 A very good evening, good afternoon and good morning to all our guests and dignitaries. It's just so amazing that we have, you know, managed to find a common ground where thought leaders from across the world have joined us from different time zones. Also, a very warm welcome to all the audiences who are joining us live via Facebook from India, UK, Brazil and the Middle East. My name is Sugandha and I head the Communications and International Collaborations at El Pro International School and I consider myself extremely fortunate to be hosting this event. As today's show unfolds, we will all learn why this is so special and what we have set out to achieve. I would now like to introduce Skillsphere Education, the extended family of El Pro International School. Anand Prasad, the founder and MD, and I really graduate from Cornell who set out to pursue his passion in biving relatable skill sets in young individuals, thus coming up with Skillsphere Asia's largest skill-based organization. Joining him today is Ashi Chandalia, the manager of training and design and Ananshi's deputy. Ashi, without any further ado, I now request you to take over and continue with the proceedings. Most importantly, introduce our Chief Guest for today, who I am sure the audiences are waiting to listen to. Over to you, Ashi. Thank you so much for the lovely introduction, Sugandha Ma'am. It is truly an honor to be a part of such an apt and valuable event. I'm extremely grateful for this opportunity to interact with someone who has had such a huge impact in making decisions that now transform the world. And not just that. The fact that I'm able to have this conversation in front of such an august gathering from around the world really makes me wonder if Pangea, the supercontinent that once existed, ever broke up as its initial theory suggests. Our guest today is someone very special to the Elpro International School. Apart from being an advisor to the school, he is also a British publisher, entrepreneur and philanthropist. As a member of the House of Lords in the UK, he sits as a labour peer and also holds a number of chairminships that span across printing, business consultancy, charity and healthcare. Following the sale of Centurion Press, he co-founded Senate Publishing Limited, which produces publishing and communication platforms for governments, major corporates and leading financial institutions. He currently serves as senior advisor to Ron Waheed, chairman of Arkinam Global, a global strategic intelligence company and a subsidiary of Menjagian Investment Holdings. The audience may not know this, but we owe him a special vote of thanks for being here because he's joining us from Barbalos where it's 7.30 a.m. in the morning. Lord Gavir, you have truly donned various hats, but in my opinion, it's your modesty, kindness and laughter that truly set you apart. So without further ado, please help me welcome our guest of honour, Barron Evans of What's Up. Welcome, sir. Thank you so much, I'm very flattered and very grateful and indeed very honoured to be here with all the educators, the parents and the students of so many schools that do such a good job. So I'm delighted to meet you all and I look forward to being asked difficult questions, which I hope I can answer. And I just thought I'd start with talking about our favourite subject, the C-word and lockdown. Like most of you in London, we've been in lockdown for a very long time on and off. Last year, I was in lockdown along with millions of others for around six months and I was surprised how much more I could do working from home. Maybe I've been lunching too much or whatever. But I was able to prepare a book on health care in London, which is my third edition, I beg your pardon, and also attend Parliament virtually, which is not so much fun because usually I meet with my colleagues for tea in the afternoon and we solve of course all the problems of the world every day if only people would listen to us, but never mind and I'm, of course, I enjoy Parliament and I call it now functional rather than as fulfilling as it was. But you're the educators here will know exactly what I mean by that. I've enhanced my cooking skills. You'd be surprised how I've expanded my gastronomic abilities. And I've also set up a new company, which is called Global Health Assured. And what is that? Well, it's an organisation that inspects, advises and certifies establishments, airlines, etc., as being healthy, clean, as practicable for people to visit. And of course, that's vitally important. If you take the terrible effect on the hospitality industry, we think it's absolutely vital to make sure that when the greater public go back to visiting other countries, as I'm sure we're all looking forward to, they can do that And we have a team of experts from the health and the health and safety industries to help us and I'm pleased to say that that's going well. It's really interesting and I've learned such a lot about COVID-19 and indeed health and safety. So we have an environmental health officer or two and we're starting to inspect establishments ready for the great day when we get back to the new normal, whatever that is. But so that's what I've been doing just recently. And I think I better stop talking and let hand over and let you ask me some questions. So we are so honored to hear you. So I think that's really not a problem. But you mentioned about the virtual shift already. You mentioned how you've really learned so many different things. And I think that's been all of us really, the fact that we transitioned online, I think that was the biggest learning, especially for us educators. So a lot has changed in the world, as you also rightly mentioned. But if you could highlight some changes that have happened in the world that aren't spoken enough about, we'd love to hear a lot more from you on that. OK, thank you very much. That's a good question. I mean, the most important thing, I guess, is that over two million people have died from COVID-19 and that's shocking, isn't it? So we have to bear that in mind. And just to be a little controversial, the governments and the police forces and intelligent offices of the world have more power now because by necessity, we've had to abide by changes in our way of living, our cultures, our constitution, which affects all of us. It's fine, you know, for those of us in a Western democracy, and indeed India, I'm sure that would change. But it does worry me. And I think it's something to think about. Are we going to get all of those freedoms we've enjoyed over many years? Are we going to get them all back? Or is the government going to take longer than usual? Because they may have enjoyed the status where we're having to do what we're told. So that's just something to think about. And it's a change that isn't talked about much, but I think is very important. So we ought to be aware of that. So let's talk about how we got here, what's happened. Over the last decade, the pace of innovation and productivity hasn't been that exciting. And one of the good points and silver lining, if you like, of this COVID pandemic is that we've had to react much more quickly to innovation. And of course, the obvious subject there is the speed of the innovation on producing vaccines, not just the Oxford University AstraZeneca vaccine, which is a conventional vaccine, but the Moderna and the Pfizer vaccines, which of course are a totally new concept. And as you know, normally vaccines take 10 to 20 years. And this has been done in a year, albeit there was work on the concept before, so I think that's very exciting. It's necessity sometimes brings out the best results for all of us. And to see that progress in innovation, I think is very exciting for the future. And just to go back, let's just for a moment, consider all the things that you as educators and parents and students know quite well. In the 18th century, we had the Industrial Revolution, where we had mechanized factories. In the 19th century, railways, electricity, population moving to cities away from farming, etc. And in the 20th century, we've had cars, planes, modern medicines, and let's not forget washing machines, which have liberated so many people at home. Now, the reasons to think now that things are going to get better when it comes to investment and innovation. There's, as I said, the success of the messenger RNA vaccines. There's robotic surgery, which is really coming on nano drugs. Energy costs are coming down. Now, that's a surprise, isn't it? With wind power and solar energy. And there's a lot being done on climate control in the UK. I think we're doing well. We're putting a lot of money and effort into improving our climate with electric cars, etc. And I'm hopeful that the new technology that's coming through will make a big difference. Now, as those of us who lived in London will know, during the lockdown, the atmosphere in London was so much better. You could actually sit on the balcony and breathe pure air, which was so lovely and so enjoyable that I'm sure it really hit home to everyone how it very important climate control is. So I'm very excited about that. I mean, even China says they have promised to be carbon neutral by 2060, which is pretty amazing given that the world's largest polluter who said that. Now, there are, of course, other implications of what's happening. There's artificial intelligence, which is very exciting. Again, good news and bad news. The good news is that it's going to improve the quality of our lives. The bad news is there's large concerns, big concerns about mass unemployment. I remember writing a poem about this when I said, are the beaches big enough to take us all? Will robots pay us not to work at all? And I think that's an interesting concept. How are we going to adapt to the new world, which is not that far away when artificial intelligence has already produced driverless cars? So we have a huge change in our cultures, in our way of life. I mean, will we need to learn to drive a car? Probably in 20 years or so, the answer is no. That's a change. And like the other revolutions I talked about earlier, that is going to change the way we live, the way we work. And it's quite exciting, as you know, going back to the Luddites, etc. There always seems to be other work that comes into play when you look at Amazon and distribution of food and other so-called essentials. That's made a huge difference. Amazon and the likes are buying up warehouse space in the United Kingdom like there's no tomorrow. Now, who would have thought that? And they're employing a lot of people, whether they're paying them enough is another question that that is highly relevant. So when we look at what's happening in the world today, there are significant changes in our way of life. I've talked about personal liberties, freedoms. I've covered the effect of artificial intelligence so far, just medically alone. I mean, I had an operation a few years ago that was robotic. OK, controlled by a highly skilled surgeon. And that's going to develop. Some of the diseases that we think are necessarily fatal today will become controllable, if not curable. So there are massive changes that are happening. So as I said earlier, adversity brings brings necessity for new inventions, and I'm very excited about that. There's some look at the changes to our way of life. Here we are at a video conference from a lot of different countries. And we're all used to it. We're all relaxed because we do it every day now, especially for the educators here, educating children, students at university, etc. It's not the same as it. It's not the same. But on the other hand, it is functional. I think students are missing the collegiate side of what they do. The social side, which is so important in making friends at university so that these become lifelong friends and contacts, let's face it, in life. So there have been terrific changes for you. And I know at the Elpro International School these have been incorporated and changed. But I do feel for both you and the children because in most kids, this is fine. But when it comes to children with learning difficulties, I think that has to be a problem because one to one teaching and coaching is so important to them and the progress that they make. So although, as I said, it's functional. I do look forward to a time when the children can be back at schools, when university students can be back. I have a son who's 21, as I said earlier. He's at Kings College studying international politics and it's working. He sat exams yesterday and I know that he misses seeing his friends at the college. So I'm going on too long. I'll stop for a while and let you ask another question. The outset of it, let me compliment you on your poem first because I think that's wonderful. You spoke about a range of things. You spoke about unemployment. You spoke about unemployment rather. You spoke about COVID, you spoke about vaccinations. Just the fact that we've all been sitting at home. You also spoke about how the UK has been talking about has been taking a lot of measures to combat climate change. And I think that's also wonderful. You know, but at this particular point, if you were to really look at the landmark moment that's really taken UK, it's Brexit. And a lot has been spoken about it. You know, there are a lot of views, but we would love to know a little more about it from you. Yeah, OK, well, I'm part of the 48 percent who voted for it to remain. So my my views are coloured. Of course, I'm delighted that the United Kingdom and the European Union were able to reach an agreement of sorts. I think it's quite a thin agreement, as my leader, Keir Starmer, has said. It obviously it's better than not having an agreement because zero tariffs, in most cases, are very beneficial. But it's going to slow us down. The forecast in the next 10 years of that is that our economy will shrink by 4 percent. Now, when you compound that over the time of when of how we were doing, I'm very disappointed that we're in that stage. Now, call me cynical. People, Brexiteers say this is a great opportunity for the United Kingdom, where we will be able to expand trade with the Commonwealth, for example, and that includes India, necessarily. But I'm worried about it. I think we've seen some teething problems. Let's call it that with distribution already where the confusion over products that have to be made in the United Kingdom, a percentage of them. And when we're all in a world where we have a global supply chain and that makes life very difficult and it's already causing problems, for example, Northern Ireland with the border situation there. So excuse me for being cynical, but I think it was a big mistake and I can see a time in the future when we go back in. But that's because I started a business that had branches in Amsterdam, in Düsseldorf, in Copenhagen. We did a lot of work exporting to Greece and the Middle East. And I remember how easy that was being as part of the European Union. That said, there are trade agreements now. We have a trade agreement with Japan, I'm sure you would have read about. So there are opportunities. The big question mark is the United States, where we obviously a new president is very pro Irish, which my grandmother was Irish, so I don't mind that. But nevertheless, we can't expect the same sort of treatment that we used to have with the United States. Our biggest trading partner, obviously, is the European Union. We're 49 percent of our trade going to the EU. So I think it's a backwards step. I think there will be challenges. I'd like to think the British people and entrepreneurs will react well to those challenges, where an inventive nation historically and we are leading the world in some aspects of AI, etc. So sorry, that's a complicated answer. But that's my view, a personal view on what's happening. Absolutely, I do second some part of it that in some ways, a decision that could have probably been made in a slightly different way, I think would have benefited both the parties in that sense. But I think at this point, having a deal was more important than just... Yes. But having said that, sorry, you were saying something. No, not at all. It was absolutely vitally important. And it was, as you know, agreed at the last moment on the 23rd of December. And I was very relieved that it was agreed. There are some aspects, for example, financial services that have not been covered as yet. And financial services, the City of London, is a very important part of our GDP and our trading and reputation, etc. And in the first week of January, something like 50% of euro shares were moved from the City of London to Paris, Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Understandably, if you were running the European Union, what would you want? I mean, we'd left the club. And they certainly don't want to encourage other countries in the European Union to leave. So they're not going to make it easy for us. It's not, as Brexit is predicted, going to be easy. Of course, it isn't. We're the ones that have left. On the other hand, we're a very interesting market for the European Union because we import much more from the EU than we export to. So by necessity, one, we're a neighbour. I think we're a good neighbour. People say the UK is always awkward. Well, we are a bit. We're an island nation. We're a bit independent. We're living in the past more than we should be, in my view. And yeah, we can be awkward. We can be stubborn. On the other hand, we do contribute very well on things like defence. We're up there with the top people on the percentage of our GDP that we allocate to defence, which I think is a really good thing. And as compared to other countries, we are very strong in NATO, for example, and other European institutions. I was sorry as part of the settlement that students coming to and from Europe into the United Kingdom for education, that's been scrapped. And our Prime Minister has said that he will make it much more international. Well, I hope he does. I hope he sticks by that because I think it would be very good for our children, our students, to have the experience of being educated and the experience of being in other countries as the same way it is for all of your children to come to the United Kingdom. We have some of the best universities in the world. I'm being patriotic now, but I think that's true. And we're in a global village, which is what this curtain race is all about. And part of that global village is that our children should have the opportunity of working in other parts of the global village. Again, sir, some very interesting points made by you. If I'm not wrong, I think 30% of, you mentioned about how UK is actually one of the biggest importers from EU. And I think 30% of food really is coming in from EU as well. So I think there's a big market there. And having said that, of course, a lot of things could have again been much different. But as you said, eventually that the PM Boris Johnson has also opened UK for a lot of international markets and students. I think that is in some way great because it opens its doors to a lot of other countries now. India also being one of them. And we hope to have better days in the future. And I'm sure we will with the way we are going ahead. So, sir, that brings me to the next question. What according to you is the post Brexit UK going to be like? What is it going to look like? That's a very interesting question. We are going to have to produce more of our own food. I think that's an important issue and a big opportunity where our small and large farmers need to change the way we produce. We won't have the European Union subsidies for, in some cases, not using the land for the purposes of agricultural, etc. So I think there's a big opportunity there for farming and food production in the United Kingdom. So that will change. Our emphasis, I hope, will be even more international when it comes to working with countries such as India and the other 54 Commonwealth countries. As you well know, it's a third of the world's population. It's 10% of all world trade. So there are a number of opportunities. I know that Baroness Patricia Scotland, who is Secretary General of the Commonwealth, is very keen. Patricia is going to be talking to us in the actual Pangea Conference and we'll ask her to talk about how she sees trade developing with other Commonwealth countries. I'm sure you know that if Commonwealth countries work together, they save money. They cut costs by doing so. So that's an area that is an opportunity. The big ones are on climate control, as I've discussed briefly. Artificial intelligence, where we are ahead of the game in R&D. So that will make a difference. I'm looking forward, as you said, for this international agreement on education and there will be opportunities for us to develop relations with countries that we traditionally dealt with but have because of the European Union restrictions and tariffs, we've not been able to do for some time. So I think there are a lot of opportunities that are really going to be coming in very soon and I think that's one positive way of looking at Brexit. So at this point, we're going to go on to a little different tangent and I'm going to talk about another recent development. A development that's taken place in the last one year, if I was to really say, and not very recent, but I think it is something that really affects us all and especially the ones present here today, and that is the rise of online education. So a lot has changed. Of course, the way we teach today can completely transform. So I would love to know a little more about it from you. You also mentioned that your son Ben is studying in King's College and I'm sure some most of his courses must be online at this point. So how has that transition been for you and him? Okay, well, let me talk about Ben first. He's studying at home. You have to be self-motivated, don't you, to do that when you don't have to go to listen to and learn the lectures. So that's working well. He's doing that studying for his exams, as I said, and writing lots of essays. So that's fine. As I covered briefly before, the thing that's missing is the collegiate side, the meeting fellow students discussing what's going on, what they think complaining about various aspects. That's all important to all of us, isn't it, when we're growing up, developing friendships that may last a lifetime, contacts that will be useful in all sorts of ways that when you're young, you don't realise may help you when you're older. So that's the downside. I've covered things like children at school with learning problems. I think that's a serious issue that I'd be interested in, the educators' view that are here today, what they think of that. I'm worried about it. However, we face adversity. We face a global pandemic. And we've had to change the way we work. And some of that is to the good. Illustrated by the fact that we're having a virtual conference today with so many scores from so many countries. So that's the good news. It has encouraged investment in communications technology. It's encouraged us all to almost a leap, if you like, into the future, where people my age, getting on, are able to work this amazing technology. I'm chairman of the Institute for Collaborative Working, where we work with a lot of large international companies in the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden, etc., where we were used to having regular seminars and conferences. And like all of you, we've had to change that. And we're running online conferences. We have a leadership course, which we're struggling with, actually, to teach lecture online. We're struggling with that. But we have share and learn, where we have share and learn sessions with a leading company in a sector, for example, defense or security or whatever, the the railway industry, etc. They're working very well. And that saves a lot of time, saves a lot of money. We start early in the morning and we'll have a three hour session. So start at 8 over by 11. Doesn't interfere too much with the days working for business. And yet gets over the points and we enable questions from the team, the group that are, for example, in defense. We had a lecture on on the police procurement, where we have a lot of different police forces buying their own material. Now, frankly, that's ridiculous. Because if you put all that procurement together, you must be able to save a lot of money. So we do things like that. So functional, but we're missing something. We're missing the networking opportunities that you have when you have a lecture. And that's very important. Sorry, contacts within an industry, within a sector are very important for information and indeed for expanding one's business. So would that answer your question? Yes, absolutely. To some way. I totally agree that you mentioned some demerits and I train some amazing kids. And I must say that I would desperately, I would go, I would take any opportunity to just be in a classroom at this point, because I terribly miss them. But having said that, yes, there are a lot of demerits in that sense, the screen time that children are exposed to, I think that is one big problem. But I think having said that, the merits are also far too long. I mean, the fact that again, as you mentioned, we can sit here, talk to each other, you sitting in Barbados, me in India, and of course, a wonderful audience from around the world. I think that's a possibility and a result of COVID. So I think you have something, we have something to thank COVID for. So I think in that sense, yes, there are some things that have resulted out of it. Many positive things that I believe in my opinion, at least a lot of positive things that have resulted out of COVID. And, you know, as you mentioned, the adversity, we've been able to tackle and emerge stronger than ever before. I think that itself is a great thing. Now, having said that again, we are here for Panjia. Panjia was a super continent once upon a time. And then of course, came the continental drift theory. And that's why we're far today. But if Panjia, if you were to talk about Panjia, how do you believe that something like Panjia exists even today, figuratively? And the reason I say that is because you're also sitting in front of the screen. And tell me, what do you personally think? Do you think it exists today, figuratively? Yes, I do. I think with the advantages of cheaper economic or international transport, with improved relations all around, that just because of the communications revolution, that's given us the opportunity to form friendships internationally much more than we did before. So I think Panjia, as you know, it was based on a super continent 335 million years ago, where most of the landmass of the earth was confined to one area around the equator. So I think it's an excellent name for a global village. And yes, I agree. I think there's a big opportunity to develop relations between different schools, different communities as we are today. And I'm very excited by it. So Panjia, I will be talking about the event very shortly, but you're a very well-travelled person. And I know this because I've interacted with you a few times and I also have heard a lot about you. So can you share any such instance where you experienced compassion, collaboration, just by traveling and just being able to talk to people from around the world? Yeah, when I was running my large company, I had offices in Amsterdam, Düsseldorf as I've covered. I found what really helped me was working in those environments. For example, I worked in Germany in Düsseldorf and I really learned a lot from the Germans. I love their work ethic and they were brilliant to work with. There was one occasion just to give you an idea. I was publishing magazines and our magazines hadn't been distributed. And I said, why? What's happening? And they said, it's in hand. And I said, no, what is happening? Tell me. And they said, well, we have a postal strike. I think they were so used to taking the Mickey out of the Brits with strikes at that time. They really didn't want to admit that they'd had a problem in posting out magazines. Which, of course, I laughed and I know I shouldn't have done because that's in their culture. They're great to work with. I work with a number of large German companies. So I really enjoyed it and I learned a lot. I learned the way they operate. And it led me to produce a manual on selling. It was based on a book called The Golden Rules of Customer Care, which I'd commend to everyone. It's a book about a car dealer in the United States. And at that time, garages used to close at five o'clock in the evening. And they'd leave your car with the key on a tire. So this dealer said, that's wrong. So he opened early in the morning. He always had loan cars available that people could use. He closed late in the evening. They would do things like repair a puncher for free. And that built customer loyalty. And that set me on thinking, what can I do to have points of difference in my service compared to what was going on at the time? So I produced a manual called The Golden Rules of Customer Care. The company was called Century Impress. And I've got to tell you that people I see now that used to work for me say, I'm still using your manual. And all I did was think about the market, how we could be different. How we could provide a service over a longer time. Over a longer time, we were always there. We had emergency numbers for very speedy response to printing. You remember printing inquiries? And that really helps us expand. And we became one of the largest print management companies in Europe, working for handling all of the printing for companies like Sainsbury's. In the United Kingdom. And in Holland, we work with a company called The Hamer, which is a value store. Producing four and a half million brochures every six weeks or so. So building up unique selling propositions. And how did I get to this? By developing relationships with people in other countries. Learning from them the points of difference in their service. Compared to what was happening at that time in the United Kingdom. So that's just an advantage. Just an example rather of how you can really improve your business. Your operating protocols. By having the help of people abroad. And I'm sure you'll find this in education. Where by the global village concept that you're implementing. That's going to help you all. Because we're all going to learn from it. Which is, I think, what this is all about. Does that answer your question? Absolutely sir. I mean, not David you mentioned about the book. I'm going to make sure I read that. And as far as your experiences are concerned. I think that makes you the perfect person to really launch Panjia. This is for our audience joining us today. Panjia is really a global conference. Where we've got kids from around the world. Participating in various competitions. In art competitions. In singing competitions. In case study competitions. But with the undertone of collaboration and compassion. And this is why it's a global village. And we're so honored to have all our dignitaries join us too. So at this point I'm going to quickly introduce our dignitaries to you. Lord David. But before I do that. Our lovely audience. If you have any question. Please you can populate them in our chat boxes. You can put it up on as comments as well. We'll be taking it up very soon. And I'm sure Lord David would love to answer them. So without further ado. I'm going to quickly introduce our wonderful dignitaries. Starting with our host school. Which is the Elpro International School. We have our lovely Dr. Anrita Gora. Who's the director principal. We have Ms. Shri Pari Tiwari. Who's the head of school of EIS Cambridge being. We have Ms. Parnavi Mukherjee. Who's the senior head mistress. So Dr. Anrita Gora why don't you share a few words with us. New normal obviously. For you guys. Educating our children is such an important and vital job. And I'm humbled by what you've had to do. During this lockdown. In the same way as I am. With our national health service. So I'm sure you'll agree. It's done an absolutely tremendous job. And you have as well. Because you've had to do this. Against all the odds. And particularly with children. From poor backgrounds. Or maybe single parents. Where it's been so really difficult. To for the parent. To get to work. When they can work. And what happens with their children. I mean key workers as you know. In the UK. We have a scheme. Where key workers children are taken care of. In the school process. But it's really difficult. So I think the priorities are. For the government to invest. In providing extra teachers extra help. For so that our children can catch up. Because one could argue. And I would go along with that. That you've done all you can. On online learning. But in my view. Our children are missing something. Apart from being with other children. They are missing something. When it comes to education. And we need to invest more into that. To help them catch up. For the challenges ahead. And the goodness when we went to school. And went to university. There were challenges coming up. Which we knew what happened. And we were able in most cases. To get through that. But today. When you look at the innovation. The quality of education. It's our duty to provide. To our children. To our students. We have they have a lot to do. And we need to do all we can to help them through that. So I think. In summary. More money. More training. More teachers. I think that's vital. I resent the fact. That we take. Some teachers. And nurses and doctors. From countries. Third world countries. Yes it's good. For training. But if they stay in the United Kingdom. All that money. That the third world country has spent. Educating them. Is has gone. So I don't think that's fair. I think there ought to be a quid pro quo. In the system. If we do that. Where money is provided to the government. That has trained. The doctor nurse teacher. Or whatever. So. Short answer. Is that enough. Thank you. That's a. You know. Excellent. And again inspiring. And I would like to formally invite you. To come along to Wapping High School. When we come out of this. If you wouldn't mind. I'd love to come and have a look. And. I hope you'll enjoy your day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I'm sure. And you're you're both very welcome. To come down to the House of Lords. For tea when we're able to. Some of you here have been. And I think you enjoyed it. So I look forward to that. I thought you were about to invite us over to Barbados. And I was about to say yes immediately. Yeah I was. I've chartered a plane. But unfortunately BA have cancelled them all. So never mind. Thank you sir. Mr. Nelson for that wonderful question. And thank you Lord David for such a wonderful answer. I'm just going to quickly introduce. From Abu Dhabi Indian school. We have Mr. Neeraj Bhargav. That's a wonderful school again. And we are very close to that school. So sir why don't you share a few words. We'd love to hear a little from you. Once again good evening everybody. Yeah we have a different kind of experience over here. We are privileged and fortunate to be in this country. Talking about compassion. Yes and now like in a school of my kind. We are more of a community school. Because it's a no profit school. There is no owner of the school as such. The school is the owner of the school itself. So the entire working is of the school is of the children's interest. Of course we have more of a we have parents who are not able to afford. You see if there are three children at home. They can't have three devices. That's a very very simple requirement you know for online teaching. So fortunately the government came in eight. And they provided devices for these children. The parents made a you know a request. We made the list and the parents were provided by the devices by the government. Some of the parents who have lost the job. Not able to travel back to country or country. And of course the other reasons. The fees was given by the government to the school. And very you know very important one. They are providing free testing of the COVID in the school every 14 days. I have been tested for 15 times already. And the latest one is and the latest one is from tomorrow. They are starting the vaccination in the school for the teachers. Again being provided by them. So it's a it's a it's actually a very different kind of experience working. To the other side what we are talking about the Panjia. I'm sure some of you must be knowing there's a big commercial thing happening. You know which is called as a global village in Dubai. There are there are there are around about 80 90 countries which come together. And they present their you know their culture also their art also their you know the commercial products also and we go there and learn from there. And of course learn from about each country about the products and all. So I'm sure somewhere here when you talk about what you are doing. Panjia we will be collaborating and learning the compassion of the different students. I mean the students will be learning from each other. I think that is what I feel now. And I so I was very happy with the concept to be very honest. And I could immediately correlate. And also very important thing is I'm sure you all know that there are nearly 220 nationalities in this country UAE and we are all living so peaceful. Together happy and working and abiding the law. Whatever reasons. But yes we are all living in a very harmonious way. So I'm sure when we interact the students will interact. They will have a better idea of how they can build up together. Something for as what you know Mr. Gary said. For a compassion for those who do not have. Can be built with this to the different countries where the students do not have. Can our student contribute whatever way for them. Online portal is there. I'm sure some of our seniors may would like to teach those students. If they are an access can be made to help them. You know so we need to build up that kind of a compassion through this platform. And I'm sure we will be able to do that. Thank you so much for including us into your campaign. Thank you. It was our honor to thank you so much for your kind words. Moving on I would also love to introduce Ms. Smriti Bharga. She's also joined us. Thank you so much ma'am for coming and joining us. Thank you so much for having us here. Thank you ma'am. Moving on to Gems Modern Academy Dubai. We have Ms. Kambata who's the principal of Gems Modern Academy. Then we have Mr. Sidney Atkins who's the vice principal. And Ms. Divya Rajgaria. Ms. Kambata would you please share a few words with us. Good afternoon here. So good afternoon everyone. It's such a pleasure to be a part of this program and listen to you young lady. We've been watching you closely and I thought you make an absolutely great and you're comparing and coordinating this so well. I'd like to hand over to Ms. Divya who's actually leading on this project and have her speak on it. So Ms. Divya. Hello everyone. Thank you ma'am. It has been a pleasure listening to all of you especially Sir David, Mr. Gary Nelson and Ms. Nicolette. And Ashi I really should reiterate what Ms. Kambata has just said. You've been coordinating it so well. Well I've posted a question here about how educators can help students cope with ramifications of artificial intelligence as pointed out by Sir David. Especially with skills like empathy and human connection. So this is a question to especially to Sir David and to all educators. I mean I would like to know how y'all are coping with this problem in your part of the world. Thank you. Lord David please do the honors. Okay. Thank you. Compassion. Compassion in a business is making sure that your staff, your employees are well looked after. That you repay the loyalty that you've been given. And you make sure that as near as best as practicable your staff are safe and looked after. And our government has a furlough scheme which I'm very proud to say pays 80% of earnings up to a limit but nevertheless. And obviously there's been a lot of support from the Chancellor of the Hsiehki here for the workforce of the United Kingdom. It doesn't cover all of it but it certainly makes a big contribution. So I think compassion as far as I'm concerned as an employer is making sure my staff are looked after that I can provide all the help I possibly can. And as far as the way of working my staff can work at home. They do that very successfully and we look after them the best we can. Now that's my personal experience. I'd be really pleased to hear from educators how you manage that. How you define compassion as an employer and dealing with the children in your country and other countries and other educators. I think that's very important. If I may comment with that. Thank you Lord David. I think sometimes in the simple things that you find profound answers. And I don't think our teachers who has overheard this but as the days got along I think it has been teachers, their resilience, their passion for their job. They have really put their minds to what they were doing and came out from. So as school leaders we thought what can we do to help the process. Because really we just need to get out of the way and let them get on with their work truly and that's where the magic happens. But I think simple things like we realized that at home they may not have the ergonometry design chairs for them to sit on. And so we asked who would like your chairs sent home. And for everybody who agreed we said fine and we had our managers school operations sent home their chairs. And that came as a pleasant surprise. But I think it reinforced a couple of things for the teachers that we really care. It's not lip service flipping, we really want them to be comfortable. And this was something really small that we did but the impact was huge. I think right through this entire pandemic our respect for our teachers has grown so much. The way they've nurtured the children. So at every opportunity and every plan we put in place we said what can we do for the well-being of our teachers. Even at our local advisory board meetings all of which went online. We said at every meeting and every initiative we said what can we do for our teachers. So with that mindfulness when we approached it our teachers really understood that we do care teachers, teaching assistants, support staff, senior leadership team because as often as possible we allow them to work from home. And of course now we're all back to school but there are days when we've got problems with children, we may have issues with the children in the school or we allow the children to come in because of the right precautions that we take. In fact Ms. Divya who's on this call she's only just arrived from India. She went to Kolkata with her family, got stuck there, her daughter tested positive, she couldn't make it back on time. But she worked from Kolkata and they had connectivity. So I think it's in the little things that we do that what they realize we will be doing. But thank you for asking that question. Thank you so much ma'am. That was a wonderful dialogue between Ms. Kamata, Divya, Ms. Divya and Lord David. Also thank you so much Ms. Kamata and Ms. Divya. I think I have one person to thank and he's sitting right here and that's Anansh. Thank you so much once again. I'm just going to quickly move on to the next school. I have your calling a little short on time as is the case with all good things. So we're going to quickly move on to the Indian school Wadi Al Kabir. We have Mr. Kailash Batro who's the activity coordinator. We have Asha Mohan who's also the activity coordinator. And finally we have Ms. Janisha Joseph who's a senior teacher. Kailash sir please say a few words. We'd love to hear from you. Hello, good evening everyone. I'm sure all are doing well. And sir David as he's mentioned it's good morning for him. Different timing zones and different timing wishes. It's a nice experience, a very first experience of mine and I'm feeling very overwhelmed and very thrilled to learn a lot. I think a long way to go to gain a lot of experience from the different spheres of lives from all of you. So I look forward to your responses, reactions and also I look forward to your guidance to how to go about these activities since it's the first experience of mine. So I'm looking forward to the further activities, how to go about it. And thank you so much for having accepted me in your group. I'm so happy and thank you so much very much from the bottom of my hat. Thank you. Thank you so much. We are very thrilled to have the Indian school Wadi Al Kabir too joining us. I'm sure we have learned so much from each other. And finally we have one last school and one institute that rather I'd like to introduce. We have from the Institute of Education, Diversity and Accomplishments in Brazil. We have Ms. Svetlana Nisuzahop and Mr. Marcelo Abdala. I'm sorry if I have mispronounced your names. Please correct me if I'm wrong and we'd love to hear from Ms. Svetlana. Hello. Hello and good morning to all and good evening to some as well as as Lord David. Nicely put, we are in different time zones. So it's quite early for us here as well. It's a pleasure to be here. We are very thankful to be invited to this wonderful project. We indeed believe in in the global education without borders and how this initiative really touches the lives of so many different children. Speaking especially from our side of the fence here. This initiative has really given children opportunities that they have never even dreamed of to be part of a global community with such wonderful and different kinds of cultures and of insights to give and all kinds of new opportunities that might rise from that. Our school here is primarily centered in the lower ends of social class. We do we do invest a lot in English language learning. Perhaps Lord David also knows a little bit about Dr. Anil Seal who is one of our biggest supporters here. Dr. Anil Seal, he's a fellow at Trinity College from Cambridge. And it was together with him under the supervision of Angela French who has done a wonderful job as well with El Pro in India that we came here with this project of initiating this school for children that would not have access to proper English language learning. Unless it was really at high prices. So we've been doing this work here and now with a year day school that we started this year. We have lots of hopes and we have lots of initiatives different initiatives. We are highly based on ed tech tools. I don't want to extend myself because we know that we have run out of time as well short of time. But I would like to reiterate that we would love to welcome all of you here. And especially of course, Lord David, if you ever come down this way to Brazil and if you would ever pay us the honor to pay us a visit, give us the honor of paying us a visit. And I would like to thank very much Gary for bringing us to this initiative. He was the one that brought us on board and say and Suganda as well for putting all of this together and all the team in India. And just a last few words regarding compassion. One of the most interesting aspects of this whole pandemic here that I've been able to observe was the fact that it was quite easy to actually activate this feeling in humans all over the world as soon as we saw that we really needed each other. This feeling was awakened and most humans I think around the planet were able to overlook all kinds of cultural and religious differences. And we were, you know, ready to extend our hand in help. And we overlooked all these other aspects that sometimes blurred our vision in different ways. So this has really, let's say, reconquered my faith in humanity. And I still believe that we have wonderful things to do. And I still believe that the majority of humankind is very kind. So thank you very much. It's a pleasure. It's an honor, sir. It's an honor to be here. And hello to everyone around the world. Thank you so much, Suganda. I think your words were so kind. And I think the last line, there's so much kindness yet in us. I think we have to discover it. And I think this is a great platform for us to do that. With this, we have actually introduced all our wonderful dignitaries who joined us. So we have one question from the audience. I think we can entertain one question at this point. So the question is come right directly from Facebook. So the question is, how important would you say a global outlook is at a workplace? So this is again reinstating all your experiences. You spoke about many of them, many interesting ones. So how important would you say a global outlook is at a workplace? Do you mind if I come in and answer or give my perspective on that from Wapping High? Would you mind? Sure. Yeah, thank you. Just to say, we have kind of two straplines in terms of the big message, the mission at the school and as well as raising aspirations for young people. The second part of that is really important to us. It's about broadening horizons. And I really, you know, I enjoy listening to Svetlana talk. I know how passionate she is to achieve something really magical here. But that's really important to me, the fact that young people don't see learning in the classroom or in their street or in their village or their town or their city. And it goes way beyond that because that's where true inspirational learning really is. So very much so for my school concepts. Absolutely. Thank you so much for that. Not David, would you like to share a few words on that? Yes, I would. If I can just say, Svetlana, I visited Brazil and was absolutely fascinated by what's happening there. And it's a really stunning country with so much potential. But to answer the question directly, I think it's absolutely vital because just looking at our lifetimes and what's happened internationally with how we're able to communicate and have relations with so many people overseas. I think an international outlook is vital and it's our duty as educators to enable our children, our students to have a much broader view of the world and the opportunities therein. So I'm 100% behind the question in the way it was put. So thank you very much for a really constructive and positive question. Thank you so much, Sir, again for that insightful comment. And thank you so much, Mr. Gary. I think both your answers make a lot of sense. And especially very important at this point. And again, reinstating the fact that, you know, Panjia is going to be giving us that opportunity to really have a global outlook at many things as we collaborate through compassion, of course. So on this note, you know, I think we positively asked a lot of questions. We've got a range of answers, a range of perspectives really. And I think this was a melting pot of sorts. So on this note, Sir, can you please declare Panjia open? Thank you very much. I'm delighted to declare Panjia a global village open. And I'm sure we're all going to enjoy that. And thank you so much for the organization, Sugandha and Ashia. We really appreciate all you do. So thank you to the Elpro International School for leading this. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Sir. I'm just going to quickly wrap this up and of course give it back to Sugandha, ma'am. So through our curtain razor, we spoke to Lord David about a range of things. Right from COVID-19 to UK post COVID to Brexit to online education and finally about Panjia. One thing we've learned for certain is that we're all interconnected today. And the sooner we realize this, the faster we can collaborate together and act upon the various challenges that we as a world are facing today. I'm extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to speak with you, Lord David. Your insightful inputs really have given us food for thought. It's truly an honor to have someone of your stature open our event and set the concept, set the correct precedent for conversations surrounding collaboration and compassion. Thank you so much once again for speaking with us and launching Panjia. It's my pleasure and it's good to be with you all. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Sugandha ma'am. Thank you so much, Ashi. And a huge thank you to Lord David Evans for joining us. And like Ashi said, declaring our event open, it is such an honor for all of us and I'm sure for all the participating schools as well. I would like to extend my heartfelt gratitude to all the participating schools, the leaders, for helping us turn our dream into a reality. Anant and I conceptualized this entire event. We worked on it and your support really made it a reality. And we are really looking forward to the 29th and 30th, where our students come together, collaborate in a very compassionate way, and do some really fun activities with each other. So it's not going to be teams, it's going to be the linked teams that are going to work with each other. So thank you, everybody. I will fail in my duty if I don't thank my director principal, Dr. Voda, who just entrusts me with so many, so such great activities and which I'm able to execute under her guidance. So thank you, ma'am, for believing in us and letting us do these amazing things. Teshir, Teshir, always. Thank you, Anant, Dhan, Ashi, and Abdullah, the team of Skillshare. You guys have been at the helm of ensuring that all these schools come together. So a huge round of applause for everybody. And with this, I think, you know, the audiences who have been watching us live, educate the students, parents, from all our different schools, you guys have gotten a lot of love, a lot of positive feedback on the Facebook live chat and we remain grateful for that. We will be shortly sharing the schedule of the two-day event of Pangea, which will also be aired live on our Facebook page. So please do join us for that and stay tuned onto our Facebook page for more updates. With this, I now end the live stream.