IIM-A to train Delhi govt school principals

Institute will administer an intensive course to all principals on school leadership over the next 18 months

Principals of Delhi government schools will now get a chance to get trained at India’s premier management institute — Indian Institute of Management (Ahmedabad) — to improve education standards in schools.

A class teacher at a government school interacts with parents and students in Delhi. (Mohd Zakir/ HT File)

The government on Sunday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the right to education resource centre at IIM-A for a principal leadership programme where the heads of around 1,024 Delhi government run schools will participate.

A statement released by the government said that the institute will administer an intensive course to all principals on school leadership. The course will be conducted over the next 18 months.

Talking about the impact of such a training session on the administration of city government run schools, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said, “The heads of schools functioning in Directorate of Education schools have a rich wealth of experience in managing schools. Their capacities to run an academic institute should be supplemented by professional training in leadership, especially in the field of school education.”

“The government is serious about building skills and capacities of all principals, teachers working in our schools, and I am confident this step will go a long way towards improving the way individual school managements function,” he said.

The initiative is, however, not new. The education department has in the past tied up with the University of Cambridge, UK, and National Institute of Education, Singapore, to improve the teaching techniques in schools.

The school authorities, however, stood divided over the announcement.

Mahesh Kumar, principal of the Government Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya, Patel Nagar, welcomed the move.

“If we stay updated, we will be able to ensure good training and education to our students. There is no age to learn and newer skills will only bring improvement in our system,” he said.

However, Ajay Veer Yadav, general secretary of Government School Teachers’ Association (GSTA) said, “The government just wants to show that it is doing something with the hefty budget that it has assigned to the education department. If the same money would have been invested in improving infrastructure and hiring more teachers it would have done some good. We have seen such trainings in the past and these do not help students in any way.”