Hemant Prasad: After spending 36 years in DNS,FRI as the senior English Teacher, you have now become the Co-ordinator, your feelings?
Raymond V Perry: I feel great! Great in the sense that whatever I am now is because of my school. De Nobili has given me the confidence, it has given me all the talents which I have developed so far and now it is time for me to repay by the virtue of being the co-ordiantor and working hard so that the school develops.Although, I cannot make promises that the school wil get back its past glory but yeah things can become better and when things can become better then we should try to make it better.
HP: Any plan which you have with you and which you are going to execute and implement?
RVP: The first point is that I am going to mobilize the +1 and +2 classes. Mobilize them in the sense that I want them to expose them to a lot of interactions or excertions or reaching out to people so that they would come out from the frog and the pond sort of situation and by that they would learn. Like when we have an exposure and interact with people, we come to know where we stand and we keep on thinking that we have to improve as we think that we are not good and by this you improve yourself and you come to know that you are better than the others. The students in +1 and +2 are now going through a very crucial stage where one is too old for pigtails and too young for cocktails. The students are always in a dilemma whether and how they should act for if they say something childish their parents say them to act as a grown up and when they act as a grown their parents say that they are acting too smart. But nevertheless it is a very good stage where a students can and should focus on interactions so that it develops their personality.
HP: Co-ordinator is the most important person in a school and he is the one who holds the most important port folio. On one hand he supports the Principal and on the other hand he checks out that the students get the best from the teachers. Your view.
RVP: I agree with what you say as being an important person. Important in the sense that I execute the orders given to me by the Principal and I wherever I find that a suggestion can be made then I put forward my suggestion and then if the Principal feels that its good then we execute it. But at the same time, the Principal, the co-ordinator, the staff and the students have to work as a firm family, as a unit and work for the betterment of the school. And whenever we take a decision we always keep the school and the students in mind.
HP: People have been asking for coaching facilities in the school for improving the quality of education. Your view.
RVP: Yes. Its good and many people have approached us but at the same time we have to choose the correct people. And we are looking forward to arrange some coaching facilities because today the world is very competitive and we have a large syllabus to complete and also that we have to make the students ready for the competitive exams and yes we are negotiating with people but at the same time we have to be very careful and we have to choose the best so that the students get the best. It is very important to negotiate with the right people because now the education centers have now mushroomed everywhere and the things are going the wrong way, the people are misinformed and everything has been commercialized and the people are just earning money. There are definitely few good ones and we are negotiating with them and we are hopeful of the positive results.
HP: Your message to the students.
RVP: My message to the students would be to be simple and think big. Get focused and believe in youself. And according to me to do the right thing it is very important to believe in yourself and whatever one does, he/she has been to really very firm, strict and focused and pickup one thing at a time. Like for example if we take the discipline of the school, we can get things better and a bit more organised like the assembly moving a bit faster, correct and neat uniform, dismissal going well. So these are the little things with which we should start rather than going for getting the big things correct at first. Like if we take care of the little things the big things always get better itself. And my message to the students is Be focused and believe in yourself.
Raymond V Perry is on Facebook