10,000 schools to be trained to become schools of future: ICSL

NEW DELHI, JANUARY 11: The International Council for School Leadership (ICSL) will train 10 thousand school principals in the next seven years to create schools of the future. ICSL is a not-for-profit company, created to streamline and bring semblance to the cluttered changes happening in the school education in India.

“There are about 35,000 private schools in India and of these only 1,000 are appositely working towards bringing a change in school education. Taking these 1,000 leader schools to empower other 10,000 by the year 2025, to impact over 10 million students is our vision,” said Dr Atul Nischal, the founder director of the ICSL.

Leading the change is to lead the unknown. It entails going through dark to bring the light. With this aim, ICSL discussed the best practices of school leadership and unveiled the book, ‘Lead the Change’ to empower school leaders. Padma Shri Prof. Dinesh Singh, former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Delhi and present Chancellor of KR Mangalam University was the Guest of Honour on the event.

In his disruptive speech, Prof. Singh. said, “For real education to take place, it’s very important to find your inner drumbeat and march into the world in harmony with that drumbeat.” We do not need to stuff the curriculum down kids’ throats but need to create spaces for them to learn Vyavharikta (social behaviour). He also stressed upon the importance of skilling students in hand-work. “Besides his most celebrated theory of relativity, Einstein was a skilled craftsman. He was the first person to create automatic Camera and Refrigerator. Faraday was a good book-binder and Kabir was a weaver,” he said adding, “What you do with your hands, will lead you to your heart.”

Dr G Balasubramaniam, former CBSE Director said, “Schools are one place where anybody comes and tell us how you should teach and how you shouldn’t. It is time we figure what is truly right. It is time we all empower ourselves to say confidently- We know what we are doing and we know how to do it.”

While moderating the panel discussion on School leadership, he threw open a thought-provoking question to the floor, “What would be your prefered way of leadership? A herd of Sheep lead by a Lion or a herd of Knights lead by a Sheep?” The discussion covered varied forms of leadership from Passionate and Pragmatic Leadership to Participatory and Proactive forms. Speaking on Passionate Leadership, Lata Vaidyanathan, said, “Leadership is like Shepherd, leading from behind and enabling the potential leaders to discover themselves.” She said that a combination of compassion and passion is integral to leadership.

Bringing innovative ideas and years of wisdom, almost 110 school principals and many industry professionals attended the event and discussed ideas on leading and creating the schools of tomorrow.