Ms.Uma Shanker, the Director of Indian Montessori Training Courses – Chennai, (IMTC-C), holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the Madras University. She began her career in the field of education when she completed her Montessori-teacher training under the directorship of Mr. S. R. Swamy in1984 in Kolkata and received her AMI Diploma in Montessori education. Uma Shanker received her Certificate to be an independent Director of Training from Indian Montessori Centre (IMC), Bangalore in 1997 and set up the first Montessori Teacher Training institution in Chennai in 1998. At present she is Director-General of IMC, Bangalore, in charge of the Montessori Directors’ Training Course. (MDTC). A member of the Central Governing Council of IMC for over 15 years, she has also served as its Secretary-General.
Working with children in Calcutta and Madras, Uma Shanker realized that this was her true vocation and became convinced that the Montessori Method offered the ideal environment for all children, to work towards their development. When she realized the importance of having trained teachers in the classroom, she decided to qualify herself as a teacher-trainer. Uma saw her role as that of a facilitator to help the adult-students look at the child from Montessori’s point of view and from thereon it was an exciting journey exploring ways to dream and discover the possibilities of extending oneself to help future teachers transform themselves to serve the child. She firmly believes adults have to be prepared intellectually, technically and spiritually and this can only be achieved through intense and relevant training.
Uma Shanker has undertaken pioneering work in taking the Montessori method of education to the underprivileged children by conducting teacher training courses and workshops for several NGOs including Sneha in Nagapattinam, SOS Village, Tambaram, Sri Ramacharan Charitable Trust (SRCT) and Nishkam Trust at Chennai. SRCT has set up and now manages near 60 environments in Chennai Corporation Schools and Balwadis. She has led a team that has trained a large number of teachers of Greater Chennai Corporation.
Uma Shanker has authored a book titled, “Your Child and You”, a guide to parents. She has also written a booklet titled “A Guide to Montessori Education for the Early Years, published by Indian Montessori Centre, TN Chapter. The book deals with Montessori education for the 2½ to 6 years and address questions frequently asked by parents. Her articles have also been published in the press. Uma Shanker has presented several papers in National and International conferences. In 2016, she presented a paper at a UNESCO education conference. More recently, in November 2019, she presented a paper in Kuala Lumpur at a conference organized by the Montessori Association Malaysia.
Uma Shanker is the recipient of the Lady Kalyani Sivaswami Ayyar Best Teacher Award.

In 2019, she received the first Maria Montessori award instituted by Shri Ramacharan Charitable Trust, for her pioneering work to formulate the Montessori education and training courses in Tamil.