Transform ordinary schools into ‘centres of excellence’– Thavaseelan

DIMAPUR — The principal director of School Education, Thavaseelan K, has called upon the head of institutions to go beyond the administrative and managerial responsibilities and take various initiatives in order to transform ordinary schools into ‘centres of excellence.’

Thavaseelan stated this at the inaugural programme of the one-month school leadership development programme (SLDP) for heads of Government High School and Government Higher Secondary School, which got underway at SIEMAT Hall of SCERT in Kohima on May 2.

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Delivering the keynote address, Thavaseelan, who is also the project director of Nagaland Education Project (NEP), gave a brief overview of the Nagaland education project stating that it aimed to enhance the governance of schools across the state and improve teaching practices and learning environments. He informed that there are a lot of ongoing works within the project including Lighthouse School Complexes and monitoring the Performance Incentive Grant (PIG) among others, stated an update from the School Education department.

SLDP is a training programme designed by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) for head of schools of central government and state/ UT government and government-aided schools across the country as well as aspiring school heads.

The training is being organised with an aim to enhance capacity of the school leadership academy (SLA), in collaboration with Nagaland Education Project – The Lighthouse (NECTAR). The project aims to train 150 school heads in three batches by June 2023.

By the end of the project period in June 2026, the project aims to support SLA in training all the government school heads in the state.

Benjung Yaden, reader at SCERT, Kohima, gave an introduction and overview of the training programme followed by a self-introduction of the attendees.

In her welcome address, Achetla Ao, joint director and cell head of state assessment cell at SIEMAT and SLA, SCERT, Kohima, stated that the nature of the training was to enhance the professional skills of the school heads.

It mentioned that the concept was formulated during the National Centre of School Leadership Academy in 2016 and Nagaland SLA was formed on January 10, 2016.

She informed that SLA has so far conducted two programmes of 30 days certification course for school heads, one programme on SLDP for 18 days and one 16-day SLDP for 50 school heads and two-day school leadership programme for 25 private school heads. She added that SLA has trained 112 school leaders in the state.

According to her school leadership is one of the most crucial factors affecting students learning.

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She further informed that school leadership has gained a lot of importance in recent years as it is the second most important factor affecting students learning.

Referring to a study, she stated that 60% of the students learning in the school depended on the quality of the teacher, while 25% on the school heads and remaining 15% on other factors like parental support, community, genetics etc.

While attributing that a big responsibility lay on school head, she urged them to learn and enhance their professional skills during the training.

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