1. He should wholeheartedly dedicate his body, mind and soul for the growth and sustenance of the school.
2. He should always be conscious of the role he/she plays in and out of office as he will be observed by all around - the school community and others, too - for his value orientation. They correlate his words with his deeds and if they find positive correlation his word will become law and everyone will fall in line to realise the objectives he places before them.
3. He should be competent in his specialised subject of study besides having a bird’s eye view of all other subjects included in the curriculum of the school and should have at least peripheral knowledge of general knowledge of the globe.
4. He should have a working knowledge of the computer and record and keep track of certain important documents at his computer files accessible only to him.
5. He should, in consultation with the staff, evolve tools to evaluate everyone with respect to their knowledge of content, methods, evaluation techniques to guide the children suitably according to well-evolved tools inside the school by consensus, where the individual children’s growth kept as the main objective, unquestionable at that.
6. Incidental evaluation for the main aspects of the child’s involvement in the learning process should be made a process in the school which should be reckoned by the leader by his own observation, test checking, discussion with the teachers and children too.
7. He should make the parents respect the role of the teachers by:
8. He should have clear ideas on management and leadership by going through literature on these subjects as also becoming a member of such gatherings in the place of his work/residence.
Discuss presentationABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mr M. Mahadevan is a retired principal who is currently General Secretary of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India. He writes: ‘Born in April 1939 this 69 year old child is still receptive to ideas which will uplift this society globally to newer heights of glory in all spheres conceivable by humanity. Though the upbringing was in a lower middle class joint family with several relatives living together in a small rented house in the heart of the famous town Tiruchirappalli, this individual studied in local school and college with distinction up to Intermediate and average beyond until postgraduate degree in mathematics.
Having tried his hand at attempts to become an administrative officer in the Govt. and failed in them while working as untrained graduate teacher in private schools, he chose to be a teacher but a good teacher at that by taking up teacher’s degree and continuing to get post graduate degree also in that. When the opportunity was offered to join Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan, a unit of Ministry of Education Government of India in 1965, as postgraduate teacher in mathematics he grappled it firmly and continued to serve the organization as teacher, vice principal and principal for 33 years and eight months and is now a pensioner for the past nine years, with a comfortable own house, a car and enough wherewithal to command a comfortable life by normal standard having perhaps joined the upper middle class!
While in service, he tried his hands in various types of assignments mostly by self-initiative and used them as learning experiences, be they in service courses in the subject of specialisation, with or without foreign collaboration, educational experimentations including innovative strategies, motivating children in self-learning techniques with his guidance to achieve acclaimed positions in the scholastic and competitive fields, arranging field trips for children and teachers alike, studying the environment and conditioning the self to manage any situation tactfully to help the underdog, studying and becoming a student and member of management associations, professional bodies like the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India, Delhi Association of Mathematics Teachers, English Language Teachers Association and the like and contributing his might financially, academically throughout and getting recognition to be elected and continuing as the General Secretary of the Association of Mathematics Teachers of India for the 12th year in succession.
Throughout the approach of the individual, as indicated earlier, tries to be child-like in curiosity to observe men and matters around and channelling the ideas learnt to the fields of specialisation, participating actively in any chosen or volunteered activity to take it to possible excellence with acceptable human limitations, as has been done in these papers, using the opportunity to recollect and record thoughts on education and educational administration for excellence even at international level
May God continue to guide this humble soul in his pursuit of excellence.