Chennai Corporation to launch school leadership development programme for teachers

According to a Chennai Corporation special council resolution, the new programme has been planned in response to the holistic transformation envisaged under CITIIS project, the school leadership will be required to manage change and challenges on various facets starting from maintaining a schooling environment, IT-enabled administration, measuring learning outcomes, transformation and pedagogical practices, managing human resources during change, developing a strong parent-school engagement, building community trust, strengthening community support networks and others.

CITIIS project is taken up by the civic body under the smart city mission. At Rs. 95 Crore, the civic body is implementing the physical transformation of select schools apart from providing training to all of its teachers. For the School Leadership Development and Transformation programme alone, the civic body earmarked Rs. 2.44 Crore. Under CITIIS, physical works have commenced in two schools and three other schools await completion of the tendering process.

Headmasters and senior teachers at Chennai Corporation schools are already participating in leadership programs from time-to-time. "The proposed programme is also expected to translate the workshop-based learning into real-time application through mentor-supported guidance. In the above context, the proposed School Leadership Development and Transformation Program for GCC Schools (SLDT) under the project has since been structured to include two phases, namely leadership workshops and on-field hand-holding mentorship support," the resolution added.

Leadership workshops will be conducted in a highly engaging, interactive manner involving case studies, group discussion and team challenges, on keys facets of leadership facets identified s ant to a performance-oriented holistic school eco-system. On-field hand-holding mentorship support will cover implementing workshop learnings in a real-time management context.

The civic body has fixed an overall duration for the programme as 24 months and 600 participants will cover assistant education officers, headmasters, assistant headmasters and select senior teachers.

It may be recalled the students' strength in Chennai Corporation schools has crossed 1 lakh this year for the first time in a decade.