EVALUATING THE LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS OF THE PRINCIPALS IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF PUNJAB

Abstract

The case study was designed to investigate the leadership effectiveness of the principals working in government boys secondary schools in Punjab. Seeing the poor performance and unsatisfactory results of the students, the researcher tried to publically reveal the leadership effectiveness of a secondary school principal as perceived by the teaching staff of his school. Actually a specified government boys schools was interrogated, but the findings may be generalized/ fitted on a particular group of school principals. Fourteen teachers of the school under study were interviewed confidentially.

The principal does not focus on the management aspect in running his school. He lacks the instructional leadership of a principal which a principal should have. No wanted potential and leadership characteristics of an effective principal were found in him. The Principal is not a principal who strives for excellence; he just lets the school go on and on. It is interesting to discover that what the principal considers as ‘good’ or ‘effective’ does not actually match with what the students and teachers think of ‘good’or ‘effective’. It seems that there are many ‘gaps’ between the principal, teachers and students. These gaps, indeed, diminish leadership effectiveness, which in turn affects school effectiveness. Based upon the interviews of the teachers, conclusions are being published for the public, parents and district education authorities.