The Delhi-based National University of Educational Planning & Administration (NUEPA) is set to launch leadership programmes for aspiring, prospective, practicing heads/principals, systemic administ-rators holding different hierarchical positions in the management of gover-nment schools, government-supported institutions, grant-in-aid schools from primary to higher education stages across the country, through its newly-promoted National Centre for School Leadership (NCSL) inaugurated in April last year.
To start with, NCSL will offer its school leadership programmes in two states — Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan — by the end of this year where its consultation with stakeholders is almost over, and simultaneously start the consultation process in eight other states — Gujarat,  Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal, Mizoram, West Bengal, Andhra, and Kerala. In the next two-three years the programme will be scaled up to cover all states and Union territories.
According to NUEPAs vice chancellor, Prof. R. Govinda, an acknowledged authority on school education in India, NUEPA has promoted NCSL to correct the perception that the State itself has given up on the government-managed school system. During the past 15 years or so, public attention has been focused on the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), RTE Act and enrolment statistics. The overall goal of NCSL is to prepare a new generation of leaders for transforming the school system and its governance in India. To attain this objective we need to create champions of education at local levels, says Govinda.
This overdue initiative has the heavyweight support of venture capit-alist turned philanthropist Ashish Dhawan, promoter of the Central Square Foundation (estb. 2011 with a corpus of Rs.50 crore), which has also started a 12-month school leadership programme in partnership with Akanksha Found-ation, Teach for India and KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program), USA. Globally, there is a mountain of evidence testifying that school leaders play a key role in delivering quality education. Motivated headmasters and principals can deliver multiple benefits within their schools. There is growing and welcome recognition about this in India. We look forward to working closely with NUEPA in this progressive initiative, says Dhawan.
However, the ambitious and well-intentioned programme will have to negotiate formidable hurdles. As per DISE (District Information System for Education) 2011-12 data, 59 percent of primary schools and 54 percent of upper primaries dont have principals. More-over within the government school system, promotion to the position of principal is determined by seniority rather than merit with the result that principals transform into mere admin-istrative heads, bereft of leadership training. According to an officer of the Rajasthan government, the word ‘training has become anathema for teachers. Most teachers dont want training unless it offers novelty and pedagogy innovations which are the exception than rule, says this official who preferred to remain anonymous.
NUEPA faculty is well aware of the unenthusiastic response of principals and teachers to routine training and leadership programmes. The NCSL programme offers a broad curriculum framework based upon assessment following consultations with all stake-holders including head teachers, and encourages local resource organi-sations, universities, professional organisations and civil society groups to flesh out curriculums. In Delhi, we work on developing curriculum, material development, capacity building, school development guidelines and conduct research and development on key leadership issues in education, says Dr. Kashyapi Awasthi, assistant professor in the department of school and non-formal education at NUEPA, who has been  working on the school leadership initiative since its inception.
According to Awasthi, a 50-member expert committee headed by Prof. Govinda has already been constituted in Delhi for modular curriculum design and development. NCSL programmes will be flexible so they can be customised in the states and districts according to local needs and resources. NUEPA expects to train 1.4 million headmasters and principals to transform them into primary-secondary education leaders. To this end the university is ready, willing and able to partner with government and non-government training institutions and has already signed agreements with the National College for Teaching & Leadership, UK.
Better late than never.
Autar Nehru (Delhi)