CHENNAI: The first phase of the Education Leadership programme, part of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative for promoting excellence in School Education, was launched in Chennai at Vidya Mandir School, Mylapore on Monday.

This training programme, based on courses conducted at the Universities of Washington and Harvard, USA, will be conducted in Chennai by facilitators from the Centre for Education Management and Development, a Delhi-based organisation committed to training leaders.

Inaugurating the course, N.Murali, Managing Director, The Hindu, said that the aim of the Kuruvila Jacob Initiative was to apply the Total Quality Management principles to improve methods and processes used by schools. The late Kuruvila Jacob, headmaster of the Madras Christian College School was a visionary, who had a holistic view of education.

The quality of education provided to students would be the determinant of success of the country in the comity of nations, Mr.Murali said. Therefore it was important to provide quality education and access to it by all.

Jayshree Oza, founder director, CEMD, said the future was determined by what children learned today. Unless children were trained now, they could not gain advantages in future, she said, adding that the teacher/principal undergoing training could lead their school in the path that they wished, a path that parents and students agreed on.

Bhavani Raghunandan, principal, Vidya Mandir, said currently confusion about the best way to educate a child prevailed, both in the psychological and educational sphere.

The training programme would facilitate evolution of guidelines to make each unit an organ of change.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail