Professional and Managerial Skills of Public Secondary School Principals in Region V: Basis for Capability Development Program

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

With the continuous demand for effective leadership in the present education system in the country, a capability development program was designed for public secondary school principals in Region V to specifically address the identified domains where they need further enhancement of their leadership prowess and grow continually in the profession and keep abreast in the constant changes and challenges in this 21st century education. The training program for the school principals is necessary to keep their organizations' growing and adopt changes for the better.

METHODS

Convergent method consisted of descriptive, test of relations, and analytical-developmental research designs were used. Self-Assessment Questionnaire, which was developed based on the NCBSSH and SBM tools used by Department of Education in assessing the professional and managerial skills of the school principals, was responded by a total of 218 (31.7%) full-fledged public secondary school principals in the six provinces and seven cities in Bicol region. They were purposively sampled through stratified proportionate random sampling. The statistical tools used were frequency and percentage technique to describe the school principal-respondents' personal, professional managerial profile, weighted mean and ranking to determine the level of professional and managerial skills of school principals along the eight domains, and Chi Square to determine the relationship between the personal profile and managerial skills of school principals.

RESULTS

The respondents' professional skills showed that they need to have intensive trainings while they are still young and at the beginning career stage in the service. On the other hand, the weakest domain on the level of managerial skills was Instructional Leadership. Though the results showed that there was no significant relationship between the school principals' professional and managerial profiles and professional and managerial skills, an intervention program was developed based on the identified weakest points of each professional and managerial skills domain of the public secondary school principal that fall under Need Enhancement Training (NET).

DISCUSSIONS

The results clearly demonstrated the need for the development of training program to acquire more leadership experience as it is contingent upon quality management. The School principals need to actively embrace a continuing effort and nurture the culture of hard work, commitment and dedication to attain proficiency in managing an educational institution. They are typically expected to impart vast knowledge and expertise in handling people and running an institution. The training innovation will be useful for those who are newly promoted in the principal position for effective operations and smooth flow of organizations.