Mrs. Nirmal [Part1]
Last month Geomanage team interviewed Mrs. Nirmal Jain who is the Principal of Indian School in Tokyo. Mrs Jain is an Indian national and a permanent resident of Japan. Her family has been in Japan since 1926 and she has been living in Japan since 1969. Mrs Jain is a graduate from Agra University in India and she has a Law degree from prestigious Delhi University. Originally a lawyer by profession, Mrs Jain started her teaching career 13 years ago. She is very passionate about education and strongly believes that good education combined with proper upbringing at home can produce individuals who can make significant contribution to the society. Let's see what she has to say about her professional and social life in Japan.
GM:
Thanks you Mrs. Jain for your valuable time today.
Mrs. Jain:
You are most welcome.
GM:
Let me begin by asking you about your profession? How long have you been in the teaching profession?
Mrs. Jain:
I have been a teacher for more than 13 years now.
GM:
What was the motivation behind starting the Indian school in Tokyo?
Mrs. Jain:
Actually there was always a need for a good school imparting Indian style education in Tokyo. This is what motivated me to start the school.
GM:
What were the major challenges you faced when you were starting the school?
Mrs. Jain:
Honestly speaking I did not face many challenges. I have more than 13 years of experience in teaching and I just went ahead with my mission and overcame the challenges that came in my way. I got a lot of support from parents of Indian students and Indian Embassy in Tokyo. Indian parents were especially very helpful because they knew that the school directly benefits their kids.
GM:
Do you think that there is any difference between starting a school in India and starting a school in Japan?
Mrs. Jain:
I don't have any experience of starting a school in India so I cannot comment much on this. However, I can say that the process is very smooth in Japan. Whatever you want to do just gets done. However in India you have to very patient.
GM:
Do you have any particular aim as to where would you like take the school.
Mrs. Jain:
We have already started a branch in Yokohama for children living in that area. I would definitely like to bring more children to the school and provide quality education to the students.
Also, I would like to bring Indian education closer to Western education.
At present the Indian education system emphasizes on cramming. I believe that education should focus on all round development. Hence, I would like mix Indian academics with Western education system.
Even now I keep telling my teachers to focus more on overall personality development rather than just memorizing.
We are also having talks with Japanese authorities so that our students are allowed to attend Japanese Colleges. CBSE has accepted Japanese language and we are teaching Japanese here and if our students know Japanese than there is no reason for not allowing them to attend Japanese colleges.
GM:
Do you allow Japanese children to enter your school?
Mrs. Jain:
At present we only allow Japanese students to enter at Kindergarten level. The reason being you need a certain level of English to attend the classes with Indian students. Occasionally we have students whose one parent is Japanese or whose both parents are Japanese but have lived abroad for a long time and would like their kids to attend English education.
GM:
Regarding the students, do you think that there is any gap between Indian students and Japanese students.
Mrs. Jain:
There is certainly some cultural difference. The upbringing and cultural background of Japanese students is very different from Indian students and it takes a lot of adjustment. But on the positive side they can learn a lot from each other's differences and become true global citizens.
Mrs.Jain denies facing any serious challenge while establishing the Indian school in Japan. She is grateful to the Indians living in Japan who understood the importance of such a school and extended all kinds of support.
In our next posting we will ask Mrs. Jain regarding her personal life in Japan and her opinions about Japanese culture.
Link：India International School in Japan
Relation：Atul Lokurkar（from GeoManage）