Education is often imagined as a neat package of textbooks, lesson plans, and examinations. Parents and policymakers alike tend to measure its success in grades, certificates, and visible achievements. Yet, beneath this surface lies a deeper, more enduring influence: the silent forces that shape who children become. Subtle and often invisible, these forces quietly guide a child’s destiny. What our naked eyes see of a child is only the tip of an iceberg. The shining tip is the

People often ask if technology will make schools obsolete. Despite what the tech universe may have told us, one can say that it’s not happening any time soon. The contextual basis for this opinion is quite simple: It hasn't happened yet. When radio became ubiquitous, smart people thought it would make schools obsolete. It didn’t. Neither did slide projectors, VCRs, educational TV, PCs, the Internet, or iPads, despite similar ambitions. Of course, this time it is different, sa

The birth of Large Language Models (LLMs) and machine learning did not arrive with a dramatic announcement in our daily lives. They entered quietly through smart suggestions, auto-complete, chatbots, and tools that promised to make our work faster and easier. Over time, these systems found their way into our emails, documents, presentations, and eventually, our classrooms. What began as convenience soon became dependence. The Emergence Many people who once struggled to compos

“We live in a new world where education, neuro science and classroom instruction are joined.”( Dr Stephen Rushton 2012, Exchange). Hence, it is important to design learning spaces to help education become truly the development of the mind, body, and soul. It is important to break the monotonous image of traditional schools and bring in a more contemporary and scientific image of an educational environment. It is time to fold away the ‘box’ that we call classrooms and unfold a

“Speed” is all too often equated with “progress” in our current educational systems. Students are whisked effortlessly from activity to activity, and our teaching teams and school systems are all about efficiency and speed. But as we rush along, racing through our learning, something important is happening or rather, is being neglected: the element of reflection and contemplation. Understanding this, the concept of “Slow Education” has emerged. Slow Education is not about dum

For most students, feedback does not feel like support. It feels like judgement. Somewhere along the way, feedback in classrooms became synonymous with red marks, rankings, and remarks that linger longer than the lesson itself. Students learn early that feedback often arrives only when something is wrong. Over time, even well-intentioned comments begin to feel personal, evaluative, and final. Yet, when we step outside the classroom and into life, an important truth becomes ev

Whenever we as educators find ourselves at the crossroads of technology and ethics, a place we seem to inhabit more often than we’d like these days, we find myself seeking the counsel of "AI Gurus." Since Large Language Models (LLM) burst onto the scene in 2022, our schools have been at the center of a whirlwind. As we’ve navigated this new terrain, we have stumbled upon a few guiding principles that have become our Northstar. Tech Shift Fundamentals  AI isn’t just a new tool

Years in education, and most educators across countries, systems, programs, and roles are still puzzled by something that should not be puzzling at all. Schools exist to educate young people and yet the adults tasked with sustaining that mission often behave as if they are working at cross-purposes. The conflict between academic and business imperatives is so familiar that we barely question it anymore. We treat it as inevitable. Natural. Even healthy. But the longer we work

What began as a personal choice soon became a lifelong mission for Dr. R. Kishore Kumar. Moving beyond his early ambitions in medicine, he embraced education as a space for service, integrity, and meaningful impact. For over four decades, his leadership has nurtured generations of learners rooted in compassion, resilience, and social responsibility. Mentor Magazine traces his journey from his aspirations to his leadership. From One Noble Profession to Another As a young man o

Innovation is often perceived as a tangible outcome of new tools, emerging technologies, or breakthrough ideas. In reality, innovation is fundamentally a way of thinking: rooted in curiosity, imagination and the courage to explore the unknown. Within the educational ecosystem, educators - far more than any external reform or tool are the true innovators of the system. As designers of learning experiences, facilitators of thinking and architects of educational processes, educa