NEED FOR MORE PROGRAMMES ON EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP

Leadership Development Programme for school Principals, Administrators and Managers was held on December 3 2011, 9.30am to 5.00pm. The former Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Kerala and the Director of the Institute Dr. S. Kevin inaugurated the programme. The importance of effective school leadership and how leadership is different from management was enunciated by Dr. K Kevin, in his introductory session. His session was filled with activities and work-outs. Use of educational technology in schools, especially with no-cost or less cost investment for enhancing the educational productivity was the focus of the second session which was handled by Prof. Salil.S. He elaborated the resources through which technology can be leveraged both for academic and administrative requirements for the advancement of schools. First session in the afternoon was by Dr. Vinith Nair. He described the management tools and techniques that may come handy for school principals. He customised and introduced a wide range of management tools in school context ranging from quality circles to balanced scorecard, innovation cycles and QFD. The concluding session was by the former Chairman of the Federal Bank Prof. A. M. Salim. He is an alumnus of IIMA and an educationalist of high repute. Strategic challenges and the way forward for educational leaders was the theme of the session. He emphasised the need for strategic initiatives, risk taking and innovativeness among school principals. Prof. Nizzar, Dean TKM Inst. of Management and alumnus of IIT Kharagpur addressed the valedictory function. He urged the workshop participants to stay updated and break-the-regular box of thinking while facilitating the moulding of the new generation. Experience sharing of participants and certificate distribution followed. Principals from 20 leading schools in Kerala participated in the workshop. The participants were exposed to a variety of areas like financial management, resource mobilization, technology management, management of human resources, establishing effective interface with stakeholders and developing systematic strategies in school context.