The Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, announced the launch of its first social responsibility initiative in the domain of school education on Saturday. Under its month-long School Leadership Programme, the institute will groom young principals, vice-principals, heads of departments and senior teachers as future leaders of school education.

In response to the HRD ministry's call to higher educational institutions for developing quality delivery capability in schools, IIT-D developed a leadership training module for teachers and school administrators. "The training programme will start from May 23. We will have teachers and heads from across schools, including those from Kendriya Vidyalayas, Delhi government schools, Navodaya Vidyalayas and public schools. The programme has been developed in IIT itself and the focus is on grooming leaders for schools, which we feel is lacking across schools,'' said Dr Harish Chaudhry, programme director of School Leadership Programme, department of management studies, IIT-D.

As a government institution, IIT-D has found willing sponsors in - and is partnering with - its alumni from the corporate world, to deliver its mission for developing the next-generation principals for the schools.

"This is a pilot run and we would like to first see the feedback of the principals and teachers, before scaling it up,'' said Chaudhry.