By focusing on main objective and daily goals that are beneficial to the broader community, family, and the individual person, a person with leadership skills can encourage colleagues, peers, and students to pursue higher education. This is done by maintaining transparency and recognising their potential and creative value. The principal aids in producing leaders for our time.
All higher-level activities in a school are supervised by the principal. They establish performance standards for both instructors and children, ensure that those standards are met, and maintain a secure learning environment.
Roles and Responsibilities:
A principal must be optimistic, motivated, involved in the daily operations of the school, and be receptive to the opinions of his students. Educators, staffs, parents and learners may all have an access to an effective leader. A principal should remain composed under pressure, consider his actions before doing them, and prioritise the necessities of the institution.
The main aim of a principal is education management and planning and to scrutinize overall administration. Below are some of the roles and responsibilities of a principal.
- Establishing an objective for all learners' academic achievement
- Establishing ideal environment for learning
- Undertaking leadership
Establishing an objective for all learners' academic achievement:
- Set evaluable objectives. You should be able to track and assess your learners' progress toward goals.
- Display written goals where students will be able to see them (on a poster, white board, or hand-out).
- Talk to your students about the goals so they are clear on what they are aiming for. Also, go over with your pupils on how you'll evaluate their success in achieving these goals.
- Link goals to prior information to assist students make the connection between old and new knowledge.
- Examine whether the goals are relevant for the students' ability level. To fulfil the requirements of varied learners, you might need to use differentiated instruction.
- Track goals' progress and modify lesson as necessary.
Establishing ideal environment for learning:
Effective principals make sure that both students and adults should prioritise learning in their daily activities. According to Vanderbilt researchers, such "a healthy school environment" is characterised by fundamentals like safety and orderliness as well as less obvious characteristics like a "supportive, responsive" outlook toward the kids and a feeling by teachers that they are a part of a group of experts focused on effective teaching.
Undertaking leadership:
- Constantly endeavour to increase the school's operational efficiency, for which he is accountable.
- Attend meetings and professional development conferences, as well as study professional publications, to stay updated on the most recent methods and procedures used in school administration, teaching, and programme development.
- To spend most of the time on school supervision while not engaged in teaching duties, paying attention to teaching strategies and working to boost staff and institutional productivity.
- Continually update the superintendent on the state and requirements of the school.
- Within the area of influence, suggest relevant modifications and guarantee adherence to established policies, practises, and procedures.
Qualifications: Candidates for the position of principal must hold a post graduate diploma in educational management or educational leadership from a college or institution that has earned accreditation. While applicants with a bachelor's degree may work as principals in some institutions, most call for a postgraduate degree.
The higher degree is required by some school systems. Candidates seeking principal-ship positions in primary schools must hold a master's or doctoral degree in education, principal-ship, or educational administration in addition to a state principal-ship licence, certificate, or endorsement. The state determines the licence requirements. The majority of degree programmes include an internship or practicum. Some degree programmes are adaptable enough to let students keep their jobs while pursuing their degrees.
What qualifications are necessary for a successful principal?
- Leadership skills
- Adaptive and innovative
- IT skills
- Communication skills
- Should have the ability to delegate
- Decision making skills
- Problem-solver
1. Leadership skills: A principal serves as a liaison between learners, educators, and guardians while also managing a significant workforce and a sizable student body. As a result, one has to be a competent leader if one really wants parents, staff, and kids to respect them and pay attention to what they have to say.
2. Adaptive and innovative: The capability to adapt and innovate is one of the qualities that all teachers, not always principals, should possess. We live in a world where technology is always changing and where new teaching methods are continuously being developed. Principals must set a good example, show that they are not hesitant of innovation, and implement those improvements in the teaching methodologies methodology as they become available.
3. IT skills: Principals must also feel comfortable using the newest technologies in order to stay innovative and maintain the relevance of the content and teaching methods. Principals must set the example in everything they do because if they do not use the new technology themselves, how can they expect their educators to? The Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent worldwide shift to online schooling have made this even more crucial, pushing teachers to rely on technology more now than ever before.
4. Communication skills: As a principal, one interacts with a wide range of people, including staff members, parents, and students. As a result, one must ensure that one notifies them of any pertinent information and do it in an acceptable manner. The most crucial thing is to keep everyone in the loop on events at the school.
5. Problem-solver: One of the most crucial abilities for a principal to possess is the ability to solve difficulties. Principals deal with a variety of challenges every day, from budget concerns to problems at the homes of their kids. The principal is the one who the staffs and students turn to whenever they need assistance solving a problem of any kind.
6. Should have the ability to delegate: It's a popular notion that an effective leader is someone who can handle everything on their own. In contrast, the best leaders are aware of the appropriate times to assign specific tasks to others. Some responsibilities may be better handled by other staff members, or occasionally a principal may just have too much work to handle alone and needs assistance from other staff members to complete all. And here is where being able to assign particular duties to different employees really helps!
7. Decision making skills: Decisiveness is yet another crucial trait for a principal. Making decisions quickly conveys to faculty and students that one is knowledgeable and comfortable in their abilities. As a result they will become more confident in ones capacity to manage the school. Additionally, in most cases, taking quick, definite action results in the problem you are attempting to solve being resolved more quickly.
So now that we know what are the actual traits of a principal, we should also know what will actually make us different among other applicants. The answer to this would be Educational Administration and Management programs offered by Asian College of Teachers. These programs not only help you to acquire education administration positions, but also help one to understand what education management and planning is.
Happy Learning!
Written By : Debolina Chakraborty
