Another welcome development in K-12 education in the new millennium is an emerging consensus that extra-curricular education ” sports and music ” is an intrinsic and important component of the education experience of children
BIB-BANG HIGH POTENTIAL initiatives such as curriculum enrichment and cognitive development programmes apart, another overdue and welcome development in K-12 education in the new millennium is an emerging consensus within civic society that extra-curricular ” especially sports ” education is an intrinsic and important component of the education experience of children. The clich©d dictum mens sana in corpore sano (a healthy mind requires a healthy body) given lip service on every school™s sports day, has acquired new currency and its import is resonating with parents and the academic communities.
With the media headlining alarming reports of child obesity and lifestyle diseases such as diabetes afflicting teens, middle class households are becoming increasingly aware of the need for sports education and participation. Moreover, reports of youth from underprivileged households striking it rich in professional sports, particularly cricket, have enthused even bottom-of-the-pyramid parents about the importance of sports education.
This awakening has prompted several visionary edupreneurs such as the IIT-Bombay and IIM-Bangalore alum Saumil Mazmudar (EduSports), former banker Dev Roy (FitKids), former India Davis Cup star and winner of several tennis grand slam doubles championships Mahesh Bhupathi (Mahesh Bhupathi Tennis Academy) and India test cricket star Virendra Sehwag (Sehwag International School, Jhajhar, Haryana), among others to promote sports academies which provide globally-benchmarked sports and fitness education to a fast-growing number of enthusiastic children and youth countrywide.
œWhile working as a banking and finance professional in the US and UK for 13 years, I learned that the differentiator which determined better employees was extra-curricular, especially sports education which teaches individuals to cooperate and work effectively in teams. When I returned to India in 2009 as an experienced triathlete, I found that my son had very limited sports options. This prompted me to promote FitKids Education, says Dev Roy, the superbly fit promoter-chief executive of the Bangalore-based FitKids Education and Training Pvt. Ltd, whose comprehensive menu of 4,000  Leapstart sports and fitness programmes developed in conjunction with the US-based SPARK (Sports, Play and Active Recreation for Kids), is toning up 130,000 children in 150 K-12 schools countrywide.
An engineering and business management alumnus of the R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore and Chicago University, Roy acquired valuable experience working with IBM, Bank of America, Dresdner Bank and Barclays Capital in the US and UK, before he œtook a leap of faith and returned to his hometown to promote FitKids Education in 2009.
In 2012, the company also introduced its GAIT (Grooming Artistic Innovation and Talent) programme which teaches children to œdevelop creative movements through innovation rather than imitation, for which 8,000 students in 15 schools have signed up. And last year FitKids introduced Discovered, an investigative, hands-on sciences learning programme. œAlthough every programme costs twice as much and takes twice as long to get right, I am fairly satisfied with the public response to our three programmes. Satisfied enough to stop increasing the number of schools in our Leapstart programme, to focus on improving the quality of the 4,000 plus play and fitness activities we offer, says Roy.
A big casualty of the heavily regulated Indian education system defined by capacity shortages across the spectrum is co- and extra-curricular education ” especially music, and the performing arts. While most educators and intellectuals agree that learning music is an integral part of the education process, in government schools even Indian classical music education is conspicuous by its absence. If India™s ancient Hindustani, Carnatic, Rabindra Sangeet and other regional music traditions have survived, the credit should accrue to private middle class initiatives including private schools, in which music teaching-learning is the rule rather than exception, with top-ranked schools offering students the option of learning Indian classical or Western music.
Against this backdrop, several initiatives taken by Indian popular music maestros Shankar Mahadevan and A.R. Rahman offer children countrywide the opportunity to learn Indian classical and popular vocal and instrumental music. The Shankar Mahadevan Academy offers online education in Hindustani, Carnatic, devotional and popular vocal music and guitar play. The KM College of Music & Technology, Chennai, promoted by the A.R. Rahman Foundation in 2008 as a conservatoire, and accorded university status last year, offers Western and Hindustani classical music programmes of various durations culminating in a degree from Middlesex University, UK.
To this illustrative list of music schools mushrooming across the country, add the Mumbai-based  Furtados School of Music (FSM), promoted by the Furtados Group (estb. 1865 in Mumbai). Today, Furtados has 21 retail stores selling musical equipment, instruments and sheet music across Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi, Pune, Mangalore and Dimapur.
In 2011, former bank executives Dharini Upadhyaya and Tanuja Gomes launched the first FSM in Mumbai. Since then the company has established 15 FSM schools with an aggregate enrolment of 4,500 students in Mumbai, Bangalore and Pune, given piano, drums, guitar and singing lessons by 75 music teachers.
œThe prime objective of FSM is to offer joyful music learning experiences to children through pedagogically approved curriculums delivered by well-trained teachers, who inspire and motivate children to continue learning music, says Tanuja Gomes, an  alumna of Bombay University and the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies who was a Singapore-based associate vice president of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank when she conceived the idea of building on the reputation of the Furtados chain of music stores to establish FSM which offers in-school music education and in its own centres, three years ago.
œToday most educationists understand that children need holistic learning and that study of the performing arts, especially music, is an important element in their development. Based on the feedback we receive from our client schools and  parents, we are confident that FSM is poised to play a significant role in this country™s music education, she adds.