Draft
School leadership in India Understanding the Context
Abstract
Over the years the researches have been indicating that the quality of education is greatly linked
with the way the schools are organized and managed. School leaders play a very crucial role.
They are the administrative and academic chief of schools and act as a hinge between the school
and society. The development and progress of school relies on the Leadership qualities and
initiatives taken by the school leaders. School leaders determines the vision, mission and goals,
the overall climate of the school, the climate in the individual classrooms, culture of the schools,
the attitude of the teachers their morale, performance, motivation, satisfaction, commitment etc.
They are expected to develop learning communities, supervise teaching and learning, build the
professional capacity of teachers, deals with the parents and other stakeholders, resolve conflicts,
perform administrative tasks etc. The present paper tries to locate school leadership in the Indian
education policies. The paper deals with the roles and responsibilities, recruitment and training
aspects of school heads. It also focuses on the training needs and leadership preparation
programmes for school leaders in India.
Introduction:
Over the years the researches have been indicating that the quality of education is greatly
linked with the way the schools are organized and managed. School leaders play a very crucial
role. They are the administrative and academic chief of schools acting as a hinge between the
society and school. The development and progress of school relies on the Leadership qualities
and initiatives taken by the school leaders. School leadership is considered as a core ingredient
for the school effectiveness. School leaders determines the vision, mission and goals, the overall
climate of the school, the climate in the individual classrooms, culture of the schools, the attitude
of the teachers their morale, performance, motivation, satisfaction, commitment etc. School
leadership in the present context is moving from the traditional concentration on maintenance
and hierarchy, to change, collegiality, teamwork, improvement and effectiveness. The role and
responsibilities of principals have thus changed significantly. The school principal should have
the competencies to facilitate educational change, transform the constraints and develop
appropriate school environment for teachers and students to work, learn and develop effectively.
1
Draft
Various commissions and committees on the Indian Education system have viewed the
status and position of the head teacher or school leader as highly significant. However, their
appointments, remunerations, roles and responsibilities vary across states and union territories
and also across different school managements. Govinda (2002) in his empirical study on the head
teachers of six Indian states explains that even though the waves of decentralization and
community empowerment continue to consider the role of school head as critical, the ground
reality is altogether different. The place government primary school head is at the lowest rung of
the hierarchy, and commands no authority even within the school. All the policies and provisions
are determined at the higher levels, without even understanding the actual needs and ground
realities of the schools. The head teachers who have to implement these policies are left with no
other choices and autonomy for planning and administration.
Policy pronouncement on Roles and Responsibilities of School Heads’:
Almost all the policies on Indian education had envisioned roles and responsibilities of school
heads. Their major emphasis had been on the recruitment and Salary of head teachers. The
secondary education commission report (1952-53) and Kothari commission (1964-66) had
explicated the roles and responsibilities of school leaders in detail.
Mudaliar’s Commission (1952-53) report emphasized that ‘the reputation of the school
and the position it holds in the society depends in a large measure on the influence he exercises
over his colleagues, the pupils and their parents and the general public.’ The committee also
pointed out that schools should work ‘as a team engaged in a high endeavor with the head master
as valued and more experienced member’. The school leaders are expected to develop
collaborative environment and team spirit among the colleagues. Mudaliar committee also
emphasized that the influence of the school leader has to cross the boundaries of the school and
school leader should act as a link between the school and the community.
The Indian Education Commission(1964-66) accentuated that ‘the School head and the
senior teachers have a special role to play in providing guidance to the new teachers through
planning his work and organizing suitable activities like staff study circles and discussion
2
Draft
groups’. It also stressed upon the freedom of schools in India. To make the system elastic and
dynamic it recommended devolution of authority to schools. Its opinion was that ‘the chain of
delegation of authority cannot end with the district office. It is also essential to give wider power
to head teachers and greater freedom to schools. The programme of Action (1992) also reiterates
the decentralization of educational administration by giving emphasis to ‘creation of a spirit of
autonomy for educational institutions with greater role assigned to the institutional head’. The
Indian policies clearly assert that the school improvement and quality education is dependent
upon the empowerment of head teachers.
Roles and responsibilities of the School Leader
School leaders are called upon to play multiple roles. He/she is expected to be an
administrator, academic, personnel and financial manager. All these aspects are not mutually
exclusive of each other and thus there exist lot of overlapping in their roles and responsibilities.
CABE Committee on Universalization of Secondary education (2005) also highlights that head
of the schools hold the key to quality management and self renewal of schools, it also points that
managing and leading schools is a specialized job and not merely an automatic extension of
activities of a teacher. Most of the head teachers in Indian school also teach in the classrooms.
Although inter state and inter level variations exist in the teaching load of head teachers. The
teaching load of head teacher at the lower levels of education is higher as compared to higher
levels.
Recruitment of the Head
In India the post of head teachers exist at the different levels of education – primary,
upper primary, secondary. But there are no standard norms, there exist lot of interstate and across
management variations. The appointment or the allocation of head teacher also depends on the
total enrolment and the number of teachers. Small primary schools with less than four teachers
are not likely to have the post of head teacher (Govinda, 2002). In that case the senior most
teacher is expected to play head teacher’s role. Also the basic qualification for becoming a head
teacher is the same as that of the teachers of particular level of school. Accordingly, primary
school head is required to possess 12 years of general education followed by two years of
professional training, in secondary school the head teacher has to possess a university degree and
Bachelor’s degree in education (Govinda, 2002). However there exist wide variations in the
3
Draft
qualification of head teachers across states and school managements. Head teachers of
government schools at all levels are recruited in accordance with the recruitment rules of the
state prescribed in the education act/code of the state. Different states have different rules for
mode of recruitment (direct or promotional basis) and different eligibility criteria in terms of
qualification and professional experience. Generally the recruitment of heads is based either on
promotional (seniority or merit based) basis or as direct recruitment. Some states also follow a
combination of both i.e. promotion and direct recruitment in varying percentages.
Mudaliar’s Commission (1952-53) in its report emphasized that in addition to the
academic and professional qualification, the head teachers should have at least 10 years of
administrative/teaching experience, qualities of leadership and administrative ability. Kothari
commission (1964-66) also reiterated for selecting trained and meritorious teachers for position
of head teachers. National Commission on teacher (1983-85) had also pointed out that choice of
headmasters of a school is of crucial importance. It also disapproves the policy of appointment of
head teachers solely on seniority basis, rather it explicated that merit should be the sole criteria
for selecting the head teachers. But if in case a suitable person doesn’t exist, then mere seniority
shouldn’t be allowed to influence the selection and a person from outside should recruited
without any hesitation.
Looking into the suggestions and recommendation of various education policies and the
actual practices followed in the states it is clear that there is no uniform recruitment policy of the
head teacher who is the backbone of the school.
Training of Head teachers
In the present era of globalization with continuous advancement of technology and
exponential increase of knowledge base the role of the head teacher has become very challenging
and there is urgent need for training and equipping the heads with the skills required to handle
the challenges. In the present context of Right to free and compulsory education, 2009 and right
to information the head teachers are now accountable for every action, knowledge of financial
rules and procedures, legal provisions, data management, record keeping etc have become a
necessity.
4
Draft
All the commission and committees on Indian education have emphasized on the need and
importance of training of head teachers. They have again and again reiterated the call for
professional development of head teachers. The in-service trainings, orientation programmes,
seminars, workshops, refresher courses are conducted with a view to reorient and enhance the
professional skills of head teachers.
Although village education committees (VECs), Block resource centers (BRCs), District
institute of education and training (DIETs), State Councils for Education Research and Training
(SCERTs), National Council for Education Research and Training (NCERT), and National
University of Educational Planning and Administration (NUEPA) are entrusted with the
responsibility of training the head teachers. But there is still lack of recognition of training needs,
majority of the school heads are still untrained and lack professional skills. Training of school
principals is still a neglected area. CABE Committee on Universalisation of Secondary education
(2005) recommended that heads of school must be provided professional training in management
of schools of six months duration with three months of practical training.
Conclusion
The analysis of all six All India surveys of Educational Research (1974-2006) reveals
that school leadership in the Indian context has not been studied extensively, majority of the
researches are within the behaviorist paradigm, like whether the principal is task oriented or
relationship oriented. Leadership behaviour of heads had been studied in relation to the
organizational climate, their personal characteristics, teachers’ job satisfaction, morale and
alienation. Some of the researches also deal with the study of supervisory roles of the school
leaders. There is a huge research gap in the leadership studies conducted in the Indian context.
None of the researches have been done to actually understand the indigenous model of school
leadership. There is a complete absence of studies on the leadership preparation and practices in
the schools of India. Training and orientation of school leaders is a need of the hour. There
should be provisions for In-service training of head teachers for untrained as well as trained head
teachers.
5
Draft
As per the DISE data 2009-10 out of 1303812 school covered, 462772 schools do not
have a regular or acting head teacher. Only 616477 schools have regular appointed head
teachers. Also the academic qualification of 47% of the appointed head teachers is only higher
secondary, secondary or even below secondary. 12.6% of the head teachers don’t have any
professional qualifications for becoming teachers also and they are acting as heads.
The situation here is alarming with large number of schools without regular, qualified and
trained head teachers. This calls for a policy intervention. Almost all the countries of the world
have specialized pre service courses designed especially for being appointed as head teachers, in
India till now we have provision of only in- service training. Also for appointing the head
teachers we need to think of a system where we can see actually who becomes head teacher, it
should not be purely on seniority basis, young and dynamic people with merit and professional
experience should also be given priority. Also there should be evaluation of head teachers by the
teachers of the school as a feedback system, for creating accountability in the system. There
should be some policy provisions for the development of professional standards for the
appointment and training of school leaders. The current discourse on education should pay
attention towards developing leadership capacities of the school heads for quality improvement
and effective management of schools. Recently a National centre for school leadership (NCSL)
is established in India to look into the training needs, to understand the already existing best
practices in school leadership in various states of India and in designing curriculum for
leadership development and leadership preparation for aspiring and existing head teachers in the
country.
6