Priyanka Arya

Priyanka Arya is the Director & COO of the Centre for Teacher Accreditation (CENTA) Pvt. Ltd., the world’s largest independent professional platform for teachers, based out of India. A certification trademark in India and benchmarked against several global standards, CENTA® works with 1.9 million teachers from over 100,000 schools, focusing on certification of competencies, upskilling, and career growth.

Priyanka’s contributions as a business leader, especially in the education sector, include:

• Serving as the Chief Architect of CENTA Standards, a globally recognized teacher competency framework since 2015, which in 2021–22 directly fed into India’s National Professional Standards for Teachers (NPST).
• Playing an instrumental role in establishing CENTA’s marquee testing and training products, driving its growth and brand; leading content creation, tech-based large-scale delivery, and partnerships with global brands.
• Launching and growing CENTAlks, a widely followed weekly online learning series for teachers — attended by thousands live and many more asynchronously — running continuously since April 2020.
• Spearheading the development of the CENTA App, attracting millions of teachers globally and building the world’s largest professional platform for educators with strong ongoing engagement.
• Publishing a weekly series, TeacherStory, spotlighting the journeys and achievements of accomplished educators.

An alumna of the Indian Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (B.Tech.), and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (MBA), Priyanka previously worked in management consulting firms including Accenture and Strategic Decisions Group, specializing in large-scale infrastructure projects, project management, and bid advisory. She also spent a year with Accenture’s Development Practice, working with multinational foundations on development initiatives.

Priyanka enjoys painting, with Kerala murals and knife-painting in the style of Leonid Afremov among her specialties. She has also volunteered as a teacher, teaching English and Mathematics to primary and middle-school students, and continues to explore creative teaching approaches that make learning engaging and fun.