JONATHAN BERGMANN

USA

21st Century Literacies Learning Innovations

Jon Bergmann is one of the pioneers of the Flipped Classroom Movement. He is leading the worldwide adoption of flipped learning through the Flipped Learning Global Initiative (FLGI) flglobal.org. He is working with governments, schools, corporations, and education non-profits. Jon has coordinated and guided flipped learning projects around the globe. Locations include: China, Taiwan, Korea, Australia, the Middle East, Iceland, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Canada, South America, and the United States.
Jon is the author of nine books including the bestselling book: Flip Your Classroom which has been translated into 13 languages. He is the founder of the global FlipCon conferences which are dynamic engaging events which inspire educators to transform their practice through flipped learning.
He spent 24 years as a middle and high school science teacher before becoming the lead technology facilitator for a school district in the Chicago suburbs. Jon is a master storyteller, captivating audiences around the globe. He has a knack for taking complex things and simplifying them through story and humor. Jon hosts a radio show, The Flip Side, He also has a popular YouTube Channel with over three million views.
In 2002, Jon received the Presidential Award for Excellence for Math and Science Teaching; and in 2010, he was named Semi-Finalist for Colorado Teacher of the Year. He serves on the advisory board for TED-Education. In 2013, was named one of Tech & Learning's 10 Most Influential People of the Year, and was also a finalist for the Brock International Prize for Education and winner for the 2013 Bammy Award presented by the Academy of Education Arts and Sciences.

JENNIFER PEI-LING TAN

SINGAPORE

Assistant Dean (Knowledge Mobilisation), Research Scientist (Creativity, 21st Century Literacies and Learning)

Dr. Jennifer Pei-Ling Tan is the Assistant Dean (Knowledge Mobilisation), Research Scientist (Creativity, 21st Century Literacies and Learning), and Co-Convenor of the Creativity and 21st Century Competencies Research Task Force at the Office of Education Research, NIE, Singapore.
Having spent the early years of her professional life in the assurance and business advisory field with firms such as Arthur Andersen and Ernst & Young, Dr. Tan brings a unique combination of business, strategy and management skills to bear in her current role as an applied educational researcher and innovator.
She now has more than 15 years of professional experience working with schools, governments and industry partners to design, implement, and evaluate technology-enhanced teaching and learning initiatives, across public and private, national and international K-12 and tertiary education sectors in Singapore and Australia.
She holds a strong research portfolio in competitive funding and government-commissioned project. Dr. Tan�s expertises in learning innovations, research methods has led to a number of invited keynotes and speaking engagements in Singapore and internationally, in both academic and industry settings.
These include education innovations for 21st century learning outcomes (IGE, 2013), the potential of big data and learning analytics for transforming teaching and learning (WISE, 2013), and assessing and fostering collaborative creativity and criticality in learners (MOE, 2014; AHS, 2015; NAS, 2015).
private investment firm where she led a small team of educationists to develop, implement and evaluate a suite of curriculum and teacher professional development products aimed at fostering creativity and well-being in learners in low-income Asian countries.
She has served as Global Research Manager at the International Baccalaureate Organisation, a leading not-for-profit education foundation committed to developing internationally-minded and well-rounded young people. Her area of work includes global evaluation studies to examine the impact of IB educational programmes on student learning outcomes and teacher pedagogical practices.
From 2004-2010, as Research Fellow and Manager of the Creative Workforce 2.0 Program at theAustralian Research Council (ARC) Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI) in the Queensland University of Technology, Dr. Tan managed several government-contracted and industry-funded projects to implement and evaluate a range of techno-pedagogical and curriculum innovations aimed at promoting creativity and new literacies in students.
In her various roles, she has worked with learners and teachers from a wide range of socio-economic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds, including various marginalised groups such as academically at-risk learners in Singapore and Australia, young refugee and rural migrants from Africa, India and People's Republic of China.
She is deeply the passionate about improving learning and life outcomes of all young people through transformative education.

Dr. David Franklin

USA

Proper Assessment of Student Learning

Topic he is speaking on:Proper assessment of student learning and the attributes of a strong, 21st century school leader.
An Experienced School Admin, twice Principal of the Year, Professor of Ed, Ed Tech Pro, Curriculum Designer, School Board Member, Blogger, Speaker & presenter!
He is the CEO of The Principal's Desk, an experienced school administrator. Dr. Franklin has presented at national and international education conferences and conducts school and district professional development sessions.
He has Administrative and Teaching experience in primary and secondary schools . He is an experienced Adjunct Professor for several universities .
In working together with teachers, parents, community members and students at both the elementary and secondary levels, he has been able to focus learning on site developed goals and created an atmosphere of learning among his students that generated a significant increase in API; increase attendance rates; created Professional Learning Communities focused on academic achievement; implemented a site-based ELD Plan; developed and implemented a strong and successful Response to Intervention model; and increased instructional technology used in classrooms.
He was selected as an ACSA Principal of the Year for the Alum Rock Union Elementary District as well as one of the California League of Middle School's Educator of the Year. Recipient of Mt. Diablo Administrator of the Year award,2014.
Additionally, he works with several universities teaching and designing education courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in the areas of teacher education, educational leadership, research methods and leadership ethics.

AMIT GOYAL

INDIA

Innovation Specialist EdX India

Amit Goyal, in his new role as the edX India Country Head, will spearhead growth and drive momentum in India with a key focus on strategic alliances and corporate partnerships. Additionally, he will develop and deepen corporate and institute partnerships seeking innovative education options, such as blended learning environments, and cutting-edge technologies
Prior to joining edX, He was with Samsung India Electronics where he managed the education solutions business, creating new products and enabling learning and assessments on secure mobility platforms for enterprises, institutes and universities.
He was also the Vice President of Platform Strategy for Datawind Inc., the makers of Aakash Tablet for Ministry of HRD- Govt. of India and was responsible for adding world-class edutainment content on the cheapest PC tablet in the world. In addition to his strong industry experience,
Amit Goyal, edX India Country Head, added, "I am extremely delighted to be working with edX, I truly believe in its mission and vision of empowering learners and professionals of India. I am proud to take this mission forward as we collaborate with India's educational institutions and corporate networks to strengthen the profiles of edX learners around the world."
He holds a Master's degree in Business from Oxford Brookes University-Oxford, U.K. and a bachelor's degree in IT from BVP, India along-with various business and networking certifications.

RACHNA SHARMA

INDIA

Vice Principal, Silver Oaks - The School of Hyderabad

Rachna is Vice Principal at the Silver Oak School, Hyderabad. She has been in the field of education for the last 18 years. She works towards "inspiring young minds" and derives immense satisfaction by transforming young students into inquisitive learners. The joy of transforming impressionable minds into reflecting and learning young adolescents is unparalleled and gives her a sense of fulfilment. She strives to create learning environments where action-learning happens, with both hearts and minds, so that the learners grow with greater self awareness, independence & empathy for the world around them.
She believes in constant learning and continuous upgrading of skills for sustainability in a fast changing environment. She has attended various workshops in India and abroad, including from Harvard and Berkeley Universities. She has been a military leader's spouse and champions the need for adaptability, learning agility and self reliance. Being a mother of an adult daughter and an adolescent son keeps her rooted to the challenges that our youth and their parents face each day.

MELANIE KELLS

CANADA

Canadian International School Bangalore., St. Thomas University (CA)

"Learn to do by doing" is the motto of 4-H, a youth organisation that Melanie was actively involved in from age nine to twenty-one. It is her philosophy of teaching, too. She believes that modelling what you would like others to do is the best way to achieve results, whether with students or colleagues. She make mistakes, she admits them, and she hopes that her students would do the same.
Teaching, living, and experiencing the cultures of the Canada, United Arab Emirates, China, South Korea, and India since 1997 has allowed Melanie to teach science in a meaningful and purposeful way. Melanie currently lives in Bangalore, India with Shane and their children, Spenser and Braelyn. Since August 2011, she has been the Dean of Studies at Canadian International School Bangalore and has helped to implement a one to one iPads learning environment for students in grade 6-12.

SEETHA MURTY

INDIA

Director Education- Silver Oaks International Schools ( Hyderabad Bangalore Visakhapatnam )

"Destiny of a country begins in its classrooms", is the belief Seetha Murty brings into the learning programs of Silver Oaks International Schools.
She joined Silver Oaks Hyderabad as Principal in 2005 and emerged as Director Education.Having worked in Delhi, Mumbai and Shillong, she comes with diverse experiences and multiple perspectives on Indian education system and the Boards.
With the unique advantage of having taught from pre primary to Grade XII in CBSE Schools across India, she is thorough with National curriculum Framework and it's interpretations by different boards in all subjects at all year levels. Exposure to multicultural, social and geographical fabric of India, enables her to understand the context of schools, aspirations of parents and the needs of students.
By introducing International Baccalaureate program in Silver Oaks, she leveraged the potential of teachers and students to be high performers with a clear profile of character and competence.
Curriculum and Instructional design, teacher training, academic administration, team building and strategic management are her skills. As a leader, she inspires students, teachers, parents and the community professionally and personally. Times of India recognized her as one of the top 3 leaders in the state, in the Lead India Contest.
With Masters in Education and Masters in Political Science, Courses with Harvard and Stanford Universities, many IB workshops, and continuous study on past, present and future of education, she calls herself as the Principal Learner at Silver Oaks.
In recognition of her abilities, IBO selected her to be trained as International educator and she now trains Heads and teachers of International Schools in the Asia Pacific Region. She also inspects International Schools in their PYP standards and practices.
She travelled to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, to give talks, presentations or conduct training programs at IBO conferences and IB Schools. Visit to schools in Australia motivated her to create a research centre in Silver Oaks and encourage research based teaching and learning through cognitive methods.
As a speaker at three TEDx events, writer, blogger and passionate Himalayan trekker, she makes life a colorful canvas. Taking inspiration from Gandhiji's maxim, "you be the change you wish to see in the world", she creates Silver Oaks Schools as eco systems for inspired learning.

Ms. Irmeli Halinen

FINLAND

Head of the Curriculum Development, Finnish National Board of Education(FNBE)

Andreas Schleicher

France / Germany

Andreas Schleicher is Director for Education and Skills, and Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris.

Hanna Ragnarsdottir

ICELAND

Professor School of Education University Of Iceland

Susan Rafik Hama

NEW ZEALAND

School of Education, University of Iceland

Vicki Zakrzewski

USA

Education Director of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkele

Professor Shun-Wing NG

HONG KONG

Department of Education Policy and Leadership, Hong Kong Institute of Education

Pirjo Koivula

FINLAND

Counsellor of Education Curriculum Development Unit, Finnish National Board of Education, Helsinki

Dr. Fred Mednick

USA

Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Education After more than 20 years as a teacher and principal, Dr. Fred Mednick founded Teachers Without Borders (TWB) in 2000.

Mari-Pauliina

FINLAND

MA (Psychology), postgraduate student (Special Education), Project manager Centre for Educational Assessment University of Helsinki, Finland

Alok Ranjan

India

Alok Ranjan has over 30 years of experience in administrative services. A Delhi University student and a alumnus of IIM(A), Alok Ranjan belongs to the 1978 batch of the IAS.

Raj Shekhar

District Magistrate, Lucknow

Mr. Gopabandhu Pattanaik

India

Co-Chairperson, India Literacy Board,Lucknow

Reena Ray

INDIA

Reena Ray, Addtional Secretary, Dept. of School Education and Literacy,

Dr Jagdish Gandhi

Founder-Manager, CMS

Mr. Jagdish Gandhi founded the City Montessori School (CMS) in 1959 with only 5 students. Today, CMS is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world's largest school by pupils with over 36,000 students on rolls. CMS has also been awarded the highly prestigious UNESCO Prize for Peace Education 2002 - the only school in the world to be honoured with this award. CMS also organizes 24 international events as part of its unique educational philosophy and hundreds of thousands of children from all over the world participate in these events every year. Consequently, the CMS educational model which believes that "School must be the Lighthouse of Society" and which upholds that nurturing spiritual awareness in children must be the central focus of all educational activities, has grown into a veritable school of thought, impacting schools and educational organisations worldwide.

Dr (Mrs) Bharti Gandhi

Founder-Director, CMS

Mrs. Bharti Gandhi's name has become synonymous with City Montessori School and CMS Teachers' Training College in Lucknow. Her sincere devotion towards the education of children, training of teachers, upliftment of women and eradication of social evils, is widely recognized in educational circles. The CMS which she founded together with her husband, Mr. Jagdish Gandhi, now has over 35,000 students, a Guinness World Record for largest number of students in a single city.

Prof Geeta Gandhi Kingdon

UK

Chair, Education Economics & Int. Development, Institute Of Education, London University, UK

Dr. Sunita Gandhi

INDIA

Convenor, EDWW Co-Founder, Council for Global Education, USA

Nurjahan Begum

Managing Director at Grameen Shiksha (Education)
BANGLADESH

Nurjahan begum is currently the Managing Director at Grameen Shiksha (Education). Mrs Begum served as Acting Managing Director of Grameen Bank following the departure of Dr Muhammad Yunus from the post. She was also the First Principal of Grameen Bank Training Institute. She was one of the earliest associates of Professor Muhammad Yunus, when the latter started the Grameen Bank Project in 1976, in the village Jobra in Chittagong district of Bangladesh. She participated in the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit held in Los Angeles in 2007 and was also the President of the Foundation for Justice prize-giving ceremony held in Valencia, Spain in 2007. She was awarded the Susan M. Davis Lifetime Achievement Award 2008 by Grameen Foundation. She was also awarded World Summit Millennium Development Goals Award 2009 and the Vision Award 2009. Mrs. Begum studied Bangla Literature and Culture at Chittagong University.

Kiran Bedi

Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service(IPS) officer
India

Kiran Bedi is an Indian social activist and a retired Indian Police Service(IPS) officer. She joined the police service in 1972 and became the first woman officer in the IPS. Her expertise includes more than 35 years of creative & reformative policing & prison management. She worked with the United Nations in New York as the Police Advisor to the Secretary General in the Department of Peace Keeping Operations. She represented India in International forums on crime prevention, drug abuse, police and prison reforms and women’s issues. She is a recipient of the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award. She is the founder of two NGOs, Navjyoti and India Vision Foundation, which reach out to thousands of understanding children ,women and men in the areas of education, vocational skills, environment, counseling, and health care to the urban and rural poor, including prisoners and policemen’s children.

Pirjo Koivula

Counsellor of Education Curriculum Development Unit Finnish National Board of Education, Helsinki,
FINLAND

Pirjo Koivula is M.A. in Educational Administration, Research and Planning. She is qualified Primary School and Special Needs Teacher. She has postgraduate studies in Education and Specialist Qualification in Leadership and Management for Educational Administrative Personnel.

She is currently Counsellor of Education in The Finnish National Board of Education in the Curriculum Development Unit. She has the main responsibility of developing the achievement of all learners, special needs and inclusive education on national level. She has worked in cooperation with the Ministry of Education to draft national legislation and has been responsible of drafting the changes in the national core curriculum in the area of pupil support and inclusive education. After that her work was to support the implementation and to continue the Curriculum work in the area of the learning concept and pedagogical methods. Now she is chairing two work groups in new Core Curriculum reform.

She has cooperated with the Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in different development projects in South-Africa, Tanzania and Russia. She is a National Coordinator for Finland of European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education. She is also a Member of Common Board of State owned Approved Schools and a Vice chair of Board of Celia, National Library for the Visually Impaired. She is responsible for developing the state owned resource centres. She has also acted as a country representative in the projects of OECD´s Center for Educational Research and Innovation, CERI and UNESCO IBE.

Pirjo Koivula has also served as Department Head and Director of Education and Social Services in three different cities and before that as a principal.

She has contributed to the elaboration of several publications and strategies on the topic of inclusive education in pre-primary, basic and upper-secondary education. During past years she has had several presentations and keynote speeches in international scientific and professional conferences and seminars.

Shaun Hawthorne

Factors that Create a Visible Change
NEW ZEALAND

Shaun Hawthorne joined the Visible Learning educational consultancy team in February 2014. Shaun has over 20 years experience in working in the secondary schooling sector in New Zealand, most recently as a deputy principal in a co-educational Y9- 13 school in Auckland. Previously, Shaun has been the Head of two English departments and a member of the national executive of the New Zealand Association for Teachers of English (NZATE). Shaun holds a Doctor of Education degree specialising in effective practices in teaching writing.

Dr Manu Kapur

Head of Learning Sciences Lab (LSL)
SINGAPORE

Dr Manu Kapur is Head of Learning Sciences Lab (LSL) at the National Institute of Education (NIE) of Singapore and an Associate Professor in the Curriculum, Teaching and Learning (CTL) Academic Group.

He received his doctorate in instructional technology and media from Teachers College, Columbia University in New York where he also completed a Master of Science in Applied Statistics. He also has a Master of Education from the NIE and a Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering (Honours) from the National University of

Singapore. He conceptualized the notion of Productive Failure and used it to explore the hidden efficacies in the seemingly failed effort of small groups solving ill-structured problems collaboratively in an online environment. His current research extends this line of work across the modalities of classroom settings in Singapore

Dr. Fred Mednick

Founder -Teachers Without Borders
USA

Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins University School of Education

After more than 20 years as a teacher and principal, Dr. Fred Mednick founded Teachers Without Borders (TWB) in 2000. Dr. Mednick has advocated for the direct connection between teacher professional development and global change. Along with his role as head of TWB, he is also a professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education, where he teaches 4 online global courses for teachers.

Dr. Mednick received his B.A. at the University of California, his M.A. from Claremont Graduate School; and his doctoral degree from Seattle University. His dissertation, “The Qualities of an Educated Teen for the 21st Century,” was inspired by colleagues in Udaipur, and extends a UNESCO report into a model of education change. His research led to the founding of Teachers Without Borders so that teachers could connect to information and each other in order to advance education.

Prior to founding TWB, Fred served as the head of two prominent schools in the United States. He is the author of Rebel Without A Car: A Principal’s Guide to Adolescence, which has been published throughout the United States and Europe.

Teachers Without Borders has worked with the Clinton Global Initiative and received Ashoka’s Champion of African Education award. Fred has been a delegate at the prestigious Global Creative Leadership Summit four times, was Cisco Systems' guest at the Nobel Prize summit, and has consulted for the Commonwealth Ministers of Education as an advocate for the teacher’s voice.

Mari-Pauliina

MA (Psychology), postgraduate student (Special Education)
Project manager
Centre for Educational Assessment
University of Helsinki, Finland
FINLAND

The goals of basic education have expanded from developing students’ competences in the curricular subjects to enhancing their cross-curricular or transversal skills which are needed for all learning later in life. The Centre for Educational Assessment at the University of Helsinki was established in 1996 to develop an instrument for measuring learning to learn as the foundation for lifelong learning. Today, the Centre works in collaboration with schools and municipalities in the fields of educational assessment, research and development.

As the project manager of the Centre I am committed to the further development of methods for assessing educational equity in Finnish schools and for ensuring that assessment results and research can be utilized in developing practices at school-level. I also work as the vice-NPM of Finland in PISA 2015, coordinating the assessment of collaborative problem-solving.

I am particulary interested in the development of learning to learn skills - cognitive compentences and learning-related attitudes - in primary school, and the role of group processes in explaining differences in the development of pupils' learning-related attitudes. I am also interested in the implementation of the new three-tiered support model in Finnish schools - after all the Finnish way of supporting the weakest pupils can be seen as one of the key factors explaining the country's success in international comparisons such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).

Dr. Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury

Memory Trainer
INDIA

Dr Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury is two Guinness World Records Holder on Mind and Body. He has Authored more than 25 books on mind and body. His biography is included in Who's Who in the World -2013 edition, He has Specialization in The China Study from Cornell University USA and Certification in Raw Nutrition from Mint Culinary School Vietnam.

Dr Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury is an Internationally acclaimed memory trainer . He has conducted more than 2000 memory seminars and workshops nationally and Internationally and addressed more than 10 lakh audience. He is a prodigy in memory enhancement techniques. His techniques are well appreciated by the students, teachers, corporate decision-makers, housewives and professionals alike.

Besides being an Internationally acclaimed memory trainer, he is specialized in curing life threatening diseases specially associated with life style (Diabetes, Heart Diseases, High Cholesterol, Obesity, Arthritis, High/Low Blood pressure, Ulcer) using the power of mind & the nature science. He believes: “No one has the power to heal you, neither doctors, nor drugs have that power. It is within you, and in the nature around you”.

Bob Barata Lorton

President, Center for Innovation in Education, USA
USA

Bob Baratta-Lorton and his wife Mary are the co-founders of and chief curriculum developers for the Center for Innovation in Education, a not-for-prot organization whose purpose is to create curriculum in reading and mathematics for elementary school children of all socioeconomic backgrounds. The Center’s core belief, around which its curriculum is created, is that all children can learn and that every child matters. The curriculum developed by Bob and Mary’s Center aims at achieving learning success for every child in every classroom, with no exceptions.

The Center’s curriculum in mathematics, authored by Bob and Mary, is contained in the books Mathematics Their Way (for primary grade children) and Mathematics a Way of Thinking (for intermediate grade children). Both books are published by Pearson Education, and both are also available as free downloads from the Center’s website at www.center.edu. The Center’s curriculum in beginning reading, which is named after its Baratta-Lorton authors, but was given the name “Dekodiphukan” by the many teachers using it, is also available as a free download from the Center’s website. It is also now available as a set of 14 completely free, no strings attached, apps for the iPad.

The Center has a staff of over 300 instructors, all of whom are classroom teachers who have used Bob and Mary’s curriculum with their own students. Center instructors have provided curriculum training to over 500,000 teachers worldwide, including all fty of the United States, countries from Australia to Iceland, Chile to Canada, England to Turkey, Qatar to Hong Kong, and, of course, India.

Louka Parry

Principal-Mimili Anangu School
AUSTRALIA

Louka is principal of Mimili Anangu School in the Far Northwest of South Australia.Louka arrived at Mimili in 2009 as a new graduate teacher and through commitment and determination became the Principal in 2013. With a huge focus on integrating the demands of the Australian education system with the realities of life for his students, Louka has led an incredible team in Mimili that is seeing improved results for students living in very challenging conditions. In 2012 Louka was awarded the South Australian Inspirational Secondary Teacher of the Year and in 2013 was a keynote speaker at the Social Ventures Australia Great Teachers in Tough Schools Conference and the NARIS Leaders' Conference for the National Alliance for Remote Indigenous Schools.

Louka holds a Bachelor of Education/Arts, a Diploma in Language, a Master in Applied Linguistics and is currently on leave completing a Master of Instructional Leadership at the University of Melbourne. He is passionate about equality, community engagement and two-way schooling. He is an emerging leader hoping to contribute to a better system of education that inspires children and young people to find and follow their passions”

Gwyneth

Reader in Higher Education at the Institute of Education, London
ENGLAND

Gwyneth Hughes is Reader in Higher Education at the Institute of Education, London where she teachers on Masters programmes in Education and supervises doctoral students. She is leading a 3 year research project: Assessment Careers: learning pathways through assessment (www.ioe.ac.uk/assessmentcareers). She is on the editorial board for the journal London Review of Education. She has published widely on learning and teaching in Higher Education. Her book Ipsative Assessment: Motivation through marking progress is recently published by Palgrave Macmillan.

Alok Ranjan

IAS
India

Alok Ranjan has over 30 years of experience in administrative services. A Delhi University student and a alumnus of IIM(A), Alok Ranjan belongs to the 1978 batch of the IAS. Having started his career as the District Magistrate and collector of Ghazipur, he went on to occupy managerial positions at the UP Spinning Mills. This was followed by stints in sectors as varied as Municipality, Education, Finance, Agriculture and Technical and Vocational Education. Alok Ranjan served as Secretary to Chief Minister from 1998 to 2002. Currently working as the Principal Secretary, Urban Development and Environment, Uttar Pradesh,he has also authored books such as ‘The Collector today’ and ‘Towards Adult Literacy in India.’

Prof Geeta Gandhi Kingdon

Chair, Education Economics & Int. Development, Institute Of Education, London University, UK
UK

Geeta Kingdon is Professor of Education and International Development at the Institute of Education, London University, and was until recently a Research Fellow at the Department of Economics, University of Oxford. She lectures in Development Economics and her research interests include Economics of Education, Labour Economics and the Economics of Happiness, mostly in countries of South Asia and Africa. Her work is based on micro-econometric analysis of survey data and has resulted in more than 25 papers in peer reviewed Economics and Development Economics journals. She is on the Editorial Board of three academic journals and does extensive academic refereeing as well as advisory work for governments and donor agencies.

Dr. Sunita Gandhi

Convenor, EDWW Co-Founder, Council for Global Education, USA
INDIA

Dr Sunita Gandhi is Founder, Council for Global Education, USA, Dignity, Education Vision International, India, and the Education Society of Iceland (Islensku menntasamtokin ses). She has travelled to some 38 countries and studied their education systems. Her research-based work on education has been piloted in the UK, Iceland and India. She came back to India recently after 26 years overseas with a Ph.D. in Physics from Cambridge University, UK, where she received three merit-based scholarships, a ten-year tenure as an Economist at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., USA, where she was selected as a Young Professional, and after having established Iceland’s first two charter schools and an experimental school in the Czech Republic.

In India, Dr Gandhi has been fine-tuning and implementing a transformative education curriculum and assessments based on the principle of compete with yourself, which over 200 schools have adopted across India. With this large scale pilot, she is incubating an education more suited to the needs of children in the 21st century. The edifice of her efforts are constructed on the foundation of the Four Building Blocks of Education: Universal Values, Global Understanding, Excellence in All Things and Service to Humanity. In India, Dr Gandhi also serves as Honorary Chief Academic Advisor of her parents-run City Montessori School, Lucknow, the world’s largest school, a Guinness World Record Holder, and recipient of the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education.

Her latest project, Global Dream, is aimed at providing functional literacy to the illiterate masses. The results from the pilot are startling: Nearly 60,000 students from 150 schools of her city have taken up the campaign to teach at least one person. The unique and innovative Global Dream curriculum allows a person to become reading capable with just 10-15 hours of time investment over a month (with 15-20 minute sessions per day). Within a month, the curriculum has been taken up pan India and requests have come in from South Africa and China. The initial goal is 10 million new literates in India by the end of 2015.

Ms Susmita Basu

Head, Quality Assurance and Innovations Department,
INDIA

CMS Ms Susmita Basu is the Head, City Montessori School Innovations Department, vested with the responsibility of academic improvement at all the 20 branches of City Montessori group of schools in Lucknow. With a staff of over 40 teachers, Susmita has managed supervision and quality assurance, trained teachers, created curriculum guidelines, finalized each academic year syllabus and booklists and implemented the learning programmes at CMS