IIM Ahmedabad to give managment lessons to 200 principals

It's going to be back to school for principals of government run secondary schools in Gujarat. And this time, the principals have the opportunity to take lessons from faculty members of one of the best B-schools in India - Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA).

Recently, the government of Gujarat approached IIMA to help it improve management skills of school principals. IIMA will start a general management programme for the principals and around 200 of them are expected to benefit from the move to begin with.
Director of the institute, Prof Samir Barua, said that recently they signed a pact with the state government. Coordinator for the project, Prof Rajeev Sharma told DNA that the crux of the programme is to train principals in school management.

"They are given training when they join as teachers. By giving exams and with significant experience they are elevated to the post of principal. While they have knowledge of their subjects, they do not have much idea about managing a school. So, the programme will focus on sharpening their management skills," said Prof Sharma. Prof Mukul Vasavada is joint coordinator for the programme.

Prof Sharma said it is going to be a week-long training programme with batch strength of 40. "We are going to conduct a workshop, identify major issues principals deal with and use this information to develop case studies," he added.

Tentatively, three other faculty members are involved in this programme - Prof Vijay Sherry Chand, Prof MR Dixit and Prof Neharika Vohra.