The Jharkhand government will take IIM Ranchi’s assistance to help principals and senior teachers at the centres of excellence imbibe leadership skills.

This would be the first instance of IIM helping a state government in improving education centres anywhere in eastern Indian states.

“We have signed a memorandum of understanding with the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Ranchi) on Tuesday and will be taking their help in imparting leadership training to the headmasters/headmistress and senior teachers entrusted with administrative affairs of the identified model schools, which have been named as centres of excellence. The agreement will be for a period of three years,” said director Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) Kiran Kumari Pasi.

She said a total of 405 model schools had been identified across all the 24 districts of Jharkhand in the first phase.

“This is an ambitious project of chief minister Hemant Soren to develop model schools as centres of excellence, which will provide studies on a par with the best of private schools and also have all modern facilities available in private schools. In the first phase, 405 schools have been identified and IIM will help mentor those principals or senior teachers manning the administrative responsibilities,” said Pasi.

“It is a big step towards bringing about a complete change in schools under the holistic reform approach by focusing on providing quality education. In the first phase, 80 Plus-two-level schools have been taken up at the district level. Model schools will be set up in each of the 245 rural block headquarters and 62 urban local body areas,” said Pasi.

Sources in IIM Ranchi said they would begin mentoring the selected teachers and principals from November.

“We have developed modules for improving their leadership, soft skills, digital literacy and effective administration. The frequency of the mentoring would be chalked out in consultation with JEPC depending on the availability of the school teachers/principals,” said a senior faculty at IIM Ranchi who would be looking after the training sessions.

The training programme will be held on the IIM Ranchi campus and JEPC and also in different districts.

The agreement also consists of impact assessment by IIM Ranchi to evaluate the effectiveness of the training programme.

IIM Ranchi director Deepak Kumar Srivastava said: “This collaboration with the government of Jharkhand is further evidence of our philosophy of global excellence with locally-focused responsiveness. As an institute of national importance, we are not only preparing our students to be industry-ready, but we are also contributing to society and nation development. We will continue working hard to achieve our target of making IIM Ranchi a premier institute globally and giving back to society simultaneously. We have larger responsibilities towards Jharkhand, it being our home state.”

IIM Ranchi was earlier this year roped in by the Jharkhand government to help prepare the state’s annual budget.