According to the syllabus of traditional schooling, all perspectives are viewed through one lens – the examination. The bookish practices, which are based on the conservative methods of meritorious systems, place a greater emphasis on pupil memorization than on the holistic development of their personalities.
Despite its long history, this pedagogy has consistently shown its severe limitations, as students are finding it increasingly difficult to deal with the increasing pressure brought about by globalization, modernization, and digitalization. Due to frequent global crises, the gap between future-looking professionals and the inexperienced youth is widening to the point that all members of the community are concerned about their futures.
Fortunately, bridging this divide with its wholesome ecosystem of internationally diversified learning of multicultural unity, Candor Group of Schools is facilitating the perfect solution. Candor Group is constantly improving upon its specially designed boarding and schooling facilities––regular and weekly––where regular students reside in the vast campuses, weekly students can opt for visiting their homes every weekend. Because of this well-informed understanding, school is more than just a modern norm; it is a necessity in today’s world. This educational hub, known globally for its IB and CBSE curricula, has successfully shaped students’ lives and guided them to success.
The Candor Group’s philosophy, established a decade ago, states that “every student has the potential to develop into a knowledgeable, confident, and responsible global citizen.”
Candor International School, Bangalore, and Candor NPS, Tirupathi, are two schools that fall under this umbrella institution.
The Chairman and Founder, Dr Suresh Reddy, ensures that what is expected by parents, students, and teachers is delivered. One of those educational leaders dedicated to the betterment of society, Dr Suresh, is willing to take on any challenge to steer the transformation to the benefit of Candor Group!
Both of these institutions are standout leaders in the country’s international and national educational ecosystem in their own right. Candor International School, Bangalore, been approved to deliver the International Baccalaureate program and the Cambridge curricula.
Dr Suresh informs, “Being an authorized school for International Baccalaureate & Cambridge curricula, I felt that a suitable environment is created so that the school focuses on the child’s holistic development, ensuring to inculcate the virtue of an inquirer, both in school and in the world beyond.” The school’s priorities begin with helping students, so that each one of them are known and valued as an individual in his or her own right, and that school life has a meaning and purpose for them.
The school was named a Forbes Great Indian School, ranked first for safety and hygiene, third in India for campus architecture, one of the Top 5 Schools in India for day-cumboarding, and ranked first in Tirupati for architecture and design (Andhra Pradesh). It also boasts of several other honors and distinctions.
Designated as a “Green School” by the Indian Green Building Council, Candor’s phenomenal growth in the Indian and Global educational spaces is the culmination of the sincere effort of its key management, teachers, staff, and the trust instilled by parents to improve the students’ academic quality.
Fostering a Multidimensional Worldview
This educational group is home to two prestigious institutions. The first is the Candor International School in Bengaluru, and the second is the Candor NPS in Tirupati.
Founded in 2011, Candor International School has drawn students from both national and international forums. The institute, spread across 30 acres south of Bengaluru, is regarded as one of the best boarding schools in the metropolitan city. The ambiance surrounding its campus ensures that students and teachers have a refreshing experience!
As an authorized school for the International Baccalaureate and Cambridge curricula, the school focuses on the child’s holistic development, ensuring the virtue of inquiry, both in school and in the world beyond. This program promotes engaging, relevant, challenging, and significant education.
The school provides an on-campus residential facility with weekly and regular boarding for students in grades 5th through 12th. Weekly boarders live on campus from Monday to Friday and return home on weekends, whereas regular boarders live on campus all year.
Candor NPS–a Tirupati school unit–is a premier residency school founded by two stalwarts: National Public School and Candor International School.
Candor NPS has provided 60 years of excellence in guiding young minds, operating in Singapore, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mysore, and now Tirupati, gaining increased popularity and appreciation and being highly sought after.
Aspiring to develop lifelong learners through respect and intercultural understanding, technology, creativity, cooperation, and active participation in community service, Candor NPS ensures that they become global citizens able to give back and influence their generation.
Candor Group has always kept up with the premium infra-tech demands by standing out with its immersive student care facilities.
The hostels at Candor International School are spacious, comfortable, and shared (two to three per room) to encourage socialization, and, emotional and mental well-being. With an eye for detail, the institution ensures that every student’s need is met. But it doesn’t end there!
Home Experience: Recognizing the importance of providing a homely experience, the campus has some residential facilities, such as a TV room, a common study area, a dining hall for dinner that offers healthy and in-house cooked meals, and a varied menu to cater to International and Indian boarding students.
A Safe and Secure Environment: To ensure student safety, Candor provides CCTV surveillance at all strategic locations and 24×7 security with experienced Security personnel on campus. Furthermore, the institution ensures that all staff, Emergency Response Team, Infirmary, 24×7 in-house nurses with the facility of on-call doctors with proper background verification.
Sports and Health: Along with the resemblance to a residential ecosystem, the school ensures that physical activities become an intrinsic part of the student’s life on campus. Candor Group facilitates sports fields such as Artificial Turf Tennis, Basketball, and Football, as well as a high-tech French swimming pool.
Candor NPS School Tirupati provides cutting-edge facilities for students’ progressive, child-centered, and holistic development.
The Modern Global Educator
Dr Suresh Reddy, the Founder, and Chairperson, is a firm believer in leading with example. He possesses an extraordinary vision and unceasing optimism that helped him to turn adversity into opportunity when he was in the USA a decade ago.
When Dr Suresh was in the United States, he envisioned providing ‘International Education’ that is affordable, accessible, holistic and equips students with real-world skills. “The children inspired me,” expressed Dr Suresh.
According to his belief in the present day world, children must learn more moral and ethical integrity, as well as leadership skills, to succeed. They should assist their parents in comprehending that the world is changing and that children must be open to new and innovative ideas. He also adds that the path to success is easy if one has the principles like aspiration, desire, dedication, determination, concentration, and the will to learn.
The school prioritizes students’ individual development by shaping school life with a meaningful purpose. It is accomplished with a cumulative effect that significantly impacts students’ sense of well-being.
According to Dr Suresh, Candor provides students with trustworthy information while deepening their understanding of their challenges. Students are also given the intellectual skills needed to think critically about these challenges and society’s influences on them, such as peer pressure, advertising, social media, and family and cultural values.
Candor gives a lot of importance to placing students in the best Universities in India and abroad. In collaboration with the coordinators and Principal, a college counsellor assists and guides each student to the best-suited universities.
Reflecting a Transcendental Vision
The value-based leadership of Candor Group of Schools, influences students and their success, reflecting the institution’s firm stance.
“We create a community of dedicated and spirited learners, and we believe every child can be nurtured to develop into a knowledgeable, caring, confident, and responsible global citizen,” says the Founder Chairman.
Their vision is stated as follows:
Lifelong inquiry fosters a love of learning.
Respect for people’s, faiths’, cultures’, and ideas’ diversity
At all levels, there is a concern for the community.
The consistency of one’s thoughts, words, and actions.
Willingness to adopt the best models.
Standards and practices must be transparent.
Candor Group’s mission is to develop lifelong learners who will become global citizens who will contribute to and influence their generation through technology, creativity, teamwork, respect, and intercultural understanding.
Discussing the core values of Candor NPS school, which offers a CBSE curriculum, Dr Suresh states that in a time of constant social, political, economic, technological, and environmental change, Candor seeks to develop young adults who will act as agents of good change both domestically and abroad, assuring environmental protection and upholding moral and ethical principles.
Within the realm of education, teaching methodologies play a critical role in students’ academic achievements. This school is paving the way for the holistic development of every student to bridge the gap between academics and industry needs and further the primary goal of an educational ecosystem.
This goal, prompted the Candor Group to implement a modern teaching method that is activity-based and revolves around the learner’s minds, immersing them completely in the learning process. In the modern teaching approach, the learner is the primary focus of curriculum preparation and teaching. In this way, students actively participate in expanding their knowledge and developing their abilities.
The mentor or teacher, on the other hand, directs and leads people to focus on the subject’s goals. This is accomplished by engaging in activities and employing cutting-edge, modern teaching methods and tools. This also helps to reduce competition among students, promotes cooperation, and a healthy learning environment.
On the Journey of Educational Excellence
Candor Group, with its two institutions, has achieved pedagogical milestones by combining technology and academic excellence. It is amazing that Candor’s Tirupati institution—Candor NPS—has set a new educational milestone.
Candor strives to leverage technology to benefit students in both schools in collaboration with Senses Electronics Pvt Ltd. Its Intelligent Interactive Panel Board (IIP) has replaced the traditional Blackboard. This makes writing, drawing, and annotating on the screen easier with the most basic tools. Dr Suresh says, “As much as I think from the student’s perspective, I would like to create an environment with the key attributes of IB such as being inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open- minded, caring, risk-takers, balanced and reflective and the same to be transferred to the students.”
Candor believes that when children spend time with teachers and form positive and trusting relationships, they learn best and can freely share their intuitions and passions. The Leadership should adopt technology along with educational excellence, to make children learn best and share their intuitions and passions unbridled. “I am of the opinion of – Creating an Ecosystem—Inclusive, Progressive and Success Oriented.” Dr Suresh’s learning approach best defines the Candor Ecosystem: “Teaching is not a spectator sport, neither is learning.”
In the contemporary educational scenario, it has become important that academics and co-curricular activities infuse students with the soft skills required in international corporates. He mentions that Candor focuses on students’ interactive engagement. This is accomplished through a variety of activities. Adding it all up, he explains that Students can never learn simply enough by sitting in class and listening to their teachers, spitting out prepared answers, or memorizing pre-defined assignments. “Engagement is an important factor in the success of a learning project.”
CANDOR discovered and introduced an amazing model of student engagement that efficiently focuses on:
- Creative:Drama, Model United Nations, and the Young Entrepreneurship Program are all creative activities.
- Clubs:Dance, Robotics, CANMUN, Gardening, Literacy, Science/Environment, Karate, Needle Work/Sewing, Music, Joy of Giving, Labour Day, Community Service, and a few other activities are all part of the curriculum, and real-world applications.
- Draw on students’ prior knowledge
- Discover students’ interests
- Organize classroom discussions
- Create highly relevant learning activities
- Integrate modern technology
- Provide timely and consistent feedback on progress
After all, a good learning pattern benefits both teachers and students, and Candor produces positive results for everyone involved with the course.
In today’s educational environment, academics and co-curricular activities must instill students the soft skills required in international corporations. Candor follows an international curriculum and incorporates elements of international education into its teaching and learning experience in the Tirupati school to ensure that every student is prepared for various future endeavors.
An Intellectually Exemplifying Ecosystem
Contrary to the stereo type of education that exists, Dr Suresh feels that there is a need to introduce the modern teaching method, which is activity-based and centres around the learner’s mind, which involves them entirely in the process of learning. The learner is the main focus of curriculum preparation and teaching in the modern teaching approach. In this manner, students actively engage in the entire process to increase their knowledge and develop their abilities.
Candor has introduced IB and Cambridge curricula for students in Bangalore and CBSE in Tirupati. Academic counsellors, sports and art areas, safe and comfortable study spaces, and home-like living arrangements are all available at the boarding schools. Combining both facilities allows Candor students to benefit from studying in vibrant and intellectually challenging environments.
Even boarding school teachers are chosen from among the best in the country. Many have international teaching experience, adding a unique pedagogy perspective. Candor offers all of these to its students.
“Candor prepares students by encouraging creativity. The institution teaches them that failure is the key to success and assists them in developing their leadership and communication skills. Candor teaches them about the world’s cultures, customs, global responsibilities, and much more!” says Dr Suresh, the Founder Chairman.
“Many people believe education is the only way to a better future,” he adds. However, this is not true because success and happiness require more than a good education.
Students must have strong values to succeed in life outside of school. Students must communicate and collaborate with others to face their future. Candor aims to extract knowledge from the existing arena and create new knowledge to adapt to ever-changing work conditions.
“Partnership with Parents” “Learning begins at birth. Every parent is now responsible for their child’s education. This role continues when the child enters school. Candor Schools tries to establish close relationships with students and their parents for the students’ education to go as fully and smoothly as possible,” says the Founder.
The Noblest Mission of Pedagogical Transformation
With a shared goal with parents, Candor leaves no stone unturned in incorporating the best value and skills in students. This mutually assists Candor and each student’s parent in preparing their ward for the future by overcoming numerous obstacles and roadblocks. This Group of Schools believes that “a child will progress more than one who believes that home and school are two separate worlds if they see their parent actively participating and being supportive of the school.”
To that end, the school encourages all parents to become involved in their child’s school life. This exceptional ecosystem fosters a positive relationship between teachers and parents.
Dr Suresh says that learning begins at birth, and from that point on, every parent is essential to their child’s education. When the child enters school, this role remains the same. “In order for the students’ education to go as fully and smoothly as possible, we as a school should try to establish close relationships with both the students and their parents.” It is important to understand about how failure is the key to success and help them with their leadership and communication skills.
The teaching staff at Candor School in Bangalore and Tirupati are available for individual consultations with parents after school hours by appointment, similar to a transparent, healthy, and growth-promoting ecosystem, to discuss their child’s various aspects, such as academic, co-curricular, personal, and social development.
Candor’s commitment to the future can be easily predicted by its resilient effort to ensure that every learner develops as a whole person.
The school administration wishes for students to reach their full potential and contribute to creating a shared future based on the well-being of individuals, communities, and the planet.
Dr. Suresh is working to make Candor’s vision a reality by ensuring its curricular pedagogy extends far beyond the classroom. With the changing trend of quality education, students are empowered to seize opportunities that come their way. He states, “I always tell my team to be ready to take risks and always look at the positive side, be proactive rather than reactive and learn from mistakes. I believe in team work, supporting each other and becoming stronger. My personal growth and success have been possible only because of my passion and focus on work and a ‘never give up attitude.”
Two factors can assist and empower learners. The first is a personalized learning environment that encourages and supports each student in developing their passions, connecting various learning opportunities and experiences, and developing and collaborating on their learning projects and processes with others.
The second step is to lay a solid foundation, and literacy and math remain critical. “In the age of digital transformation and the emergence of big data, digital literacy, and data literacy, as well as physical health and mental well-being, are becoming increasingly important,” Dr Suresh, the Founder Chairman, concludes.
