38 cities, not including Dubai and Singapore. The journey started at Chandigarh and concluded in Mumbai. They went all across the country, left right, everywhere. Here’s a quick chat with the duo who carried the massive events on their shoulders.

Vishnu: The campaign map is a little confusing if you look at it, I mean, geography goes out of the window over here, doesn’t it? What’s that like?

Pickbrain: See, there’s a lot that goes into the planning of an event like this. So, on the face of it, while it looks like we are going from one city to another, there are so many entities which have to be taken into account, there is a ground team that sets things up, there is a TV crew which comes in there, so I think in the scheme of the plans that they do in terms of logistics, the last person that they would be concerned about is the quizmaster. I guess that’s really how it falls into place.

Rashmi: Also, about the exams, the convocation, and all of that. Its just that the institutes themselves are busy with a lot of things in between, a lot of events, so we have to plan accordingly, what’s ideal for all of these institutes.

Vishnu: This is pretty much making you guys expert travellers. Is there any mode of transport you all haven’t taken during this Crucible?

Rashmi: A ship, (laughs) I think we haven’t travelled by a ship.

Vishnu: You never know, there is still time for that. No, but there is just so much travel, you guys go from Jammu to Kerala, Kerala to eastern coast, then back to somewhere in the south and all that; doesn’t that take a toll on you guys?

Pickbrain: Not really. It is not something we really consider, or you know or, it doesn’t bother us beyond a point. You got to do it. A lot of people react that way, but through school and college, you keep telling yourself I’m going to do what I love doing. When you get to do what you love doing, you don’t complain and say, ‘I can’t travel everyday’. You can’t become a surgeon and say, ‘the patient fell ill at midnight’. You got to do the surgery at midnight, you love doing it then you do it.

Rashmi: I’d like to add to that. When you’re doing what you love doing, there’s a sort of enjoyment in what you do every day, and it’s not necessarily a job or work anymore; its like a permanent holiday that you take. So, I think, that’s how we function. Maybe not for everyone, but that’s how it works for us. When we go there, when we meet all of these college kids, any quizzers, or any knowledge enthusiast for that matter, we talk to them, and the way they are so passionate about these things, that gives us a lot of energy, so it doesn’t really get that tiring at all.

Vishnu: That’s an interesting point that you raised. You’re going to meet a lot of people from all across the country, right? And several times you hear about the fact that this is… the Crucible is going to small towns like a Trichy or an Anand or something like that. What is the level of participants that you meet over there?

Pickbrain: Cities have become redundant in terms of the quality of quiz. Geography has no meaning to it. It is just a location where the quiz is being held. Talent is everywhere, India has completely changed. It really does not matter where you come from as long as you know what you are taking part in and if you are reasonably prepared for that occasion. The turn-out at these smaller towns is way higher than some of the big towns. The passion in these smaller towns is way higher than the big towns, for the simple reason that they do not get as many events of a stature of a Tata Crucible. Quality wise, absolutely no reason for difference. To quantify that opinion of mine, 8 or 9 out of our national finalists this year are not from any of the big metros, there’s only one Bengaluru in the national final. So, that’s probably self-explanatory.

Vishnu: That’s a very interesting thing; this time around I remember reading a post of yours on Facebook as well, about how small-town India has really made a comeback, this story about the boys from Rajahmundry, that was quite a story. Both of you were there, what was that like? Watching that team really fight their way?

Rashmi: I wouldn’t want to talk much about the team, of course both the boys have put in a lot if effort and when I spoke to them they did tell me that the way people have been talking to them has changed in their college. The way people have been looking at them, the very perception about them has changed in college, that’s what they told me. But more than both the boys, the teacher that got them… who got them there, I would like to talk about her. Her passion and the continuous push that she kept giving those kids; not just those two boys, but she got I think, at least about ten to twelve kids every year. I’ve been going to Vizag almost continuously now, at least three to four years and I have seen her getting those kids every year.

Vishnu: But, she doesn’t help them. She does not help them.

Rashmi: Teachers do not do that, no, they don’t do that (laughs), but yes, she’s… she’s so into quizzing, and its more than just quizzing for them, with these kids who come from small towns like Rajahmundry. I am very sure, and I can say this, Tata Crucible is a huge achievement for them. It’s a platform where they get a lot of exposure, it’s not just knowledge, not just a factor of knowledge, but there is confidence. They are sitting in front of a crowd that they would probably otherwise, not be exposed to. They are confident to talk to anybody now, and its confidence and knowledge that goes together that helps them better, and it goes down in their resume too.

Vishnu: And they almost made it to the national finals…

Pickbrain: Yeah, they almost did. In fact, to add to what she said, it was probably a very humbling experience in a modern era where you tend to think that teachers are not like how they used to be, you know, some years ago, and so on and so forth. The teacher broke down seeing the students win! She’s literally crying… there’s tears out of joy! Sheer joy that her college won a Tata Crucible. That is the kind of commitment, we salute teachers like that.

Vishnu: Just before we began this season, we had Palak and Sudeep with us, the reigning champions, in the studio and they spoke about probably being in some sort of vacuum, some sort of a zone, during both the zonal and the national finals itself. I mean, we… I asked Palak how many teams were around him, and he remembered, I think he remembered about four of them. He didn’t remember the rest, he was just so focussed on the quiz. Now guys, you’ve been doing this for what, fifteen years now, how, what’s it like being the quizmaster when everyone is facing so much pressure?

Pickbrain: Pressure is something teams put on themselves. I personally believe that’s not necessarily the right way to play. In fact, more number of teams that lose out are the teams which come there with the intention of winning. The teams which come there to enjoy and celebrate knowledge as Tatas would call it, actually end up winning more often, which is why you see a lot of newer champions emerging.

Rashmi: I’ve seen both. There are many kids who have come to enjoy and won like that. But, I have seen many quizzers be in that ‘zone’ as well. Pickbrain is quite witty and humorous on stage and I have seen quizzers who are with him and they are laughing and all of that, but I’ve also seen quizzers who are… they don’t look left and right, they only listen to what he says when it comes to the question and they just look at the screen.

Vishnu: But, it’s a little scary though, isn’t it?

Rashmi:Of course! (laughs)

Pickbrain: No, it is. In fact, someone had commented on social media, it said, ‘Pickbrain why don’t you ask your teams to smile. It looks like they are all attending a funeral’. So, it is not a wrong observation, half of them I think take life a little too seriously. I think it starts with our schooling, you’re always conditioned and prepared to win. So, somewhere I think as a country we need to change that.

Vishnu: So, this is a landmark here for both the Tatas as well as the Crucible, fifteen years of the Tata Crucible. How has it changed from when you started all the way back in 2003?

Pickbrain: Oh, completely, I mean. What started as an eight-city event of about 800 teams or so taking part has today become 38 cities, add Singapore and Dubai, 40 cities; 8000 plus teams, that’s 16,000-odd people, 1.5 million people following in on social media. I think what started as a quiz, has become a movement. It’s a knowledge movement across the country, it has transcended geographic borders. It’s also become, perhaps, like, I’ve said it in past, the Wimbledon of quizzing in India, as far as campuses are concerned. Hats off to the Tatas for thinking it through and building this property, its truly overwhelming to be associated.

Vishnu: Rashmi, you’ve hosted a lot of the Crucible prelims and wild cards this year, what was that like? There’s a set there, lights come on and suddenly there are 800 teams sitting over there. What’s that like?

Rashmi: Umm…It’s a lot of fun actually, it’s a lot of fun. I learnt a lot myself. Yes, I’ve… I think I draw from my teaching experience when it comes to this but…I think I give too many clues though, maybe that comes from my teaching days but it’s a lot of fun. Its very nice to see everyone so very interested and so deeply into something of knowledge value. The colleges that come in, I think there were some unlikely colleges that came in this time, who have not taken part in Crucible before. And, they got exposed to a platform like this and the expression on their faces was overwhelming for me to see because they don’t get such opportunities at all and they were happy about what they were doing, and there was this sense of ’I can do this’, you know. That really gave me a lot of… made me feel, okay, thank god I’m doing something worthwhile with my life. After all, knowledge knows no boundaries.

Vishnu: Well, that’s actually a beautiful line, knowledge knows no boundaries, Crucible is a beautiful place. Now, I think we have covered pretty much everything we wanted to speak about, let’s look at your travel schedules. In all this, I refuse to believe that…

Pickbrain: You seem very curious about travel.

Vishnu: I like travelling, but out of all of this, I find it really hard to believe that there’s not been one missed flight, one train that ran late, anything like that? 

Rashmi: We plan well. We plan well…

Pickbrain: We did have…we did have a few jitters this time. We do have it every year because the schedule is tight. One city to another every day, and you know this year I think we did 22 cities in 26 days, yeah.

We did have one incident, this was Varanasi and the whole crew, everyone was on the same train; we were going to Patna. We woke up at early hours, I think, was at 6 or 6:15 in the morning. All just got into the train and crashed. Then at about 8:30 or so I think, hunger woke us up and we woke up and realised we are still in Varanasi! So,¬¬ I asked what happened, the train is still here, and then realised that there was some track related issue and the train left at nine and we barely reached about in time for the quiz!

Vishnu: Let’s not jinx that then. We wish you good luck and cannot wait to see you until the next season!

The national finals of the Tata Crucible for Campuses 2018, was held on Saturday, April 14, 2018, at the Taj President in Mumbai.

National Winners

PES University, Bengaluru

International Winners

NIT, Kurukshetra

A Gandhian, an Indian cooperative organiser and an activist, Ela Bhatt is the woman behind Self-employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA). SEWA was started in 1972 as a trade union which represented female textile workers in India who were self-employed. Born in Ahmedabad, Bhatt is the daughter of a successful lawyer and a strong activist for women’s rights in India. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and then in law, specialising in Hindu Law. She taught English for a while at SNDT Women’s University before she joined the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in 1955. In 1968, Bhatt was asked to head the TLA Women’s Wing, for which she went to Tel Aviv and studied for a diploma in Labor and Cooperatives.

The main aim of this Women’s Wing, which was formed in 1954 by Anasuya Sarabhai, was to facilitate and help the women who lived in the households of mill workers. The Wing focussed on training these women in different skills such as sewing, knitting, press composition typing and stenography. The wing only grew bigger when it was realised that women were not being given their fair share at their workplace.

In 1971, a group of women working as cart-pullers visited the women’s wing of TLA in hopes to get better accommodation. After talking to them, Ela Bhatt visited the market area they worked in. Over there, she chanced upon another group of women, head-loaders this time, and spoke to them about jobs and their irregular wages. This meeting led to the publishing of an article by Bhatt in the local newspaper, who wrote a detailed piece about the problems of the head-loaders. Many merchants, to save themselves, published a counter article claiming fair treatment of their workers. The Women’s Wing used that as a leverage and printed the claims made by the merchants on cards and distributed them.

As the success story of the ploy spread, a group of used garment dealers approached the Women’s Wing to voice their dilemma. Later, a public meeting with these used garment dealers was arranged, where over a hundred women were present. It was at this meeting that a woman suggested they form an association. After a few doubts and hurdles, SEWA was formed in December 1971, and put to action in 1972. Ela Bhatt became the general-secretary and Arvind Buch, the President of TLA, became the President of SEWA as well. Today, SEWA is a trade union organised by women working outside a traditional set-up of employer-employee. The organisation is for women workers whose demands are not being met by conventional labour unions. The main goals of SEWA are to provide employment and self-reliance to its members, to be able to facilitate development and curb poverty. SEWA members were organised into groups based on their occupation as well as other groups like producers’ group, rural savings and credit groups. Beyond that, the organisation helped address issues like housing, child care, education, healthcare and violence against women. SEWA also provided banking facilities to its members.

                                                                                                        Image:SEWA logo

In fact, the first cooperative bank established by SEWA was opened by Bhatt herself in the year 1974, which provided women with loans to start their own businesses. It also helped these women in financial counselling, in terms of guiding them in their ventures. She also co-founded the Women’s World Banking in 1979, which is a global network of microfinancing that assists women across the globe in terms of setting up their small business. She served as the chairman of the organisation from 1984 and 1988 and was a member of the Rajya Sabha where she chaired held position till 1989. While in Parliament, she was the head of the National Commission on Self-Employed Women and was in-charge of investigating female workers and their conditions.

                                                                         Image:SEWA Hansiba Store; with Hillary Clinton

She has been a part of other such organisations and has also assisted the World Bank on microfinancing. She is a co-founding member of The Elders, which comprises of 12 world leaders. The aim of this group is to work towards solving human violence and suffering while using peaceful methods. The group has leaders like Muhammad Younus, Kofi Annan, Gro Harlem Brundtland and Hira Jilani. They have worked on matters such as climate change, poverty and political conflicts; like the Israeli-Palestinian struggle. As a part of The Elders, Ela Bhatt works on issues revolving around equality for women and girls and fights against child marriage. She has travelled to Middle-East and in 2010 visited Gaza to spread the message of non-violence and to urge people to use peace as a method of solving whatever issues may exist.

Over the years, she has received many honorary degrees and awards for her work. In 1977 she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. She was given the Padma Shri in 1985 by the Government of India and a Padma Bhushan in 1986. In June 2001, Harvard University granted her an honorary degree in Humane Letters. In 2010, she received the first ever Global Fairness Initiative Award for her work with the underprivileged women of India. She has authored books such as, ‘We are Poor but So Many: The Story of Self-Employed Women in India’, ‘Anubandh: Building Hundred Mile Communities’ and ‘Grind of Work’. These have been translated to languages like Urdu, Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil, for widespread readership.

It wouldn’t be amiss to say Ela Bhatt is the epitome of what a gentle but effective leader should be. She took the cause of women which was at a micro-level and created an awareness about it at a macro-level, to help a silent community. Her dedication to the cause of empowering women has led to millions of women becoming self-employed and independent. This has not only helped the female population, but also the economy of the country. Her balanced take on human ecosystem has made her one of the strongest voices of peace and non-violence in the world. She is a sheer inspiration to the world, at a stage where imbalance prevails and we all strive for equilibrium.

Name: Dayita Bira Datta
Based in: Assam, India
USP: Being the winner of Mastermind India, 1998

Her Story
Dayita grew up in Calcutta (now Kolkata) in a family of avid readers. Her father was very knowledgeable about history and current affairs and discussed them openly. He also had an extensive personal library. These influences nurtured her love for history and literature. Since her childhood, she also loved the rush of answering questions through quick recall. She keenly participated in classroom quizzes and discussions.

In the 1970s and 80s, Dayita actively quizzed with a lively quizzing circuit in Calcutta. She specialised in history and English at college. In the late 80s, she left for Dehra Dun to take on the role of a teacher of history at Welham Girls’ School.

Later, during her short stays in England, she became an ardent viewer of BBC Mastermind. She discovered that she could answer a fair number of the questions that were asked on the show. At that point, she never thought that Mastermind would launch in India.

One day, Dayita was contacted by the organisers of Mastermind India, to participate in a selection round. This incident happened 11 years after her last tryst with quizzing, and the selection round was in Calcutta. She almost did not participate, as she was to travel out of the country on the day of the selections. The questions were then faxed to her and she faxed the answers back. ‘I thought I did all right and forgot about it,’ she says. A few days later, she was informed that she was qualified for the show. It turns out, she had obtained the second highest score during the selections.

Having qualified, Dayita chose her specialist subjects for Mastermind— the ascent of Mount Everest from 1900-1990, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and the Indian National Army, and the life and works of the British naturalist Gerald Durrell. She created a diagram of Everest and made detailed notes on it. She prepared mind maps for the other two topics. As far as the general round was concerned, Dayita ‘just hoped for the best’. Little did she know, that her name would go down in history as the first winner of Mastermind India.

Despite her victory, Dayita clearly believed that quizzing is more of a medium which facilitates quick recall than one which proves an individual’s true knowledge. She is of this opinion even today. Hence, after winning Mastermind, Dayita went on with her career as a teacher of history. She used her ‘junkyard memory’, as she calls it, to ‘dredge up little nuggets to season her lessons’. She also employed cartoons, newspapers and films to liven her classes. She encouraged classroom discussions on contemporary events and referenced works of relevant fiction to her students. She assigned book reviews as projects.

With time, she evolved into being the Vice-Principal of Welham Girls’ School. In mid 2017, Dayita retired from Welham. She is now a senior teacher of history at Assam Valley School in Balipara, Assam. To Dayita, history is not about learning facts, but about developing intellectual skills. Over the course of her career, she has influenced many of her students with her infectious love for history and continues to do so.

In her free time, Dayita indulges in omnivorous reading. She enjoys reading about topics such as the history of science, travel, nature, literature and of course, general history. She enjoys listening to jazz, western classical and classic rock music. She also has a penchant for birding. She was quite the backpacker in her youth and loves to visit art galleries, museums and wildlife sanctuaries.

Major Achievements

                                     Datta with Amitabh Bachchan on the sets of Kaun Banega Crorepati

In 2003, Dayita was bestowed with the National Award for Teachers by the Government of India. She received the award from the then-President, Late Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam.

In 2004, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Gems Education Foundation, after being nominated by her students.

Post her Mastermind victory, Dayita continued her association with quizzing, albeit sporadically. She helped in setting the questions for a few special rounds, for the subsequent seasons of Mastermind India. She was the ‘friend’ for an acquaintance on the popular game show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’. Later, she was also a panelist in the ‘Triguni’- a panel of three experts- on the same programme.

Dayita has co-authored a series of history books with a friend, for classes 3-5. She has also collaborated on a series of general knowledge books called ‘Do You Know?’, for classes 1-8.

While working at Welham Girls’ School, Dayita oversaw the school’s quiz club. She set questions for intra-school and inter-school quizzes as part of her role.

Dayita also writes book reviews and film reviews, many of which have been published in The Telegraph.

Dayita belongs to a women’s travel club and has led tours for them to Europe, Uzbekistan, Ladakh and China.

She has also conducted workshops and has been a panelist at many seminars.

Dayita Bira Datta can be reached at:
Phone: 91-97487 54862

An active youth leader since his student days,Mohamed Irshad is the Founder and President of Roses of Peace, a non-profit organisation driven by the youth in Singapore to strengthen religious harmony and create a community based on peace and compassion.In 2018, he was appointed as a Nominated Member to the Parliament of Singapore. He also serves as a member on the Facebook Community Leadership Global Advisory Board and on the Panel of Community Advisors for Honour (Singapore). He serves as an advisor/ambassador for various organisations such as REACH Singapore, OnePeople.sg, Singapore Kindness Movement, and Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative (YSEALI). In recognition of his contributions to the community, Mohamed Irshad was awarded the President's Volunteerism & Philanthropy Award and the MUIS Inspiring Youth Award. He is a knowledge enthusiast and two-time international finalist at Tata Crucible Campus, Singapore.

Catch some glimpses from this exclusive interview with Mohamed Irshad, by Knowledge Tribe’s Rashmi Furtado.

KT : Tell us how the Roses of Peace (ROP) initiative started in Singapore.

Mohamed Irshad: Roses of Peace is a ground-up, youth-driven initiative that seeks to bridge the gap in interfaith discourse by connecting faith, service and diversity to empower youth to be change leaders and peace ambassadors. Too often in our world today, religion (and race) can become a barrier that divides, rather than unites us.

In September 2012, in wake of the global protest against the demeaning caricature of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) published by Charlie Hebdo, Roses of Peace began as a simple idea of giving out roses with attached greeting cards bearing quotes of peace, love and unity from luminaries such as Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Jesus Christ, Gautama Buddha, Guru Nanak and from religious texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, amongst others. It was an interfaith response to exemplify the religious unity in Singapore, involving not just the Muslim tertiary students, but also youth from other faith groups.

The founding fathers of Singapore have worked hard to build an ethos of religious harmony amidst our diversity. Roses of Peace recognises the need to continue to build on this good work and contribute to the advancement of a more cohesive society. At Roses of Peace, we believe that diversity in faith is a strength and can serve as a bridge for deeper cooperation, especially in the context of Singapore’s multi-religious, multi-racial and multi-cultural society, by fostering co-operation through common good.

                                                                                                 Image: Mohamed Irshad

Through its activities, Roses of Peace has effectively reached out to over 40,000 people and engaged over 2,000 youths. The unique programmes delivered by Roses of Peace— Interfaith Conferences, ROP Youth Forums, Faith in Leadership Symposiums and more recently, its Ambassador Programme and Connectors Programme— have united the hearts of people across faith, race and tradition by deepening understanding and strengthening trust, for a common cause of promoting peace, harmony and social cohesion.

Over the years, we are proud and delighted to share that we have registered Roses of Peace as a non-profit organisation and have the President of Singapore, Her Excellency Madam Halimah Yacob as our patron.

KT : You often advocate the importance of turning a crisis into a positive movement. How difficult is it to do that? What challenges did you face?

MI: As exemplified by the genesis of Roses of Peace, I believe that there is definitely more than one way of framing an issue. In life, I believe that you have to always frame any issue in a positive light. The old saying of looking at a glass as half full or half empty highlights this. As an optimist by nature, when you approach any situation or a crisis positively, there is always an opportunity to do good and effect change.

When I started out, people where criticising and questioning the impact of giving out Roses for free. Little did they expect that this simple act would blossom over the years, into a huge movement and organisation. My advice to the youth is that there will be naysayers. But as long as you have firm belief and conviction in what you set out to do, you will be able to achieve it. The setbacks that you face in life and especially in my journey at Roses of Peace, have to be taken in your stride and looked at as stepping stones that will only make you stronger once you overcome them.

KT : Do you see peace, harmony and love as concepts applicable the world over? Do you see ROP becoming a global movement for the youth?

MI: Absolutely! The world we live in today is getting increasingly polarised by all sorts of tensions tearing our social fabric apart…

Continue reading the interview in our magazine, as Mohamed Irshad talks about leaders who inspire him, his advice to youngsters, and his view on knowledge.

Principal of Farmhouse Montessori School, Sydney; teacher with over 20 years of experience across the globe; mountaineer; advisor to numerous schools on pedagogy and teaching; philanthropist; co-founder of educationinfluence.com, an initiative to connect teachers and educators across the world; LinkedIn Global Goodwill Ambassador for Australia, 2017 and nominee for Australian Author of the Year, 2017. We are talking about Gavin McCormack, the man who has been revolutionising education world over. Aaqilah and Sweta from the Knowledge Tribe caught up with him, amidst his busy travel schedule. Here’s part-2 of this interview.

Click here to read part-1.

Gavin McCormack: : That’s a very interesting point. There are three strategies that I use, which you can share with your readers. The first is to make it personal. You need to have your face out there. For example, I am in all of my posts. So, it is not that I am just preaching, but people see that I am doing what I tell others to do. This way you are building a rapport with your audience.

Number two is- don’t sell anything. I am not selling anything to anybody. A lot of people say, ‘Hello, I would like you to follow me, login to my website to buy this and call me for this’. Ideally, people delete those messages, because they don’t want to be sold anything. You are on a platform to make connections and to educate yourself.

The third important thing is to be humble. I am not asking you to believe me; I am not telling you that this is the right way. I am just telling you that this is one of ways via which it works. You don’t have to do it, but you can if you like. Nobody likes arrogance. I am not saying I would influence and my platform also doesn’t say that I am an influencer; it just says that I am a teacher, because that’s what I am.

KT: Let’s ask you something practical. We are sure that you need to deal with families, because parents may not want to educate their children or the girl child. What do you do about this?So, you do these three things, and you will win. I started with one follower and reached a hundred thousandfollowers sooner than I had imagined, so it works, but it takes time. But you need to remember that the response is not always going to be positive. I get lots and lots of positive messages, but I also get lots of negative ones. However, at the end, I know that what I am doing is for the right reasons. It is not about me. In fact, I travel during my school holidays for this cause. So, it is definitely not about me.

GM: Well, some cultural differences are very hard to deal with. For example, if you are teaching in Afghanistan, girls are not allowed to go outside their house. So, it is very difficult to deal with that. But I firmly believe that education starts at home. In a month, a child can attend only around 120 hours of school, when compared to 500 hours of education at home. So, the first job of any school, school leader or the administration is to meet the parents and get them on board. If you haven’t dealt with the parents first, then you are fighting a lost battle. Educate the parents and tell them about the school philosophy, about what the school promotes, and that you expect them to promote the same at home; because if the school is promoting one thing and the parents are promoting another, the parents will always win.

KT: Tell us about a couple of memorable experiences that you have had across the globe.

GM: Okay, I can think of so many memorable experiences. The first would be when I was in a small village in Kavre, Nepal, in 2017. I was building a school there. I run a charity to raise funds for the schools in Nepal and build one every Christmas. So, I invited the children of the village to attend an art class. I had set up some tables, and when the children came, I showed them how to draw a picture on a piece of paper. These children had never seen a piece of paper. When I was drawing the picture, the children’s eyes were popping out; they couldn’t believe what I was doing! How was I drawing a picture of a tiger? They were so amazed. I told them to take some sheets of paper and paint their own pictures. Approximately a hundred children were there, and they painted flowers, trees, houses, and nearly everything. One girl named Pooja, who was around eight years old, walked towards me and handed over a piece of paper. She had painted a picture of me and her and asked for another piece of paper. This brought tears in my eyes. I realised that all she needed to be happy, was the sheet of paper. In today’s world, people want Versace, Gucci and other brands and mansions of money, but the simplest thing is that we need to make others happy. These kids don’t need material things; they just need these simple things.

KT: That’s beautiful.

GM: Yeah, the other memorable instance is when I built another school in south Nepal. One day, the sun was about to set and a man got down from his bike and walked up to me. He was probably 80 years old. He shook my hand and said “Hello”. I replied, “Hello”. I asked him where he was coming from, but he couldn’t speak English, so I asked someone to translate to him. I was told that he had read in the newspaper that I was coming to his village, so he rode around 150 km on his own, just to meet me and say ‘Hello’. That was beautiful.

KT: Wow. That’s really amazing, Gavin. So, last question from us—how would you define knowledge?

GM: That’s a very, very hard question, but it think that it’s very simple to answer. So, knowledge in my understanding is being able to understand what problems we would face in the long term and gathering a set of skills, either by yourself or within your community, to be able to tackle those problems as a team. I have a really good analogy for this. As an individual, you may have a skill—you are a writer, so your skill is writing; I am a teacher, so my skill is teaching. So, when I went to a village in Nepal, wanting to build a school, I sat together with all the people of the village. I asked them if there was a carpenter in the gathering. Someone raised their hand. I asked him if he could make shelves, and he said yes. I asked if there was a bricklayer. Someone said yes. I asked if anyone knew plastering. Someone raised their hand. So, the people of that village had the combined skills to build a school, but they didn’t realise that they could work together and solve their problems. Two weeks later, a school emerged. After I left the village, they built three more schools without me. I think that’s what the Knowledge Tribe is about as well. That’s probably why you have the word ‘tribe’, which symbolises a group of people working together. This is always the analogy I use when people ask me this question.

KT: Brilliant. Thank you so much for your time, Gavin. This has been an absolute pleasure and a beautiful experience.

GM: Oh, I am really happy to be a part of this. Looking forward to catching up with you guys again soon.

Principal of Farmhouse Montessori School, Sydney; teacher with over 20 years of experience across the globe; mountaineer; advisor to numerous schools on pedagogy and teaching; philanthropist; co-founder of educationinfluence.com, an initiative to connect teachers and educators across the world; LinkedIn Global Goodwill Ambassador for Australia, 2017 and nominee for Australian Author of the Year, 2017. We are talking about Gavin McCormack, the man who has been revolutionising education world over. Aaqilah and Sweta from the Knowledge Tribe caught up with him, amidst his busy travel schedule. Here’s part-1 of this interview.

Knowledge Tribe: So, you were in Thailand last week. Were you there on work?

Gavin McCormack: Yes, I was helping two Montessori schools in Chiang Mai set up their new curriculum. I am also advising them on how to run a school in terms of enrolment and structure, and on marketing.

KT: Gavin, you have taught across the globe. How would you compare your experience in Thailand with the rest of Asia, or with other parts of the world?

GM: Ok, let me tell you where I am coming from. I graduated in England, where I worked for five years as a teacher in a Pakistani school which had a lot of refugees. Then, I moved to France where I worked as an au pair, teaching one-year-old children. From there, I ended up in Australia where I worked in an Islamic school for 10 years. After this, I retrained as a Montessori teacher and now am the Principal of a Montessori school. I also run a teacher training centre in Kathmandu, Nepal and manage the structure of four schools in India and Nepal.

Now that you know my background, let me tell you what I think about world education. So, here’s what I think. I think that at the moment in the world, we need to make changes in order to save the planet which is in trouble. We know that global warming is a problem; there is pollution, there are famines, there is segregation of races, there is social conflict, there are also problems with rights and equality. Unfortunately, the fact is that the problem lies in education. The education prevalent in countries such as India, Bangladesh or Myanmar is what we call very ‘prescribed’; it is a very fact-based curriculum. Everyone learns facts in order to graduate. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for a country and those countries are ones with huge population. China and India have more than three billion people together, which is almost half of the world’s population. Now those children are learning but are not able to tackle the world problems because they are learning facts. They are not learning competencies and skills.

So, my problem is that the countries that are doing really well in education like Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Australia, Switzerland, England, and so on, have a very small population for about 30-50 million. If you combine Sweden with Denmark, Finland, Australia and England, that’s still only a 100 million people, which is not even one-tenth of India’s population. So, although the countries such as these are doing really well, they are not going to change the world because they are too slow. So, in order to save the planet, we need to go to India, China, Bangladesh, Indonesia and we have to help put some structure and rigour into their education systems, so that they can make a difference.

KT: Describe the education system that you grew up with.

GM: Well, I mostly grew up in Northern England, where the education is not as good as the south. The south is very commercial, with London, Birmingham etc., while the north is very industrial, so all the money is in the south. I lived in a very rich area, so everybody around was rich and we were poor. Hence, I wanted to succeed and I knew that I have to fight my way to the top. I was not lazy and I didn’t want to be one of those people who complains about how hard their life is.

My education wasn’t that great; it was very directive and prescribed with fact-based lessons, but I had a couple of good teachers who inspired me to fly when I was given the chance to do so. So, I started to travel the world and began gathering a lot of experience. I lived in France, Spain, Korea, Australia and India. Whenever I travelled, I did so with an open mind and an open heart. So, I met people from different cultures, learned from them, ate what they ate and listened to their stories. I also learned a philosophy—the greatest education that you can get as a teacher is by travelling, because when you have travelled the world and you go into the classroom, you have amazing experiences and stories to share, that the children will be so inspired by you. When a child asks you about China, you can show them pictures of times when you were in China. When they want to learn about Islam, I can tell them stories about the time when I was in Saudi Arabia or show them a picture of me at the Great Mosque. This is when you become an inspirational teacher, because you have not just educated them academically but educated them globally. There is a difference there, so that is my angle; I am educated globally. Academically, I don’t have a Ph.D., I don’t have a master’s degree, but I am trained in Montessori, primary and early childhood education.

KT: Tell us what according to you, are the key life skills that need to be incorporated in a school’s curriculum.

GM: Well, there are two things. The first is to look at the outcome and question the intention when you are planning a lesson for children. Teachers must ask themselves why they are bothering to teach a particular topic to the students. For example, in history, instead of teaching the list of all the Prime Ministers of India, teach students about the mistakes that the leaders of the past have made, or look at those who have made some really influential decisions so that we can all learn from them. Such lessons impart valuable life skills that could make the world better, such as time management, compassion, inclusion, democracy and acceptance. Nobody in the world is going to clear a job interview by just memorising the names of the Prime Ministers. We need the children of today to go into the world as leaders. Does that make sense?

KT: Absolutely. So what has the response been like, to all of your efforts towards this?

GM: Well, usually, when I go to schools, observe the classes and meet their management to tell them that they need to make some changes in their education system, they usually ask why. When I explain why, they are usually very excited and can’t wait to start. Since the work I did at Iqra International School in Bengaluru, India—though it was only a three-day workshop—I have received nearly 150 requests from different schools across China, Thailand and India, asking me to come down for a teacher-training workshop with them. So, there is a demand for this movement, but there is a shortage of skill.

KT: You say that there is a demand for this movement. Could you elaborate on that?

GM: Yeah, of course. In fact, I would like to mention four things that illustrate this. Firstly, I put out a daily dose of educational pedagogy and practices to improve teaching, through my social media. Thousands of people benefit from this, and so can anyone out there. Second; people can get involved in my projects as volunteers, to help. All I need is for schools around the world to spread the word that there are children in Nepal who need a library. I help in collecting books and posting them to a fund raiser. Any of your readers can do the same.

Third is for all the teachers out there. You are a bridge between a child and a problem. All you have to do is let the child see the problem, analyse it and solve it, with you delivering the needs. That is my goal as well—to act as a bridge between schools and teachers around the world, enabling them to solve problems. Fourth is that my ultimate goal is educational equality for everybody around the world. I run a global teaching platform called educationinfluence.com. This is a great resolve for teachers around the world. There are five representatives in India and I have handpicked 196 of the best teachers around the world. So, teachers anywhere in the world can connect with the local representative or influencer, for free educational resources.

KT: So how do you go about training teachers so that they can educate children in the right way?

GM: I think that the only way to really tackle this is to talk to the people who are in-charge—the government, the education minister—so that they can make some administrative changes. I say this because a lot of schools are following curricula which are teaching them facts. When the government comes in to assess the schools and see what facts are been taught, changes will take place.

KT: Ok, so you have had many honours come your way, like being appointed the Global Goodwill Ambassador for Australia by LinkedIn and being nominated for the Australian Author of the Year in 2017. What opportunities have they brought you regarding your goals?

GM: I am a school principal, which is a wonderful job in Sydney and I am not going to leave that. Now that I have people following me online, I am becoming a public figure and people are listening to me. When I write something, people take it on, and I am making a difference. My aim is to continue to grow in terms of my network and to keep putting out good content. There are many teachers around the world who haven’t had formal training. For example, in India, you do not need formal training to run a childcare centre. In Nepal, it only takes a month for someone to become a teacher and there is only so much that one can learn in a month. So, the teaching could be very, very bad. The structure of early childcare is also very loose and that’s sad because those are the foundation years. That’s my ultimate goal—to provide good content which untrained teachers can copy, follow, read and learn. I guess that’s why I was nominated for Australian of the Year—because I am trying to make a difference.

KT: You mentioned how more and more people are listening to you, but how difficult was it to arrive at this position? Often, people like you, who are trying to bring reforms, tend to come across as preachy and get brushed aside. How do you come across in the right way to others?

GM: That’s a very interesting point. There are three strategies that I use…click herefor part-2.