PUSMA is an Association of School Managements running Unaided, Privately-Managed Schools in and around Thane District. As shared by Archana Rodrigues, President of PUSMA and Founder member, Principal of St. Joseph’s High School and Global Academy, the association was started in the year 2000, registered under Societies Registration Act, 1860, and under Public Trust Act, 1950. This was the time when unaided school managements faced a lot of unwanted interferences from various sections of education sector.
PUSMA organised number of meetings and gatherings of school managements and stood as a group and sorted out various problems facing them. Over the years PUSMA joined other similar organisations and even taken up cases in the High Court and Supreme Court of India and won cases in favours of the managements.
Today, PUSMA has over 300 members actively networking, with other likeminded school organisations, from Maharashtra and also at the National level. coordinating, disseminating and sharing information, thereby helping them to function smoothly.
We, at PUSMA, today continue to grow in numbers as the pandemic has created a fresh crop of issues and difficulties for school managements across Maharashtra. We hope to bring about a positive change in the educational system with creative efforts and dedicated development. As shared by Archana Rodrigues, School Managements looking for support and sharing of ideas to ease their functioning are welcomed whole heartedly into PUSMA .
PUSMA frequently organizes various conferences and symposiums bringing together school leaders from across the globe. The PUSMA CONCLAVE, for future ready schools , was one such momentous event held on the 26th of February, 2022 at Hotel Ramada, Mhape, Navi Mumbai.
This CONCLAVE aimed to bring together eminent educationists from the policy making level, the chief change makers, as well as Academicians and School leaders working towards the implementation of the New Education policy. This will be a first of its kind organised full day event in Mumbai, elucidating the new school normal and the requisitions and ramifications for the same, in the light of the new National Education Policy.
It was attended by more than 130 school trustees and principals, from across South Mumbai, the Western and Central suburbs, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Kalyan, Dombivli etc. The Chief Guest was Manisha Pawar, Deputy Director, Regional Academic Authority, Mumbai, who delivered the keynote address.
The Sessions:
The first session to set the tone for the rest of the day was taken by the President, Rodrigues, herself was on Demystifying the NEP and the Strategies and timelines for its Implementation. She divided the policy for ease of understanding its application into its Regulatory, Financial and Academic implications for school heads. This was followed by a session by SC Kedia, legal counsel for PUSMA and Secretary of the Unaided Schools Forum, on the regulatory implications of the NEP.
The next session was a panel discussion on NEP implementation by a dynamic team of educationists: Usha Pandit, Dr. Reeta Sonawat, Dr. Vidhya Satish, Aarati Savur, moderated by Archana Rodrigues, elucidating and highlighting the challenges at the teacher training and the grassroot level in NEP implementation.
Post Lunch the first session was by Rajeev Garg, Principal of Datta Meghe School on the CBSE perspectives for NEP. This was followed by Simran Ballani, CCE Finland, who spoke about the implementation of the NEP with the help of the Finland Pedagogical model. The next address was by Revathy Srivasan, Principal of Singhania School, Thane, who spoke about the practicalities of the NEP on classroom transactions. The last session was taken by Dr. Ashok Salve, on the NEP implications in the higher secondary classes.
