Principals urged to redefine roles

One of the sessions of the Principals Council of the CBSE Affiliated Schools in the Gulf in progress yesterday

Principals need to shift their focus from being managers to leaders and they should be able to integrate knowledge with technologies, American academic Dr Catherine Hargrove told a session yesterday on ‘Principal’s dilemma’ on the second day of the 24th Principals Council of the CBSE Affiliated Schools in the Gulf Region.The meeting, attended by more than 85 principals of the Indian schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE, New Delhi) is discussing a host of issues aimed at improving the educational delivery standards at the region’s Indian schools.Leaders not only have a vision but should also have the power to transmit it to others, said Dr Hargrove. “Leaders don’t do different things, but they do things differently,” said the academic from USA’s University of Southern Methodist.Dr Hargrove said one needs enormous amount of professionalism to handle students with learning difficulties. She also called upon the teachers to be as flexible and supportive as possible while handling children with learning disorders.Later at a session on “improving schools through greater accountability”, Al Ain Junior School (UAE) principal Srinivas Iyengar insisted that teachers need to be motivated through adequate training programmes at intervals to get the best results for their students. “Only when teachers understand the actual requirements of talented students and also those of students with special educational needs, they are successful in delivering their responsibilities,” he said. Each school, he said, should have improvement planning teams and there should be collaboration rather than competition with other schools to improve their quality standards, he said.At a session on “leadership for training”, UAE-based Gems Asian Schools director Dr F A Wasil said better organisations could be formed only through superior levels of training. “We must harvest the collective genius and make tangible changes and adjustments in an educational landscape that is ever changing and ever demanding,” he said.Senior consultant Keith B Heath highlighted the necessity of narrowing the gap between the principal and supervisory staffers later. “Private and public organisations have the extra challenge of bringing a wider range of individuals into cohesive, and well-organised teams,” he said’Heath said the role of a principal is to empower and charge his teams, insisting that every principal should build a vision for his institution and a clear focus for its programmes.Different sessions were chaired by M P Vinoba (Indian School Ibri, Oman), Anju Dheman (Fahaheel Al Watanieh Indian School, Kuwait), Mairaj Mohamed Khan (DPS, Saudi Arabia) and Dr E K Mohamed Shafi (International Indian School, Dammam).