Making leaders of headmasters in Ahmedabad

Principals of primary schools run by the municipal corporation will be imparted leadership skills aimed at not only improving the quality of education but also to bring a change in the environment around them.

Kaivalya Education Foundation (KEF) plans to impart leadership training to around 300 principals of municipal primary schools in Ahmedabad. The memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the programme is likely to be signed between KEF and the Ahmedabad Municipal School Board soon.

Under KEF’s Principal Leadership Development Programme (PLDP), principals will receive personal, educational, institutional and social leadership training. Moreover, graduates and post graduates selected for Gandhi Fellowship, which is a full-time youth leadership programme, will help to put into practice the training imparted to principals.

They teach children from different social milieu, interact with local communities and stay with them for six weeks to experience ground reality. Then they interact with school principals and support them to become leaders rather than mere administrators.

KEF provides training to the principals twice in a year. Generally, a four-day programme is organised in the beginning of each academic session. “The Gandhi Fellows and headmasters support each other in developing leadership. The former master the art of convincing others and influence them without any kind of formal authority. Similarly, principals will also use the same tactics to bring change in the environment around them,” said Payal Agrawal, programme manager of KEF in Ahmedabad.

The first phase of training principals of 80 primary schools of AMSB is completed. Now KEF wants to expand their programme by training 300 more principals. Administrative officer of AMSB, Lagdhir Desai said the board observed a positive attitude towards work among principals trained by KEF. However, the results vary from school to school.