New Delhi, Jul 20 (IANS): Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Monday expressed the desire to see government schools in the capital become "decentralised autonomous institutions" and take charge of all aspects of their functioning.
Addressing the first session of the Principal Training Programme for the batch 2020-21, via video conference, Sisodia, who holds the education portfolio, said: "From academics to administration, planning to decision-making, I want schools to become decentralised autonomous institutions and take charge of education."
He also emphasised the importance for the heads of schools to take responsibility for their individual schools. "It is the heads of schools who run the schools. We as ministers, directors, and Education Department officers are just the facilitators," he added.
Meanwhile, IIM Ahmedabad is set to train the next batch of 50 Delhi government school principals in leadership and empowerment, as part of its tie-up between the IIM-A and the State Council of Educational Research and Training.
According to Delhi government officials, 700 heads of schools have undergone training at IIM-A in the programme, which started four years ago, with the aim of training them for building leadership competencies, empowering them and instilling local accountability towards their schools.
"In our first term of the Principal Training Programme, we empowered our school principals to take autonomous decisions at school level. Made them in charge of SMC funds which led to local accountability," said Sisodia.
"When we started around four years ago, we had a vision to bring a transformation in our schools through this leadership training programme. We wanted to empower our heads of schools to take decisions for their schools and committed funds to execute their decisions.
"We entrusted heads of schools with the funds so that they could use them immediately for removing any shortcoming or requirement at school level without waiting for the government to take action and waste time due to the slow file movement," he added.
"Running the school is the responsibility of each school principal who is central to the entire school system. This has resulted in local level accountability amongst our heads. Our schools have been empowered," said Sisodia.
He also highlighted the importance of online learning which has become nearly inevitable in these uncertain times when schools are closed and regular classes not taking place. "Online learning may not be a solution, but it is a necessity today. So I urge all our school principals to fully commit to it," he said.