Principal Leadership Development Programme :                                  

Kaivalya Education Foundation works for the improvement of the government school in India through Principal Leadership Development Programme (PLDP).It carries out the leadership training for the headmasters/headmistress to cause change in their school. The leadership training given to them is on four different dimensions in a progressive manner - Personal leadership, Instructional leadership, Institutional leadership and Social leadership. For a leader of the school these four skills developed by them will lead them to be the initiator for the changes needed to be brought in their school.

The PLDP focuses on the personal leadership attribute of each individual which act as the stepping stone towards their other three dimensions of the leadership. Personal leadership focuses on developing intrinsic motivation; self-awareness and ability to critically analyze experiences and shift own mindsets.

The instructional leadership training aims to foster and demonstrate to teachers and the community teaching and learning practices which are child centric, derived from the concept of Activity Based Learning. It inculcate the mentoring skills among the headmasters/headmistress to mentor their teachers to nurture the required attitude and skills for making their teaching practice more effective and result oriented for the student.

 Moving ahead with these leadership skills as a reflective practitioner they move towards the institutional and social leadership enhancing their area of influence. The institutional leadership focuses on the school as a system and incorporates working with teachers, and improving administration processes.

 Social Leadership focuses on getting parents and community involved in the education of their children; encouraging enrolment and ongoing participation within the education system and addressing barriers which inhibit the former.

                School Change Model

The school change model operates on the believe that the key to achieve sustainable change in the system is the individual change. Inspired by the work of Michael Fullen, an international expert on the process of school change , two insights are taken as the backbone of this school change model :

•             The starting point for the school change is not the system change or change in others but change at an individual level.

•             To bring about change in the school, headmasters/headmistress need to take actions to change themselves; the way they think, the way they do problem solving   and work with others.

Working with this perspective, Kaivalya education Foundation works for the school change model which is sustainable with individual headmasters/headmistress as the key for sustainable change.

              Our belief

The core belief   of the PLDP is “the individual change as the key for the larger change”. In context to the school change we believe that in order to bring   school change, it is crucial to provide right amount of challenges and support for the capacity building of motivated and willing individuals. With right amount of space, support and opportunity given to them, to reflect on their actions and experiments new initiatives, it is conducive to bring significant practical change.  

                Our Partners

The programme draws the expertise from different national and international leading educational foundations and organizations. The partners add on their expertise value to the different segments of the PLDP providing inputs at the both level of designing and   implementation. are the leading partners who provide their inputs from time to time to strengthen the success of the PLDP from different subjective lenses,  for inculcating the leadership among the headmasters/headmistress and the overall programme intricacies. The partners are as follows:

1.            The Bodh Siksha Samiti, Jaipur:  an experienced and successful organization in elementary education in Rajasthan - Provide us pedagogical inputs and support us in designing and execution of trainings.

2.            Mercer Consultancy - a global leader in HR and management consultancy- Provide us with the inputs on designing competencies documents

3.            Indian Institute of Management, Ahmadabad - Leading management institute of India Provide us with the input on leadership building

4.            Education Initiative, Ahmadabad - Only organization in India which is intensively working on scientific assessment of children in India Provide us with the input on the assessment of the children.

5.            Jodo Gyan – Extensively working on mathematics education for primary education. Provides input on adding value to the mathematical pedagogical input.

            Impact on Headmasters/ headmistress and School

2.1)Headmasters/headmistress practising personal and instructional  leadership                          

The PLDP has made profound impact in both individual Headmasters/headmistress   and in classroom of the schools. At the personal level the headmasters and headmistress have shown positive shifts related to their own self realization. They have attained the internal locus of control, where now they internalise the problems around and have started giving the problems around them a constructive solution. The crucial development attained by most of the headmasters/headmistress is reaching the level where now they have started realising that, to solve any problem they have to take steps forward rather than just blaming the system.

 Small steps taken by individual matters more than larger cribbing has become somewhat clear in their mind, which is being reflected in their actions. According to Neena Bharati, the headmistress of Churu block   says “After being the part of this change making process in the school, I realized how much I have changed now; I can take my own decisions confidently and influence other by my own thoughts and ideas”.

Attaining the personal leadership skills with conviction they have moved to the next level of the instructional leadership demonstrating their learning into regular classroom practice. They are demonstrating their instructional leadership as a role model in their respective schools by taking regular std 1 and 2 classes in a fear free and child centric environment. Headmasters/headmistress is found engrossed in making their teaching practices more effective and result oriented for the student. As a regular reflective practitioner some of them have also moved beyond the instructional leadership towards the institutional leadership capacity building stage.

              Changes brought by headmasters/headmistress in their classroom.                             

The headmasters/headmistress has successfully changed their classes into a child friendly classroom. The environment of the classes has changed into fear free, where the gap between the headmasters/headmistress and the students has been filled. During taking the classes they act as a facilitator rather than a teacher. They take classes with the children sitting with them on the floors, understanding the importance of the need of being approachable to the students to be a facilitator. The baalgeet and the child centric methods are being   regularly applied by these headmasters/headmistress.

They also share their happiness by being a part of such democratic teaching learning environment. They have started listening to their student problems and accordingly doing the problem solving, As a result of child centric teaching practice followed by them, the child regularity in attendance and their learning level have also started improving. They are found sharing their experiences during the workshops that the efforts they are putting have started showing direct impact on student’s progress.

                 Insights traced during the trainings and workshops conducted         

During the workshop headmasters have developed the regular habit of reading, planning and reflection. The workshop conducted with them has also successfully laid the foundation of peer learning among the group of headmasters/headmistress attending the workshop. The participation of the headmasters/headmistress in each workshop has remained 85%, and those who have not been able to attend it have shared their personal or official constrains. Every workshop conducted with them has been need based. The peculiarity of the workshops lies at the front where the objective of every workshop is co-created between the trainee and the trainers. The analytical study of the continuous tracking of the progress made by each headmasters/headmistress, leads to the result oriented workshop. Some of the major insights developed during the workshops execution are:

•             The Headmasters/headmistresses during the workshops are found deeply involved in the trainings where they spent on an average twelve hours.

•             Being an active participant of the workshops they have by now inculcated the importance of the peer learning where they support each other in making efforts and progress.

•             A sense of togetherness among the group has been created through deep reflection sessions, which also help them in understanding the gap in their efforts and then leveraging other peer members in filling those gaps.

•             The group has become a reflective practitioner where they are found sharing their deep thoughts related to their understanding of change process.

•             Leverage the Gandhi Fellows and happily work together.