For years, efforts to improve India’s failing state system focused on teachers, classrooms and curricula. Now a training scheme for headteachers is reaping dividends

Until recently, Maniram Mandiwal felt like just another cog in the wheel. The headteacher of Rajasthan’s Shaheed Col Jayprakash Janu secondary school left work as soon as he could. He didn’t know any of his pupils by name, and took no interest in his staff. Mandiwal had spent a quarter of a century in teaching without ever experiencing a “special classroom moment”.

Recently, though, all that changed. With a class nearing its end, some of the children said: “Don’t go yet, sir, we’re enjoying this.” It was the first time he had heard such a thing. He was touched.

Mandiwal puts it all down to a training course he attended designed to rewire headteachers from faceless functionaries into inspirational leaders, delivering high quality education to young Indians whose lives depend on it.

He now knows the names of most of his pupils and thinks constantly about how to improve his school in Rajasthan’s Jhunjhunu district. “Whenever I go out shopping for anything for the house, I always buy it for the school. I never had this commitment before,” he says.

Mandiwal is one of 700 school principals in Rajasthan, mostly men, who have been trained to keep sinking state schools afloat. Another 1,736 are undergoing training. The programme is run by the Foundation for Education Leadership, set up by Piramal, whose founders come from Jhunjhunu.

Previous attempts to improve India’s dismal education system had focused on teachers, the classroom and the curriculum – never on principals.

Training principals to become “education leaders” is the ambition of Aditya Natraj, the foundation’s CEO. The idea was spawned after the 2001 earthquake in Gujarat, when Natraj, who was working at an education NGO, arrived in the affected area eager to restart schools that had been destroyed.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A student at a school in Jhunjhunu district. Photograph: Amrit Dhillon

A headteacher who lived in another part of the state had beaten him to it, travelling to the area of his own volition to give classes under a tree.

Natraj was struck by the head’s dedication. He began to think about how one inspiring leader could make a difference. Studying schools across the country, Natraj discerned a pattern. “The 10-15% [school principals] at the bottom of the system were no good,” he recalls. “The top 10-15% of principals were great leaders of great schools. The other 60% or so were going through the motions. If we could transfer the attributes of the top 10-15% to the 60%, could we raise the quality of India’s state schools?”

Schools invariably appoint senior teachers to the post of principal. But the role demands a totally different skill set. “They have to build a team, engage the village, motivate the staff, create a positive atmosphere, and use resources well. Managing a school is like running a small business,” says Natraj.

Whenever I go out shopping, I always buy for the school. I never had this commitment before Maniram Mandiwal

Headteachers had to be fired up, he thought. In 2008, when he became the foundation’s CEO, he launched a three-year training programme for principals in 100 government schools in Jhunjhunu.

Some principals “caught fire” straight away. Others scoffed. Among them was Mandiwal. “I thought, what can they teach me with my long experience?”

His school was of the type that is failing all over India. Last year, in its annual report on the state of education in India, the Pratham foundation found that 25% of the country’s 125 million 14- to 18-year-olds are unable to read basic text in their own language. Even the poorest Indians put their children in private schools they can ill afford, because it is the only way to give them a half decent education.

Mandiwal’s school has a capacity of 2,000 students but, when he took over as head in 2015, it had just 385 pupils. Children had dropped out or enrolled in private schools. Parents had lost faith.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Teachers at a government senior secondary school in Lalpur, Jhunjhunu, receive training from the foundation. Photograph: Amrit Dhillon

With the training he received, Mandiwal has turned the school around. He arrives on time, which means the teachers follow suit. He has planted trees and shrubs so that the central courtyard is green and shady in the hot Rajasthan sun. Parents are urged to visit and watch classes so that they can see what their children are learning. Rather than remaining mute, girls who once lowered their eyes shyly when asked a question now think nothing of asking the teacher for sanitary towels.

Mandiwal has bought desks and installed fans and water coolers. Extra classes are available to help children with homework and during exam time. The school now has 1,724 pupils. “The best compliment – and this is the ultimate compliment – was hearing a parent say it’s like a private school,” says Mandiwal, smiling.

At Raj K Newmandan school, headteacher Surinder Choudhary is so excited about how his school has improved that “when I see some person on the road, I want to grab them and tell them to take their kid out of private school and give them to me”.

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As a result of the programme, in 2014-15 a 21% improvement in learning outcomes in maths and language was recorded in the district in years three and five. Now the project is targeting a further 20% over the next three years.

In 2016-17, 6,000 students in Jhunjhunu returned to government schools from private ones. In last year’s countrywide achievement survey, conducted by the national council of educational research and training, Jhunjhunu came top.

The Rajasthan government has asked the foundation to take over the state institute of education management and training. Education officials in other states are now asking for the same training. The foundation is working with 4,000 schools in 15 of India’s 29 states.

“Private schools create islands of excellence when what we need in government schools is to lift the level of the ocean,” says Natraj.

“By 2025, we hope to be in most parts of the country. We will make schools work.”