this question to Angela as well. Angela, what are your views as an educator on this question? What are the things that educators can do and ensure that polarization and some of the political externalities do not affect the globalised characteristics of students? I'm struggling with the question a little bit actually. I think... Nobody's. We'll come back to you. We'll come back to you Angela. That's perfectly fine. Svetlana, I would like to ask you. There are a lot of different educational systems and practices that we see across the world. What are some of the very unique educational practices which are culturally oriented in Brazil that you would like to share with the rest of the panel and probably believe that can be integrated into specific cultural systems and educational systems in their countries too? Well, I think one of the things which is very present in our culture, which I was very happy to also see the students in India share the same, is music. The presence of music is always something very positive. Music in our country has represented several political movements throughout the decades, the past decades. Brazilians have actually created something very unique during the 60s and 70s. We had dictatorship in our political system and through music there was some kind of a dialect that was developed using typical Brazilian Portuguese language words to actually mean other things. So if you, I would just give you a very simple example, if you talked about lions, then you were talking about a certain person. And it was such a great political protest movement. I admire this so greatly because the politicians during that time there was a list of words, for example, which were not permitted to be used in certain music that were being composed. So the art movement, the artists of our country, they got together and they developed their own dialect using simple words, which definitely meant different things. So this is just one example of how music has been present in our educational system to mean different things. And also throughout music there has been several movements of sensitizes the society to different kinds of needs that we need to put together. A few years ago during the 80s and 90s, we had a great shortage of rain in the northeast of Brazil. It was throughout music that we made it available to all kinds of people and a huge movement was made as well in order for us to help this area of the country. Music has been something very present also in the last few years as political voices as well of the youngsters from slums in Rio de Janeiro very using various kinds of languages, which I, you know, it's not a matter of whether one particularly agrees to the way it's being done or not, but it has to be recognized that it reflects what's been going on in our society. So I would think one very unique aspect would be music. Of course, it's a very complex country and different and other aspects also have influence, but that would be one thing that I think, and we fully intend to use it inside Ayadeh school as well in order to bring positive outcomes as well. Thank you so much that Lana that's very interesting and how music has inspired so many different movements politically and otherwise to I think that's very interesting and how it's being integrated into education. Yes, I know growing up in India, music has played an integral role in the diversity of music to but I think it's very important when we talk about 21st century skills when we talk about multiple intelligences. Nicholas, I'd like to ask you the same question in fact very curious to know about certain educational practices in Sweden which are unique and which the rest of the world can learn from. I think when it comes to education, you must know that one size doesn't fit all every student is unique and you have to cater for that insight. It's easy to say but it's hard to handle that comes from school on this is one of the key elements. This is the spectacles every teacher needs to wear in our school. Sometimes people say you have to treat every student the same way. If you don't you are unfair for me it's the other way around. When you treat every child in the same way, then it's when you start to act unfairly. So for too many years the educational system has been on the school organizations to go now it's time to organize education for the students to agree. I think this is an insight that we have in Sweden that you should actually take care of each and every plant and really care for them. Thank you so much Nicholas I think that's a very deep thought a very important thought one size doesn't fit all I think the importance of personalized student attention and education is going to go a long way in ensuring that we have the well nurtured 21st century global citizens. Let's move this discussion to a different viewpoint now and like to ask Mrs. Kambhata we've talked about all of these 21st century skills that are important. We've talked about integration. Let's talk about some of the skills or trades that we'd like to keep students away from Mrs. Kambhata if I ask you you know there are of course a lot of things that we focus on keeping students away from. But if we really want to make them the ideal 21st century global citizens. What do you think are the skills that we really need to keep them away from today. Thank you that's a very very interesting question not one I certainly hadn't thought about absolutely love what Nicholas and Sweat Lana Sweat Lana yeah absolutely absolutely echo those thoughts. What would I keep students away from I think the one thing that they get distracted by very very easily is falling trapped to the vagaries of social media if I may say that. And therefore you know to equip them with that self self of that sense of self management where they know enough is enough or that's not a rabbit hole I want to go down. I think to my mind that's really really important I think that's a skill we don't we don't explicitly teach self management because if they understand the skill of self management then they know how to regulate themselves. And then whether it's social media or the you know anything else that they want to avoid. I think that's that's really key. I also want to make the distinction between values and skills here. And I think you know we live in a land where the value system here is very akin to that back home. So the Arabs and the Indians both have very very high family values and a sense of respect. And I think that and service learning services built into our culture and that comes easily to us. But I think Sheikh Mohammed said it very rightly when he said and that's something I really would keep children away from. In one of his latest books he said very very well said he says my ancestors, you know, brought in the back of a camera. I drive with Cadillac or Mercedes, but I wouldn't be surprised if my grandchildren are back on the camel again. He says because they're having it too easy. And he says, I would definitely want my children not to fall into that trap, you know, of having everything so easy that they don't understand so resilience Amrita's are for resilience in Elbrough. I think the grit Angela Duckworth's work on body of work on grit and resilience I think is worth inculcating in our children and keeping them away from that trap of easy easy come easy go luxury. And all the rest of it. It's so easy to get sucked into that kind of lifestyle and how do we allow them to enjoy it and yet be mindful that you know it's not a role. We don't live in. I mean this is not going to last forever if we don't take care of it. So to need a just point of sustainability. I think these are really key things to be to enable them to you know understand what's really important piece to self manage and to identify, you know, the grain from the from the chef. It's so much Mrs. combata for such an articulate answer. She talked about the importance of ensuring students don't miss use privilege, don't misuse the concept of entitlement, the importance of making them aware of the vagaries of social media so that technology is used really. And as far as this is concerned, you know one of the things that I was very strongly thinking about when I was coming up with questions for this panel discussion is the diversity in educators and educational systems across the globe and one of the aspects when we talk about diversity is the volumes. So when we talk about number of students in schools, especially in places like the Abu Dhabi Indian School or Gems Modern Academy or Elpro International School Pune, I can say with utmost conviction that it's relatively higher than some of the schools in Europe and South America too. So I'd like to ask you Mr. Bhargava and I'll pose the same question to Mr. Schwann thereafter. So when we talk about 21st century skills, the importance of personalized attention personalized student attention it is definitely more of a mammoth task in schools with these kinds of volumes and diversity. Come from one of the best schools in Middle East and Asia too. So how is it that we work on it? How is it that we ensure the level of personalization while ensuring we get it to such a large mass of students? That's a big challenge and a question put to me. Yes, I have a huge number. I have 5000 children in the school with 320 teachers. So a biggest challenge for the head is the man management. Yes, to cater to the requirement of each child. The foremost thing is the staff should be well trained to understand. You see the delegation of the work and empowering the teachers to take care as an individual for each of those children who are under them. It's very important. The staff has to be sensitized for the requirement of the children. Yes, they do take some time to learn but they learn by dealing with them day to day and of course because the class size is not all that big. You see the class size still remains the number may be big. It's a challenge for as a head to control 5000 but as a teacher they still have 30 in the class of 25 or 20 depending upon the sections. So the work of the teacher is still the same but very important is that we need to empower them to understand very importantly that what is the requirement of each child. And fortunately the staff or my school has been well trained and they really take care and that is the collective effort of everybody. The result is what we are today or what the school stands for. That's my dig. Thank you so much Mr. Bargav. I can definitely vouch for that and I'm sure that you know the importance of man management when we are talking about schools that are almost as big as townships in certain parts of the world. I think it's very important the importance of understanding the needs of students and of course ensuring that teachers and staff are well trained to understand the requirements to Mr. What would you like to say in this regard? Excuse me. I would agree with what Mr. Neeraj just said. We are a school with 6000 students and like I said at the start we are the second largest school in Oman and with 360 staff. We have the principal we have four vice principals and each one of us you know has our own share. So the thing is our staff have been trained to kind of ensure you know as far as possible that we try and identify children who are in the room during the lesson. We don't you know so to say frequently ask the same child the questions over and over again. Yes teaching is a part of you know interaction but that interaction shouldn't only happen with one child. We range it right across you know. Secondly what happens is during the class when they are given a certain task and they are doing it the teacher ensures that she moves around or he moves around and then each and every child is picked up. End of the class again those left over I said call the side you don't have to wait for the child to come to you the teacher calls them aside. It may not happen in every class but yes we do do this on a periodic you know away from time to time and the children do feel that there is a connection. There used to be a time when we used to kind of hear from parents saying my child is not getting the attention sir and so and so is happening. He's feeling neglected. He's feeling demoralized wants to answer questions all these kind of things you know so we began to rethink looked at it and we started this practice and believe me it works. But yes as Mr. Neeraj said we have big classroom 4045 in the room and to do that it's not easy but like I said in every lesson it may not happen but the teacher keeps a check. She keeps a note and so it moves in that way and it's been pretty successful for us. Thank you so much. Monir if you're there I'd like to ask you one question actually. We have often talked about Afghanistan and we have talked about you know there are a lot of different countries across the globe which unfortunately are you know facing certain economic upheavals. Afghanistan is one of those countries that actually is heavily dependent on foreign aid especially for furthering educational motivations of the country. There are often a lot of situations where students when we talk about 21st century skills a very important skill that we talk about is capacity building at the youth thinker society you're talking about capacity building you're trying to develop this among students. How is it that you go about this process with students from extremely backward sections of society. Monir. Yeah hi sorry I'm missing some issues with my internet. So what happens in Afghanistan is that currently the donor countries they have invested hugely on education apart from the military. They have hugely invested in education among them are the countries like USA UK Japan. The World Bank Asian Development Bank and some other European countries including India. In Pakistan they have invested a lot in the education sector as per them and as per the reports when in 2001 there were like very few girls in the school but right now they have more than 3 million girls in the school. That's an achievement for the government and the donors when it comes to capacity building. So what most of the donor countries are doing which I am one of the beneficiaries. They provide different scholarships to students of high school so that they can continue their education in other country like India is sponsoring more than 1000 students annually. They study their bachelor's degree, their master's degree and their PhD in India likewise in Pakistan and also through the Fulbright program in the US. They are providing more than 60 scholarships annually and in the same case it is happening with a lot of other countries that are there. UK have achievement scholarship and some other scholarships that are happening in Afghanistan. So when it comes to the remote areas of Afghanistan we don't talk about the cities because in the cities people have access to learning English or learning some other skills in order to make them eligible for this scholarship. Because every scholarship comes with a requirement for them to be able to be eligible for this concept. They have to equip themselves with that knowledge say English, mathematics and other subjects. But then it comes to the rural part of the country where I have travelled so many times in order to train them for some specific skills. When you travel them it's very difficult for them to speak in English so you have to actually design the program or the curriculum in such a way that is in their local languages for the schools or for the international partners or for the international donors. For them to reach those places or those rural parts of Afghanistan first they have to actually establish a learning center in English and then they can actually invest in other scholarships. It is quite difficult but slowly and it's taking so much time for those who are in far places to get equipped with the English or just to make sure that they can communicate with these things. And there are some certain scholarships that they will be in their own language like in Russia, they study in Russia, in Kazakhstan or in Central Asia. They study in Russian or in Turkey and so many universities they study in Turkey. So what they do is that they take the students from here and they provide like one year study in local language and then they send them for the university. And also in so many universities in Central Asia as well as in India, in Pakistan what they do is that they take the students in those countries and they give them a one year course in English and then they start the actual degree. So these are the ways that international partners can actually join in helping the students because it's a good opportunity that I may say this that because I see a lot of school principals here and those who are managing education. It would be nice if there could be platforms or there could be ways where students can go for exchange programs in school students if they can go for exchange programs in India or any other country. For them it would be quite a nice experience and they could come back. For instance, we had once an experience through youth thinker society where we have sent around a batch of seven batches of seven people who were all students to different countries. So that program was to attend a model year conference, which is also a learning experience so they actually learn a lot from what's happening in the globally different countries when they came back to Afghanistan they actually brought that knowledge back and now we're seeing a lot of activities in different universities. So these are the ways that different schools can help from around the country. We definitely work on that. I'm sure a lot of schools would love to collaborate with you on these pointers as well and we'll definitely talk about that in due course. We have actually overshot time by close to 20 minutes but you know we've had such amazing discussions with school leaders and we probably have time for two to three more questions before we move on to the ask me anything with educators from across the globe. My sincerest apologies to all of you for the delay in starting this event but we've just had such an amazing discussion and we've had so many leaders joining us it would be injustice to not get their views on a range of questions. Gary, would you like to add to what money was saying I see your hand. Thank you and I just want to follow on from the near there. You know I'm sure everybody feels the same you know the challenges Afghanistan is facing. We all want to support and find ways to connect and give opportunities to students in Afghanistan and in all the colleagues countries I'm sure that I can speak for everybody confidently there. I just want to point you know my own you know kind of connection to you now and say I would love to personally connect to you and look at opportunities how you could connect to my school in the centre of London, because I think there's a brilliant opportunity for my students to learn from yours and the children that you connected to learn from ours and we will talk about exchange and I mentioned earlier mania about the British Council, they've been magnificent in terms of funding and so on so let's talk please. Thank you so much Gary I think that really means a lot to money and will definitely connect both of you to take this forward. One question that I'd like to ask considering we are talking about English and languages. I think this question is most pertinent to you Angela you relate to this the most you spent your life, spreading English across different parts of the global so Atlanta has spoken about you so formally even before this event started off. How important do you think is it not to simply learn English but there are a lot of these languages that are globally spoken. How have you seen students transform through the learnings in different languages, specifically English in your case. Yes, I can only speak about specifically English and what's really important for me with language and the, as long as I've been in communication and communication through language, the more I realize that what you say isn't often what people here. The most important message is to listen. And if you don't understand to have the humility to ask. So that's my strongest message about communication. Make sure you really understand what somebody is saying. And if you don't think you've got it right, ask again. I have seen in terms of change and it's not so much with students it's more to do with teachers actually around the world there's a huge number of teachers who are obliged to teach English or another language but they don't actually have the skills themselves to do it. And they feel threatened because they don't feel skilled up to do it. And especially these days with technological advances and then being asked to use some new system that they are not only challenged linguistically but also technologically. And that has a huge impact on their confidence. So one of the things that I have noticed when you get teachers involved in learning whichever language it happens to be within a very short space of time, they begin to realize they can do it. And that has a huge impact on their confidence and that confidence then of course is translated through the classrooms to the teacher to the children. It's absolutely essential that you invest in your teachers to make sure that they have the confidence to carry things forward. And also it's absolutely essential that you make sure that the children realize the power of good communication. It's interesting Nicholas early and several people have said how important the skill of critical thinking is. And I think in the past critical thinking used to be applied to problem solving engineering and so on. But these days actually critical thinking is applied to communication and being able to read the messages and to read what is a genuine message and what is misinformation. So communication these days has gone completely wild in terms of what is out there and how it's being delivered and whether it's true or it isn't. But to be able to see into the truth, you have to be able to be a master of the language as well, even your own language. Thank you so much, Angela. I think that's a very deep and thought provoking statement that you have made. You know, it's very important to understand different aspects of what you have said. Sweatlana I think wants to add and we have time for a very quick comment before we go to Dr. Vora to conclude this entire panel discussion. Thank you so much, Anesh. I'll just be very, very brief and saying that you know I at Angela is is heads a project with the which is a perfect example of what can be done, you know, with a cats which is this English language learning course that we brought to Brazil. We have created opportunities here, which can't be measured. I'll give you a very good example that we had here today. We have Francisco Romano, who has been a student of this program that was actually a very generous donation from from CMEDT from the UK to a program that we are running here in Brazil. He has recently graduated his English skills have improved so much that he was able to visit Angela in Cambridge last year. And today he works with us. He is actually participating in the Pandia project. He is one of the coordinators there. And this is a great example of how important these these initiatives are. Yeah, so I just want to register that as as a solid example of what can be done and is actually being done. And thank you so much. Thank you so much for sharing that Svetlana. I'm sure Angela has been doing a tremendous work across the globe and she's deeply respected at Elpa International School, India too. Thank you so much everyone once again.