Sukanya Venkatraman – Principal at Special School in Navi Mumbai

Behind every successful person there is hard work involved, there is honesty and commitment. Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan Centre for PWID is an organisation, everybody is proud to be associated with, and why not? Special children of this school show great results, they are always smiling, most of their needs are fulfilled, it is managed by team of dedicated staff and well wishers and is headed by Shirish Poojari and Sukanya Venkatraman.

Sukanya Venkataraman is the Principal of Swami Brahmanand Pratishthan, Centre for PWID at Belapur, CBD, Navi Mumbai.

“I have worked with sincerity and dedication all through out my life at SBP. I have seen the school grow and take a unique place in the community. I have always worked jointly with the management, staff and parents as I know we can never be successful working alone.” Says Sukanya.

Sukanya’s  journey in this Special field began all of a sudden when her father, who was working for Sri. S.K.Birla as his personal secretary, introduced her to a special school supported by them. There was a training going on during that time and since she had just completed her graduation, her dad felt that she could benefit from the training program.  “I was apprehensive,”she says,  “as I had no experience of ever being with people with special needs. But his words still ring in my ears, ‘Sukanya , I think you will do well in this field as  you are very calm and patient’. I have always trusted my father and with no other thoughts on my mind, I enrolled in the training program at Kolkata in the year 1987. Since then till now there has been no looking back as I realised that my father was right.” 

When she joined SBP in the year 1992 the post graduation course that she had done in Kolkata, was enough to handle the class and work as a teacher. In the year 1998 some rules were made mandatory by the Central Govt and all teachers were expected to enrol with the RCI. Her certificate course was not considered valid at that time hence she had to undergo a bridge course to get certified as a professional working in the field of special education. She realised that she had to keep herself updated with the latest techniques and that her certificates were not enough.  

In the year 2007 she enrolled in the BED correspondence course offered by MP Bhoj Open University and NIMH. She completed B Ed. in 2009. Feeling the need to understand and empower herself with organisational skills she joined the PG Diploma course in Education Management and completed  it successfully.  

Her main challenge was her inexperience and lack of confidence but when she began to work as a teacher at SBP, she learnt to take each day at a time and was not shy to ask for help when she did not know something .

“My mentor, Shirish Poojari, was always very patient with me. Her vision and dedication to the field motivated me to take her on as my role model. Best way of learning is by doing what we all did at SBP. We supported each other and gradually I gained confidence.” Says Sukanya. “In order to motivate others I needed to be motivated, it was difficult initially as I moved from the post of a teacher to the post of Principal. My own experience was limited. Thanks to Shirish who guided me in this journey. As I started assessing the work of the staff I noted many loopholes. After discussing with Shirish mam I took steps to fill those gaps. Another mentor Ms. Pranita also greatly helped me during this period. I learnt many things from her. I started implementing whatever I learnt from shirish, Pranita and from my collegues.” 

Sukanya joined SBP in the year 1992 and served till 2006 as a teacher. Since then she has been serving as the Principal of the school. She has completed 28 years of service.  

As a principal her challenges were different. She possessed good skill sets for a class teacher but lacked managerial skills. She was often indecisive. She could not take the right decisions at the right time. Often she depended on the opinions of others. The other main challenge as a Principal were her colleagues. The transition from teacher to principal was tough. Initially her staff did not take her seriously. But as she moved ahead steadfast with the support of all the Trustees, they took her more seriously. They started looking up to her for support.

But she realised that did not help her much. At that time, she got the opportunity to update her knowledge through PGDEM course at Jankidevi Bajaj institute of management studies, SNDT. She did the course with ten experienced people, most of them leaders or heads of organizations. Her time spent was worth while as their experiences and knowledge helped her a lot. 

“There was good sharing of ideas. This helped me a lot to gain confidence and also initiate new working strategies at school.” She says

She organised an annual planning workshop where she took the views of all staff members while planning the years' program. This was taken as a positive step that bridged the gap between her and the staff . “I was a good listener and was keen to listen to the problems of the staff even though I could not solve all their issues...but at least I had taken a step forward. We decided to elevate some senior staff members as coordinators. This helped motivate them to a great extent.”

As a Principal, she has good rapport with the parents of the children because she believes that they are the strong pillars of the school and that they have major role in training their children and also are important resources for the school.  

“Although sometimes they don't realise their worth, the institution can greatly use the knowledge and expertise of  parents instead of hiring people from outside to do a particular task.” She says  “First and foremost is openness, transparency and straightforwardness. The parent-staff rapport is very crucial for the organisation as it will either make or break it. We need to handle parents with delicate care, at the same time we have to be realistic too. We need to have very good understanding of their needs, strengths and weaknesses. All communication channels have to be kept open. We need to be open minded as sometimes parents are better teachers. We can learn from them. The school, teachers and parents have to build a strong foundation for the child to develop in to a productive citizen.”she emphasises

She would like more youngster to follow this teaching profession. “It will be wonderful to have youngsters take up this most challenging profession. They bring in new ideas and innovations and the field of special education will be much benefitted by new technologies and strategies. I would advise them to be bold  and follow their dreams. This field may not be rewarding in terms of money or position but what we get from the children and parents is unconditional. It leaves us with a feeling of satisfaction and self worth.”

Sukanya received the Best Teacher Award in the year 2009 from the District Social Welfare Department, Zilla Parishad Thane, for her dedicated service. For Sukanya,  job satisfaction is not in winning unlimited awards but in seeing the progress in her school“ Job satisfaction for me is when I see my students accomplishing even the most simple tasks. When I see them smile with confidence. When I see the parents empowered and taking a keen role in their child's development. When I see my confident staff take up challenging roles.” She smiles proudly. “As a Principal, pride is to see that my school is high on safety issues for the special children. I have an important job of empowering the staff and parents for sustaining the good work that the school has been putting in all these years.”

With her retirement round the corner, her main focus is to train and empower the senior teachers. She has started Staff Development programs, Parent Development programs and Training of the senior staff to develop organization skills. The most efficient and dedicated teacher will be given the baton to carry on the service and take up the post of Principal after her. She has taken the responsibility of training the teachers for managerial skills and will select only the best.  

“I will be retiring from the post of Principal in the year 2023 but I don't think I will ever retire from my service to Swami Brahmanand Prathisthan. I look forward to being in the  next project of SBP called Brahmagiri” she says