Educators, school leaders, EBRC representatives, and district officials from Mon and Peren districts recently came together for the ACE (Awareness, Communication, and Empathy) Leadership and Transformative Teaching Workshops — a professional development initiative facilitated by NagaEd under the District Empowerment Programme (DEP). The workshop was conducted in Peren on May 8 with 26 participants representing schools and education offices across the district. The Mon session followed on May 15.
The sessions explored the human side of education — empathy, communication, leadership, self-awareness, and understanding different personality types and leadership styles within school environments. Through interactive exercises, reflection activities, and group discussions, participants were encouraged to think about what it means to lead and teach with greater awareness and empathy.
That became one of the defining takeaways from both workshops: meaningful change in schools often begins with how educators understand themselves and the people they work with.
Speaking about the sessions, Livi Chishi, Facilitator and Senior Manager, Learning, Design & Excellence at NagaED said, “Leadership in schools is not only about systems or administration. It is about how people communicate, build trust, resolve conflict, and create environments where both teachers and students feel understood. The ACE workshop was designed to create space for reflection as much as learning.”
Participants highlighted the workshop’s interactive nature, practical discussions, and relevance to real school environments. Several attendees recommended that similar leadership-focused professional development initiatives continue across more districts.
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The workshops were part of broader efforts to strengthen reflective leadership and people-centred learning environments within schools across Nagaland. By bringing together educators, administrators, and school leaders into shared learning spaces, the sessions aimed to encourage deeper conversations around communication, collaboration, and educational leadership.
As the workshops concluded in Mon and Peren, the focus remained not only on training delivery, but on enabling educators and school leaders to carry these conversations and practices back into their own schools and communities.
The ACE workshop is one strand of the District Empowerment Programme — a three-year initiative (2024–2027) working across Mon and Peren districts to revitalise rural education through a holistic, community-driven model. DEP is a partnership between HDFC Bank and ShikshaLokam, implemented by Elevate Foundation.
To date, DEP has supported 14 schools across the two districts with infrastructure upgrades — including WASH facilities, STEM labs, and libraries — and identified model schools in Mon and Peren for comprehensive transformation.
