This New Age Institution Is Redefining Failure

Two students, Bhuvana P Chakrapani and Tejaswar Reddy, from New Shores International College (NSIC), Bangalore, have achieved a perfect 100/100 in their graduate degree practical examination. What makes their performance incredible is that these students have excelled in their graduation degree after having failed in PUC/12th! Like many other stalwarts - Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, and Winston Churchill - these students have lived up to the observation put forward by Napoleon Hill, "Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their greatest failure."  

Three years back, Bhuvana and Tejaswar chose to enroll in the Inclusive Education Program (IEP) offered by NSIC that provides 2nd PU, 12th standard board exam failed students a chance to continue with degree education. The IEP is a pioneering collaboration between the System for Alternative Schooling and Education (SASE) and New Shores International College. SASE is a fully government accredited alternative education school offering open schooling and bridge course programs under COGNIA NWAC - an American schooling education board. SASE is also a member of the National Dropout Prevention Center, USA. Under IEP, students are offered remedial education to help them clear the 12th board exam; After clearing the board exam, IEP students continue their education in a full-time regular degree of their choice: BCA, BBM, BCom or B.Sc. During the degree program, the IEP students and the regular merit students have access to the same curriculum and pedagogy, making the mode of entry irrelevant. This novel initiative has received appreciation from various bodies including the Ministry of Education and Government of Karnataka. 

IEP helps academically challenged, slow learners, PUC/12th fail, alternative learners, working professionals, and specially-abled. It is the brainchild of NSIC founder Professor Shashidhar Chiron, the youngest person to set up a fully accredited and self-sustaining college in India to provide all sections of society equitable access to quality education. "We want our students to be courageous and imaginative, and we recognize that it also means failing – and then learning from failure – in order to achieve even greater success.", says Professor Shashidhar Chiron, outlining his pedagogic philosophy. To ensure quality education to students who may have failed the 12th board exam, NSIC has reserved 10% of the entire Undergraduate degree seats for IEP students. 

The professors at NSIC believe in nurturing the students' passion and channeling it to help the student achieve competitive grades in academics. Professor Khyati Gohil, faculty of Computer Science Department at NSIC, recognized Bhuvana's passion and interest in arts and guided Bhuvana to implement a project about building an art web store. During the pandemic, the boom in e-commerce inspired Bhuvana to design a gamified reward system that would function as a user engagement tool for the artists of the art web store; artists can build a community around their work and drive brand retention, brand loyalty, sales, and high customer lifetime value. Bhuvana's parents credit the NSIC professors for enabling the success and development of Bhuvana, "I appreciate the freedom given to my daughter, by the faculty, to build the project around her interests.” 

At NSIC, every student's challenges are identified and deeply understood to tailor a customized solution that helps the pupil unlock potential and enhance competencies. The faculty at NSIC considers every student's distinctive pattern of learning, understanding, thought processing and conceptualizing to provide customized guidance. The support from faculty inspired Tejaswar, another inclusive student, to take up a project that aims to eradicate the large number of accidents occurring due to high speeding vehicles. His project developed with PHP, MySql, and Arduino UNO is an innovative IoT project that is more advanced than the curriculum requires. The project provides a solution to control the vehicle's speed through smart speed breakers, which will get raised above the surface of the road to remind drivers of speeding vehicles to slow down. Proximity sensors are used to detect the vehicle's speed, and the Arduino controller activates the speed breaker. Tejeshwar is elated by the success, "I am so happy with my achievement on the project. I enjoyed learning something new that will help me in the future." He is thankful to NSIC for believing in him, "I failed II PU and was in a situation where everything was a mess. I decided not to give up and faced the problem. I joined New Shores International College, which gave me a second chance to prove myself."  

NSIC faculty has inspired many students to excel with their guidance, optimal pedagogy, and support. During the pandemic and the consequent lockdown, the faculty adapted to the new norms of remote work. They continued to help the students stay on track, helping them achieve their academic goals and enabling them to complete their projects. At NSIC, all students have access to personalized guidance and have opportunities to pursue their passion and reach the zenith of achievement; so, if inclusive, students can get 100/100 why not others! Meet Darshan G, a regular NSIC student who has earned a perfect 100/100 for his project titled, 'Spam Predication using Machine Learning.' Darshan's interest lay in Machine Learning, a course outside the prescribed curriculum. The professors supported Darshan and encouraged him to learn and implement a project that is on par with the Post Graduate program curriculum. The project was developed with Django framework and MySql and provides an ML model to detect and filter spam emails, stop them from getting into email inboxes, and trick users into downloading attachments loaded with destructive malware. 

These students, some of whom had failed in the board exam three years back, are now poised to pursue their dreams. "The centum is an affirmation that the roadmap I have created for myself is a step in the right direction. This is assuring, and it has me looking forward to the next phase", says Bhuvana. She continues, "The college's non-toxic environment and progressive culture helped me focus my energy and overcome impediments that affected my academic performance." These students are thankful for the support that they have had till now from the college. Reflecting on his years of struggle, Tejeshwar shares, "My college and my family supported me. I thank my college and my family for everything they did to help me achieve my goal." His parents agree with him, " College has helped him develop a positive mental attitude which will be very useful in his career. We thank New Shores International College for helping him and supporting him at every step.” 

NSIC has the infrastructure, systems and programs that facilitate student development. One such program is the Direction for Student Potential program (DSP), which is designed to augment the academic and learning skills of students for optimal academic performance. DSP students have one-on-one sessions with faculty staff and get help to discover the most suitable methods for improving their academic performance.  

NSIC, an accredited institute affiliated with Bangalore University, the University of Mysore, and the Karnataka Pre-University Board, provides a meaningful approach to ground-breaking research into cognition and the development of students. It offers degree courses accredited by the All-India Council for Technical Education AICTE and the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). Thus, students get the dual benefit of a contemporary pedagogy that imparts practical skills, and a government recognized degree that opens doors to a career of their choice.  

"We are committed and working keenly to become a progressive and higher educational institution that will catalyze the change towards a better world," says Professor Shashidhar Chiron, the celebrated young higher education entrepreneur who has also been feted by the World Economic Forum, outlining his vision for the future. He has grand plans for NSIC and has outlined Vision 2030 for the institute to make it a reality. NSIC and its students know that they have scaled a peak of achievement, but the road to excellence and greater glory beckons them onward.