Management lessons for school teachers

As part of its corporate social responsibility, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Lucknow, has signed a pact with the State Council For Education Research and Training (SCERT) to train principals of the District Institute of Education Training (DIET) about latest management techniques.

The five-day training programme, called 'Managerial Skills for District Institute of Education Training Principals and Senior Faculty', aims at guiding senior faculty members of primary schools about the right teaching methods and the latest management techniques so that they, in turn, can impart the same to their students. The course outlines principles of teamwork, experience-sharing, discover supervision styles and negotiating skills, and methods to develop an effective organisational culture and efficiently use IT tools in teaching.

The first such workshop was held in March 2006.

"After receiving overwhelming response we conducted the second workshop in June this year". The training was held at IIM-Lucknow campus and conducted by the faculty of the institute and career counselor Amrita Dass. Over 16 DIET principals attended the training programme. "The idea is to arm principals with the knowledge of better management skills since the principals are expected to coach teachers," say Sushil Kumar, Director of the programme, IIM-L.

"The lessons learnt by us were not only helpful for our organisation but helped us improve as a person," said Deepa Tiwari, lecturer, SCERT.

"Using library and facilities of the IIMs like the library helped us learn a lot. The value-based teaching was appreciated by all the participants," said Mumtaz Jahan, principal, DIET.

Under the pact signed with State Council For Education Research and Training,

IIM-Lucknow will conduct series of workshops for principals and teachers of government schools in the state.