'I want to create life-long learners who can welcome challenges in their lives'

The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet. A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

A principal in the school is what the prime minister is in parliament. Everything else remaining same, when the prime minister changes everything changes for good or bad depending on the changed leader. Same is true for an educational institution.

A principal is a person who can bring inspiring, motivating and goal-oriented changes in the organisation and modify the entire study culture. Before I proceed further, let me clarify here that when I am talking of student achievement, I am referring to his overall achievement and not only academic. I do not want my school to be place where we create century scorers but not human beings with life skills, positive attitudes and ATL skills.

I want to create life-long learners who welcome challenges in their lives as a thrill and excitement and not as an issue which causes depression and anxiety. It is true that a principal is not directly connected to students, generally not going to classrooms and not teaching much but he/she is the one who is taking such crucial decisions which have a long lasting impact on overall student achievements. Some of the major areas where a principal takes decisions include:

•Balance between curricular and co-curricular

•Teaching pedagogy to be followed

•Student-teacher relationship

•Quality of staff to be hired and opportunities for development of staff

•Autonomy to the teacher in her classroom activities

•Remedial measures for weak students; opportunities for betterment of average and providing platform for the expression of the genius without labelling or grouping them in such ways

•Quality of assessments and opportunities for improvement in assessments

First and foremost, a principal must be reflective and he/she needs to understand his/her responsibility. He/she is the one who is being seen as a responsible person on whom thousands of parents are relying and giving their most precious treasure in an expectation that their treasure will glow a million times brighter.

A principal can ensure there are facilities for education of children with special needs, learners with any kind of challenges are taken best care of and profitability is given the least priority in an organisation as important as educational is.

A principal can give autonomy to the teachers to use creative teaching methodologies and to incorporate art-integrated learning to make school years a memorable experience for the students. Conducting sport programmes, inter-school events, cultural programmes and ensuring that each and every child gets due chance can bring happiness in many innocent hearts and develop them in their unique way.

You cannot imagine how much satisfied you will feel at the time of retirement if you have worked as a sincere principal for years and you can think of some kids who could really improve due to your penny efforts in whichever field they could.

Organising an educational trip, providing sports events’ opportunities, literary and cultural opportunities, providing quality staff, ensuring equity of opportunity, developing life skills and humanitarian attitudes in all areas you have got to play a role.

Watch the movie ‘Chalk N Duster”. The entire adverse change started when a bad leader took over from a good leader. Movies are not purely real but certainly do have reflections of reality. I remember when I was a teacher, one of my principals under whom I have groomed a lot always used to say in meetings, “I do not want to create century scorers but learners with happy and meaningful school memories.” Such statements from leaders change the vision of the organisation.

A principal needs to understand that he/she is not working with juniors but with educationists and needs to value opinions of teachers. He/she needs to create a creative team which is dedicated and committed to create a value-based society.

I strongly feel that the Supreme gives an opportunity of becoming a principal only to those on whom He has a blind faith and if that faith is broken, He punishes as well.

Leena Kapoor, Head of the School, Sant Nirankari Public School, Tilak Nagar