– Autar Nehru (Delhi)

Jyoti Arora is the founder-principal of Mount Abu Public School, Rohini, Delhi (MAPS-R, estb.1998). In the latest EducationWorld India School Rankings 2019-20, MAPS-R is ranked #55 (out of 300) schools in Delhi NCR and was conferred a Grand Jury Award for campus architecture and design.

Newspeg. On Teachers Day (September 5), Arora received the National Teachers Award 2020 in the CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) category from President Ram Nath Kovind through the online digital delivery mode. She was adjudged winner of the award by an independent national jury constituted by the Union education ministry. The jury reviewed applications and presentations made by 153 teachers across the country who were shortlisted by 36 state and Union territories selection committees.

History. A committed believer in life-long learning and graduate of Delhi, Himachal, Maharshi Dayanand (Rohtak) and Manipal universities, Arora is currently researching for her PhD dissertation on education at Rajasthan University. In 1998, she was appointed founder-principal of Mount Abu Public School, Rohini, promoted by the Mount Abu Education Society (regd.1987), established by renowned Delhi-based educationist Shri Dina Nath. In 1989, the society promoted the Mount Abu Public School, Shalimar Bagh (Delhi). The society’s second school (MAPS-R), which admitted its first batch of 35 children mentored by four teachers in 1998, has since evolved into a “full capacity” K-12 day school with 2,800 students and 115 faculty.

Direct talk. “Although this year our CBSE board exam results were good with our students averaging 85 percent, in MAPS-R our priority is to teach a much wider curriculum to our students to prepare them for the complex higher education and workplaces of the future. Moreover in MAPS-R, we take the United Nations SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) very seriously and have established several labs in which our students can study and research options to implement the SDGs in school and incorporate them into their daily lives,” says Jyoti Arora.

Future plans. A firm believer in the value of children developing skilling capability from early age, Arora intends to extend the menu of skilling options available to MAPS-R students. “One of the most overdue and positive features of the recently released National Education Policy 2020 is its mandate to introduce holistic multi-disciplinary and skilling education. We intend to implement this mandate very enthusiastically,” says this visionary award-winning school leader.

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