About VIJAYA CLASSES
“Rome was not built in a day” So is ‘Vijaya Classes’. To achieve success in life, one needs to work hard. Then only dreams can come to reality.
Coming from a humble conservative family, getting graduated in Physics with a solid mathematical background, it was a dream come true to be trained at Regional Institute of Education, Mysore. As soon as the training is due to be completed, waiting in wings was the adhoc posting at Kendriya Vidyalaya, which was the privilege to teach along with the teachers who taught in graduation which was a boon in disguise for the events of life.
Blessed by her teachers and with the support of family Mrs Usha Sridhar started ‘Vijaya Classes’ in Thane, Mumbai. Teachers go through additional schooling, work nights and weekends, and somehow have a knack for holding on to their sanity while dealing with other people’s kids trying to adjust with all whims and fancies, for a social cause standing up to the fundamental right that” education is for all” and behind every successful person is a good teacher.
The journey of almost three decades was built on solid principles and values which impregnated to every cell of all the employees working for almost two and half decades without changing their organisation itself is a testimonial for the love and affection towards the fellow beings, for a prolonged time and rare of the kind that too in a place like Mumbai.
The perfect blend of work and personal life balance of all the women employees was something remarkable creating sustainability both academically and administratively creating impact on the student fraternity and extracting the exact required academic progress of a student by teaching the concepts clearly and also giving importance for slow learners and disabled learners equally, thereby compelling students to think. All the accolades go to the team of efficient women teachers who worked in tandem to make possible the sustainability of the organisation for past 27 years making the proverb “persistent efforts gain success” truly believable.
She always believed value-based education which promotes tolerance and understanding. This philosophy of value-based education percolated to all the fellow teachers and also to the next generation who readily imbibed the philosophy and doyen the mantle.
Not satisfied with her Pharmacy degree, she started involving in the public policies in the areas of primary, secondary education and finance. This made her pursue Finance post-graduation from a prestigious institute.
Not satisfied with her regular job, and Inspired by commercial the beautiful image of the strong little girl staring down the bull statue on Wall Street in which the message in their commercial was clear: “Companies with women in leadership do better than companies without” unleashed her untapped potential, started to visualize gap areas in School education, to create knowledge economy, by providing leadership, bringing in technological reforms in the organization, thereby creating jobs in the gap areas, and contributing to the overall growth and created sustainability in the organization, which measures her edupreneurial skills. She finds a balance between technology and traditional teaching methodologies.
As the pedagogy progresses, technology and the needs of the students change, edupreneur form and mold their attitudes and skills to meet the challenges of 21st century education. Our communities need edupreneur to find new ways to support, engage, and educate students at all levels.
Her implementation skills to build knowledge economy and technological economy clubbed with persuasion skills roped in one of the finest international schools in Mumbai to adopt her strategic marketing and managerial skills hence increasing the scalability.
Particularly as a woman leading a senior faculty, mainly made up of male staff. “The experience has definitely given me the confidence to make sure they respect me because, without that, nothing works,” she says.
In her own words “it was demoralising for me to foray the gender bias EDUpreneurship, getting stiff resistance from colleagues, the staff and students initially. I felt stuck, frustrated and like a failure on many levels, even though I was successful on the outside. I didn’t want cookie-cutter solutions, nor did I want a tired formula. I wanted principles and an approach that were tailored to unleash the woman in ME. I could not have made it, but for my passion, persistence and perseverance. I had a business that was built around my LABOUR, not around my assets. It took me couple of years to muddle my way through the process I now mentor to fellow women of urban or rural as my part of social responsibility on entrepreneurial skills”.
Apart from an EDUpreneur, she mentors women of rural and semi-rural areas to be self-reliant thus fulfilling her Social corporate responsibility for a powerful socio-economic cause.
Talking about her typical day, VJ explains that the majority of her time is spent communicating. “I would say 75 percent of the time is spent on talking to parents, teachers, students and, of course, other administrative staff such as financial management. Everyone is part of my day, but they always take the second priority. First priority is academics and students,” she says of course with a pinch that work life balance sometimes takes a hit but it’s OK till the time kids come out of examination hall with a smile.
