“Making teaching an aspirational career”

An alumna of IIT-Delhi and IIM-Calcutta, Ramya Venkataraman is founder and CEO of Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA), promoted to recognise teaching excellence and create career pathways for teaching professionals. Excerpts from an interview: After a distinguished career in management consulting and also establishing the education practice of McKinsey & Co, you left to promote CENTA in 2014. What were the prime factors which prompted this career switch?  When I was close to completing ten years in McKinsey, having played voluntary roles with education organisations, I wanted to commit myself full-time to improving the quality of K-12 education in India. So, I jumped at the chance to set up McKinsey’s India education practice, thanks to the support of our managing director and other colleagues. The six years of on-the-ground experience building the practice at McKinsey from 2009 to 2014 gave me a deeper understanding of the complex and intertwined issues in this sector. Finally, I started believing that one of the most important missing pieces is positive recognition, rewards and career opportunities for teachers — the most important determinant for improving K-12 education. That led to the idea of CENTA and I finally left McKinsey in end 2014 to promote this organisation.  How satisfied are you with the growth and development of CENTA?  CENTA’s growth and national reach, in less than three years, has been beyond all expectations. I am very grateful to the teachers, principals, school managements, governments, other education organisations and media who have enabled our growth and development. CENTA is now a community of 15,000-plus teachers in 500 cities/towns/villages, serving in more than 1,000 schools. Since then the Development Bank of Singapore and National University of Singapore have ranked CENTA among the Top 60 social enterprises of Asia; CENTA has been a member institution of a global alliance of teacher developers alongside Harvard GSE, NIE Singapore, University of Finland and others. Moreover, CENTA is a knowledge partner of NITI Aayog.  If I am right, CENTA isn’t in the teacher training and development business. What exactly is your business model?  You are right. CENTA doesn’t provide teacher training. We provide independent certification of teaching competencies assessed according to rigorous CENTA standards. Certification is the outcome of practice-oriented objectives and practical assessment of teachers who apply for assessment of their capabilities. It facilitates the teacher recruitment, career progression and professional development programmes of school managements and prompts teachers to improve their own competencies. Eventually, I believe CENTA will make teaching an aspirational career, and benefit K-12 education nationwide.  One of your major initiatives is the annual CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad (TPO). What’s its objective and how satisfied are you with the response to TPO from the teachers’ community?  The CENTA Teaching Professionals’ Olympiad (TPO) is a national competition to recognise, celebrate and reward outstanding teachers. It is a two-hour objective multiple-choice test based on CENTA standards that are highly practice-oriented. The response from teachers has been overwhelming! Over the past three years, 15,000 school teachers, principals, coordinators, supplemental tutors, professional fellows,…