LEAP (Leadership Enhancement and Animation Program) programs were conducted in Calcutta, Pune, Pathalgoan, Patna, Ranchi, Chennai, Bangalore, Mumbai, Jamshedpur and Hazaribagh. About 330 Jesuit School Leaders from all over the Conference participated in the programmes. The core team that planned and executed the programme consisted of Frs. John Ravi SJ, Conference Secretary for School Education (convener), John Kennedy SJ (MDU), the organizer of LEAP, Norbert Menezes, SJ (PAT), the convener for TEEP (Teachers’ Effective Enhancement Program), George Nedumattam (PAT) and Robert Das (PUN). Its members served as resource persons in addition to others from the area.
LEAP aims to strengthen the capacity of the heads of schools. The objectives were to enhance and strengthen the passion, charisma and commitment of our school leaders – to bring in well-established professionalism in the administration -üto help the school leaders update themselves with the latest trends, practices, and rules to motivate them to actively get involved in and thus promote advocacy, collaboration and networking – and to ensure the Jesuit characteristics in our schools.
LEAP is a four day programme with four themes related to leadership: Ignatian Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Academic Leadership and Organizational Leadership. There was spiritual conversation and common Examen at the end of every day.
On the first day, the first session was ‘A Call to Introspection’ when each participant examined and evaluated himself/herself as a person, as a leader and a Jesuit educator. The three questions that were helpful in this introspection were: ‘Where am I right now as a person and as an educational leader? Where do I like to go? And how do I get there?’ The second session was on the education mission in India – evolution of education down the centuries in India, contribution of Christians in this noble venture. The session ended with the recently promulgated NEP – 2020 (National Education Policy). Despite the dangerous elements in the NEP like corporatization, communalization and centralization of education, the group explored strategies and plans to adapt NEP in all our schools.
The author is the Vice-Principal of St. Xavier’s Hr. Sec. School, Palayamkottai, and Director, JCERT (Jesuit Council for Education Research and Training).
