Jayaram: special leadership programmes

Monal Jayaram is the Vadodara-based co-founder and Director, School of Education and Systems Change of the Piramal School of Leadership (PSL, estb.2010), an initiative of the Mumbai-based Piramal Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the Piramal Group (annual renenue: Rs.9,782 crore).

Currently, PSL’s 169 staff and 284 Fellows are spread across seven regions in India, working to catalyse positive change by developing leadership skills of teachers and students in government schools through its specially designed programs. They are also working towards promoting “positive masculinity” among male students through specially designed courses.

 Newspeg. In early June, a three-day Summer Camp christened UDAAN for promoting emotional awareness, self-exploration, empathy, gratitude and team-work was launched in government schools of Kangra and Hamirpur districts of Himachal Pradesh. The camp is the outcome of a five-year partnership agreement signed by Piramal Foundation with the Himachal government  last December (2024). Under terms of the agreement, PSL offers its SEE (social, emotional and ethical) Learning program to develop children’s life and leadership skills.

History. A postgrad in art history from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Vadodara, Jayaram’s professional career trajectory began in 2001 with a seven-year stint with Pratham Gujarat, a non-profit where she led a team engaged in teaching civic management and developing school curriculums. In 2009, she signed up with the Kaivalya Education Foundation as program manager where she served for two years before signing up with the Piramal Foundation in 2011.

Last May (2024), Jayaram was appointed Co-Chair of the South Asian Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Pittsburgh (USA)-based Comparative & International Education Society (CIES).

Direct talk. “Education is not only about developing reading, writing, and numeracy skills. It should nurture a passion for lifelong learning and capability to grow and evolve. Therefore, our goal is to transform public school systems by providing 21st century education to children to prepare them to become future-ready; to empower teachers with leadership skills and personal transformation programs to benefit children. Moreover, our Organisation Development of Government Institutions program is designed to transform institutional cultures. To this end, we have developed seven high potential programmes — the SEE programme; Project-based Learning; Aesthetic Literacy; Physical Literacy; School to Work; Compassionate Gender-transformative Education, and Digital Literacy. These programmes have been integrated into the government school system to make sustainable impact. Over the past 15 years, our interventions have prompted discernible behavioural change among middle managers and teachers, and improved children’s critical thinking, creativity, compassion and life-long learning capabilities,” says Jayaram

Future plans. To date, the PSL team has engaged with over 100,000 government schools countrywide in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, and Rajasthan. “We plan to implement our programmes in every state of India, through collaboration with state governments to improve teaching-learning standards in government schools, which are most in need of contemporary pedagogies and holistic development programmes,” says this committed education evangelist.

Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)