When, on March 16th 2023, the last working day, I made a special announcement about the departure of the Principal, children, teachers and the parents waiting to pick up the children were in for a shock. But when they came to know why he was winding this up, they felt inspired - that someone is setting aside one's career priorities to better serve one's family, one's aging mother.
The school head boy was reported sharing with his father: I feel bad for my juniors who choose Economics; they will be missing the classes of the Principal.
The members of the parents' council feel that a major contribution of Sanjeevkumar has been the efforts to keep the parents' council a reality - a platform where parents and teachers could interact in a friendly manner.
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They felt that from afar he was the Principal, but, if you only approached him, you would find what an-easy-to-get-along-guy he was. His unexpectedly vibrant presence on the parent-teacher football match and his adroitness at guiding the team to victory, made him a principal with a difference to the parent community. The few occasions created during the course of the first post-lockdown year for the parents and teachers to come together beyond the discussion of the students' academic performance, made the school more into a family.
They observe that he was a principal who could make things happen without making noise about it. Parents recalled that children commented on how inspiringly and passionately the principal addressed them. A III grader reported when they were noisy principal would just come, ask them some questions, gently tell something to their teacher, by which time they would have quietened, and then go back with a smile for them.
Principal's response was that we were blessed to have a very disciplined student body, and a very erudite parent group. His only caution was that parental feed back while always welcome was to be tempered and made in a tone that would make it easy to accept - aiming more at improving the systems than giving vent to one's emotions.
The Social Studies department claims him to have been their part. In the initial phase he did attend department meetings couple of times, but could not continue with the practice later on. What they all felt was his democratic approach. He had something to speak about each of them as a parting message. The HoD Ms Vidya found him a vision-giving leader, when ordinary leaders gave target! (I tend to be a target setting task master?)
There is a senior grade student with her parents, who want to bid the Principal good bye, as they came to know of his departure. They feel glad for the progress the school has attained under his leadership and for the their ward's development as a student. They want to present a keep-sake; but Principal is insistent that their concern and love are what matters, and not any gift.
With the teachers of the preliminary section his appeal was to make learning fun by increased activity based component and the task of teacher being that of 'learning with their students'. I endorsed the appeal with a request to make it more measurable - set a target percentage for activity based lessons for the year.
The Little Kingdom (Kinder Garten) stewards expressed their inspiration from the various interactions with the principal - his public addresses, as well as his response to their programmes. Principal felt that their practice of group learning titled 'edu-log' should continue. As usual, he had something special to share about each one of them.
Regarding Mr. Sanjeevkumar SL, here is my 'encomium':
I came to know Mr. Sanjeevkumar as the Principal of Rajagiri
Public School, Doha, Qatar. I have found in him, a rare academic leader who has absorbed the modern philosophy and spirit of education, especially as CBSE conceives it - education as a happy, friendly, collective learning experience.
In one sentence, I would say, the very name
encompasses the school – S – Serve, L – Learn; and Sanjeev from Sanjeevani –
the panacea for fullness of life, in other words, Excellence.
He led the transition of Rajagiri Public School, Doha from
its status of a middle school to a full-fledged school offering K-12 grades
during his tenure of four years from 2019 to 2023.
He was instrumental in bringing in various systems and
policies for a school, which make it eligible for accreditation by Qatar … and
affiliation by CBSE, New Delhi. One such key policy was on communication. He encouraged using the formal and informal channels for strengthening communication and almost succeeded in making it a practice that all emails are responded within 24 hours. And the mail that came to him, he managed to attend to all of them.
Primarily, a passionate teacher of Economics, he brings in
critical perspectives of Developmental Economics.
He is an eloquent speaker with wit and wisdom laced
beautifully in his addresses. He has
also been an accomplished trainer of teachers in the CBSE circles. As expected of any good teacher, he maintains interest in several matters including literature and theatre, sports and games, writing and socialising...
As an educator, he believes in schools as happy places for
students. As an administrator he is receptive to ideas, encourages team work,
believes in autonomy, the principle of subsidiarity and minimal
interference. It is both his strength and at times, his weakness: He entrusts people with
tasks with necessary guidance and leaves them free to operate. and trusts that they will accomplish it.
A critical thinker on development politics, besides his
interest in literature, he has also contributed several articles to popular
magazines and newspapers, both in English and Malayalam. He is fired by the passions the poets share, and feels his addresses are incomplete without a line or two from his favourite Malayalam poets or evergreen mystics or philosophers like Khalil Gibran or Rumi or Dewey..
I deem it a privilege to have worked with him as Academic
Director of the school and that we could get along over the year, without stepping on each other's toes, and perhaps taking small steps for further development of the school by giving and receiving ideas. I am glad, and am grateful to him for having put my pet theme of the global agenda of sustainable development goals (SDGs) for our action framework this year onwards - as we take on Goals No. 2 - No Hunger, and No. 13 - Climate Action this year. In his fond remembrance, we kept apart one of the saplings to be planted on forest day. And after the farewell function, he planted the Miswak, the natural desert grown tooth brush!! I hope it will grow!
In his response at the formal farewell, he shared warm sentiments regarding the unique concern the management shows towards the staff, which he too had experienced. He also mentioned our travel together, and shrouding in his typical positivity, he shared his experience of my impatience - which I take more as a compliment, as I know I am impatient to get things done, and I also feel that my days are getting counted - and I have miles to go, and whoever I am with, as well (people or projects).
I feel he has made the school a welcoming and happy place, created a space for the parents and school to meet and share beyond the formal system. I hope the legacy sustains and gains in strength.
I feel it is befitting to end this with a poetic parting words, I borrow from Murugan Kattakkada:
Ormikkuvaan njaan ninakkenthu nalkanam Ormikkanam enna vaakku maathram
Ennenkilum veentum evite vacchenkilum kandu muttaam enna vaakku maathram.
May we hold each other with good will in our memory! May our paths cross and may we recognize each other as we travel towards our destiny!
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Feel very emotional reading this blog Sir, we are so happy beyond words that Sanjeev Sir opened a new path way of relationship for parents and teachers- through Sports. It was an ice breaker. He showed together we achieve more. He will Always be remembered, missed and respected.
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