‘March’ing Women: Friends Of 15 Yrs, Teachers Sutha & Vaidehi Share How Peer Learning Made Them BFFs

In any field, when women decide to support fellow women and grow together, they can achieve exactly what they visualize. The bonding that two women develop as colleagues by facing all the high and lows together, especially in a traditional patriarchal workspace/society, is the epitome of feminine relationships. In the coming years, we can tell that the trend of underestimating the power of peer women at work will slowly fade away.

The need of the hour, however, is to promote and celebrate stories that can inspire women to help each other out in a professional setting.

ScooNews brings to you the narratives of female teachers who’ve used ‘Peer Collaboration’ to achieve success in the field of education. With this, we hope to inspire thousands of women educators to seek a she-partner at their workplace, who can complete them professionally and also keep the spirit of friendship alive.

SUTHA RAMESSH & VAIDEHI ARUN

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A similar story of collaboration and a strong bond is of two friends from Bengaluru – Ms. Sutha Ramessh and Ms. Vaidehi Arun, who met in 2005 during the Podar Jumbo Kids franchise orientation. They have been friends ever since they came in contact for work. Today, both of them owns individual franchises of Podar Jumbo Kids centres in different locations of Bengaluru and often collaborate for big projects while also seeking everyday suggestions as fellow associates. Let’s learn more about them from the conversation below:

Talk about your experience in the education field and your relationship as colleagues.

Sutha Ramessh: I am in the teaching field since 2000 and met Vaidehi in 2005 during the Podar Jumbo Kids franchisee orientation in Mumbai. Since then, we have been sharing, learning and supporting each other in our profession.

Share the hierarchy of your professional rapport.

Vaidehi Arun: We both are colleagues as we own Podar Jumbo Kids centres in different localities of Bengaluru. I own four centres in South Bengaluru and Sutha heads one centre in East Bengaluru.

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Since you are closely working in the early childhood education sector, do you practice any particular teaching methods?

Vaidehi Arun: We’ve very interesting techniques to make education more impactful for the little ones, as well as their educators. For example, we play games involving both girls and boys so they learn about gender-inclusion from an early age. These activities also help our teachers become more gender-neutral in their schooling approach. Other than this, we keep upgrading our individual skills to inspire and train educators associated with us. 

Sutha Ramessh: Collaboratively, after Vaidehi enrolled for the course of B.Ed (Early Childhood Education) in New Zealand Tertiary College, she also encouraged me to take it up. During this period, we both learnt and guided each other. As they say that one beautiful thing leads to another, our learning journey led us to gain an understanding and knowledge of ECE through national and international seminars, NAEYC conferences, World Forum on Early Childhood Education and lately, educational pilgrimage to origin of four Philosophy (Waldorf, Fredrick Froebel's Kindergarten, Maria Montessori and Reggio Emilia in Italy).

Do you happen to use any online teaching tools (apps, etc.) by any chance?

Vaidehi Arun: Yes, we mostly use NAEYC's site to support and enhance our teachers’ skills. 

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Lastly, talk about the important student-teacher insights you share with one another as colleagues.

Sutha Ramessh: During this 15-year long journey, we’ve extensively discussed ways to simplify our beliefs into practice for our dear teachers’ welfare. We have always believed that a happy teacher makes school a happier place for the kids. This means that every teacher’s growth ultimately results in the school’s and children’s growth parallelly.