CBSE thumbs down to "disinterested" IIMs
India's largest Board turns to IIFT and MDI Gurgaon for programmes to terrain teachers, Principals after "less than satisfactory" experience with the IIMs over past three years. Charu Sudan Kasturi reports.
The Central Board of Secondary Education is ending its dependence on the Indian Institutes of Management to conduct its training programmes for school teachers and Principals, unhappy with a "lack of interest" shown by the IIMs.
In a rare vote of no confidence in the country's premier B-schools, the CBSE has decided to turn to the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and the Management Development Institute (MDI) for future programmes.
Top government sources confirmed to HT that the move by the CBSE came after the country's largest school education Board concluded that the IIMs were not giving adequate priority to programmes for schools teachers and Principals.)
Officially, the move will be described – at least initially – as aimed at reducing the burden on the IIMs and a result of a massive demand from Principals and teachers, sources said. But CBSE sources confirmed that the Board is "very dissatisfied" with the IIMs.
"There was a palpable lack of interest and because of that, our candidates for the programmes were not benefiting the way they should have," a senior official said.
The IIFT, like the IIMs is a public institution and is based in Delhi. The MDI, in Gurgaon, is however a private B-school. The IIFT is organizing its first teacher training conference for the CBSE in Calcutta, sources said. The MDI conducted its first programme for the CBSE in October 2010 and just completed its second session earlier this month.
An IIM Director conceded that a CBSE move away from the IIMs could be embarrassing but argued that there was no lack of interest on their part. "Any such perception is possibly the result of some miscommunication," the Director said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We will discuss the matter with the CBSE," he added.
The CBSE has for the past three years sent batches of teachers and Principals to the IIMs for training ands leadership skills. The programmes – called 'Strategic Management and Leadership' programmes – are aimed at preparing school leaders for challenges they are likely to face in coming years.