Uma Shanker, the Director of the Centre for
Montessori Training – Chennai (CMT-C), began
her career in the
educational field when she completed her Montessori training in Calcutta in 1984. Since then she has been working with, and for, children.
As the director of the training programme for the 3-6 age group in CMT-C, she spends the major portion of the academic year lecturing and sharing with the students her rich experience of working with children.
She keeps in close touch with the Montessori schools here in Chennai and with past students, who exchange views and discuss their work and experiences with children. Whenever she can, she fits in time to visit these schools for observation and opportunities to work with children. This enriches the lectures as they bring alive the Montessori environment.
Apart from this, Uma conducts numerous workshops for the teachers working in traditional systems of education. Here she shares her knowledge of the Montessori Method and her experience of children at the primary as well as elementary level to help teachers be more understanding of the child and innovative in the classroom.
In the past she has done projects with SNEHA, an NGO in Nagapattinam and the SOS village Tambaram, to train and facilitate their teachers to take the Montessori Method into their classrooms.
Uma was instrumental in starting a programme on The Professional Training of Trainers for the Government of Tamilnadu on which she served as co-trainer, thus initiating changes in the government training programme for teachers.
She organises and conducts parenting workshops, interacts with and advises any group of adults associated with children, sharing with them the Montessori philosophy and method on how to create an environment that is best suited to their children.
Uma has written extensively on the Montessori Method of education, including in the popular media: her article on “Dr. Montessori’s views on the Social Development of the Child” was published in The Hindu, July 21, 1998.
She is now the Secretary-General of Indian Montessori Centre.
Ms. Chithra Mani
Chitra Mani is the Associate Director, CMT-C and has been with the institution since its inception, sharing all of Uma’s dreams and vision for children.
She has had years of experience working with children of different age groups from the primary to the higher secondary stage in, as well as outside, of the classroom. In helping them cope with the demands of academic work, she realised the limitations of the present system of schooling. In the Montessori philosophy and method she found the perfect system with vision and direction: a comprehensive and meaningful learning process which caters to the personality and style of each and every child.
She helps students develop an in-depth perception and an understanding of various branches of learning and helps them thus work out a relevant and interesting method to present to very young children. She assists them in honing their skills and developing an eye for detail and perfection in all they do, all of which is important in their work with the children.
Ms. Shobhana Vaidyanathan
Shobhana Vaidyanathan, Associate Director
(Training)
has 25 years working experience with
children in a
Montessori environment. She passionately believes it is the only method that addresses the developmental needs of ALL children.
Shobhana has been closely associated with Centre for Montessori Training - Chennai since its inception. When she decided to devote her time fully to training, she enrolled for the trainer of teachers’ programme and received her independent directorship in December 2008.
She shares with the students her twenty five years of varied experience of working with children – at Lumbini, Hyderabad, Abacus and Maitri, Chennai. Founder Principal of Maitri, she has the distinction of integrating children with special needs in the school.
Shobhana has gained deep insights into the doubts and difficulties adults face while working with children as coordinator of the pre-primary section in Abacus, as well as through her other experiences at Namma Bhoomi (a project of Concerned for Working Children, Bangalore) and SOS Village School, Tambaram. She has guided them with understanding and sensitivity.
Single-minded and energetic she is a stickler for work, and wholeheartedly gives her time and energy to any work she undertakes and expects the same of her associates.
A Home Science Graduate and a gold medallist, from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, she passed out in the year 1980. An AMI Diploma holder, she did her Montessori Training Programme in the year 1980-81, at Hyderabad, under the auspices of Indian Montessori Training Courses.
Ms. Smita Vishweshwar
Page will come.
Ms. Vishnu Priya
Page will come.
Ms. Meenakshi Sivaramakrishnan
Professor Emeritus, Ms. Meenakshi Sivaramakrishnan, a senior Montessorian is the director of Indian Montessori Training Courses, Bangalore (R). A Trainer of Trainers, she has trained five directors and five more are undergoing training at present.
She has been an active member of the Montessori world in India for the past four decades, in various capacities. She is the Director-General of Indian Montessori Centre.
As a Member of the Board of Association Montessori Internationale, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, she has represented India at the international level.
Her passion for the propagation of the Montessori philosophy and Method is clearly evident in all her work. She has taken this philosophy to rural Karnataka and helped organisations set up Montessori environments. Indeed people have been able to see the universal applicability of the Montessori philosophy through Ms Sivaramakrishnan’s work and efforts.
She is a stickler for exactness and precision in thought and action and will look into the detail of all that she takes up in order that the method is not distorted. All those who have worked with her, whether in the area of material manufacturing or in preparing for the courses will stand testimony to this.
She has brought Montessorians from all over India and Asia together in the various conferences she has organised in Bangalore & Chennai.
She is equally passionate about motivating people/students to think. Her lectures are intended to provoke questioning to clarify their thoughts in their search for a better understanding of the Child.
An active member of the Ramakrishna and Sarada Mutt, she is able to relate the philosophies together and live her life in the true spirit of her personal beliefs.
Mr. G Viswanath
Director - Organisations & Alternatives Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
As Founder Director of Organisations & Alternatives over the past 14 years, Viswanath enjoys his work as an Organisation Development consultant and Behavioural science trainer, with newer and newer areas ahead of him to explore.
His core purpose at work is to help people realise their true potential - or at the very least acknowledge that there are umpteen ways in which this can happen, provided they are willing to experiment. His beliefs are founded on his own personal experience of change, as well as his interactions with thousands of people over his lifetime.
His consulting experience has been in the Information Technology, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, and BPO sectors.
He has also taught as visiting faculty in many reputed management institutions – both in India and abroad.
His 13 years of working experience prior to his consulting career spanned Manufacturing and I T. He held positions of Manager – IT, Systems Consultant, Product Manager, Corporate manager – HR in 3 organisations.
With a post graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Viswanath is a professional member of the Indian Society for Applied Behavioural Science (ISABS)-1996. He is also MBTI Qualified by the APT Qualifying Training Program -1998, a life member of the NHRD Network, Bangalore and has been on the Advisory Board of the Center for Montessori Training - Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
Uma Shanker, the Director of the Centre for 
Shobhana Vaidyanathan, Associate Director
(Training)
Director - Organisations & Alternatives Consulting Pvt. Ltd.
