JOURNEY OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP ACADEMY

State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Tripura was declared as School Leadership Academy (SLA) by National Centre for School Leadership (NCSL), National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) in 2016 with the motto of reaching out to each school in the state to ensure that every child learns and every school excels. The real journey of transforming the schools of Tripura as envisaged by NCSL-NIEPA began when 52 school heads had undergone a 10-day capacity building programme. A pool of 52 State Resource Group Members (SRGs) was formed for the eight districts of Tripura. The next task was to translate and contextualize the NCSL handbook into Bengali by some of the SRG members of the state. Later, District Resource Groups were formed in collaboration with NCSL-NIEPA. In the year 2018, the first-ever One-month Certificate Course in School Leadership and Management was organized by SCERT, Tripura. A lot of enthusiasm was seen among the school heads who participated in the programmes. A review and feedback mechanism was implemented for every 10-day capacity building programme and One Month Certificate Course, while video documentation captured the changes brought by school heads. Course materials were translated and designed for launching an online certificate course on school leadership and management using the DIKSHA platform. During the COVID-19 pandemic, webinars were organized, case studies documented and shared on national platforms. Online capacity-building programmes also played a vital role during this period, along with the sharing of best practices among school heads. Efforts were made to cover all secondary school heads and 90% of elementary school heads through these 10-day capacity building programmes. Additionally, resources were contextualized for capacity-building efforts and live streaming by school heads was conducted via the NCSL platform. This initiative supported the transformational journey of school heads across the state, with continuous guidance from NCSL-NIEPA being integral to the process. After the publication of National Education Policy 2020, SLA Tripura is leading in framing the State Curriculum Framework under SCERT, Tripura. With rejuvenated hope and vigour, SLA is working to facilitate the school heads to materialize the aspirations envisaged in NEP 2020.