HEAD TEACHERS OR MANAGERS? — IMPLICATIONS FOR TRAINING

Currently, there are signs of great interest in the provision of relevant management training for senior educationalists, especially for head teachers. The need for head teachers to receive some form of planned learning experience in management is apparent. After all, they are responsible for their staff, their pupils, the educational process within their schools, and the premises in which these processes take place. This represents a significant set of managerial responsibilities for which they have not received any formal training. Naturally, then, the provision of some form of management training can only be expected to improve the situation. Indeed, current developments would appear to be increasing the need for such learning experiences; head teachers now have responsibilities for training and developing their staff, appraising their performance and providing feedback to staff on ways of improving performance.