Kandivli school takes IQ route to improve teaching

Aantriksha Gupta, 13-year old student, always felt she was far ahead of her classmates in academics. Topping in every subject in school was easy, but the feeling of being different hampered her social skills. However, thanks to her school, Gundecha Education Academy (GEA), Kandivli, Gupta and other over bright students like her are looked after through a unique programme called Rill to River.

Introduced in July, under the programme, extra intelligent students are identified by the teachers and recommended for an IQ test. Students who have an IQ of more than 120 are picked up for the special programme. A brain child of the principal, Seema Buch, the programme exposes these children to various activities which develop their core skills such as creativity, logic and reasoning, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills.

“I believe in differential teaching. Not every child learns at the same pace and hence, we have incorporated a system where the weak children are given extra help and the special children get shadow teachers or counsellors,” she said.

However, while catering to the weak and the challenged, the gifted children are ignored. “I wanted to address this and designed the programme with the help of our counsellor and a gifted teacher.”

The programme now has 24 children from class V to VIII, who have an hour-long session before school hours once in a week. “During these sessions, through various projects we assess their core strengths such as imagination, originality, writing skills, speech, logic, drawing, social skills etc. We help them develop their core areas to full potential,” explained Suruchi Raina, teacher of the programme.

Gupta’s parents could not be happier, thanks to the programme. “My daughter is very bright with an IQ of 147. However, she is not good at mingling with people and is very shy. We always knew she was bright, but did not know how to develop it ,” said Renu Gupta, parent.

Tejal Dave, the counsellor is also planning to cater to their Emotional Quotient (EQ). “Often, in the rat race to score more marks, schools ignore the emotional health of these children. Through this programme, we take care of their EQ as well as IQ,” she said.