By Anna Cristina D’Addio and Daniel April, with Samaher Al Hadheri, Chandni Jain, Maria-Rafaela Kaldi, Manuela Pombo, Divya Sharma, Dorothy Wang, GEM Report
The 2024/5 GEM Report on Leadership in Education launched at the Global Education Meeting in Fortaleza emphasizing the need to #LeadforLearning is largely informed by the research involved in the PEER country profiles, which provide a comprehensive overview of school leadership laws and policies worldwide.
Each PEER profile has four parts, focusing respectively on terminology; school principals; teachers, parents and students; and governance. The profiles address key questions such as: What standards, skills and roles are expected of school principals? What regulations govern the selection and working conditions of principals? What policies guide their professional development and leadership training? What do laws and policies say about school leader autonomy, and appraisal?
The 211 education system profiles on school leadership were prepared by the GEM Report team through desk reviews, but over 125 have also been reviewed by governments and national experts so far. They focus on primary and secondary education.
Eight key findings emerge from the PEER country profiles:
1. Diverse titles are used for school heads. The titles used for school heads, such as ‘principal,’ ‘head teacher,’ or ‘school director,’ vary globally due to different traditions and structures. In Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific, ‘principal’, ‘’head teacher’ or ‘headmaster’ are common titles. In New Zealand, a principal acts as the chief executive, while in Lesotho, the role focuses on instructional leadership. In Chile (‘school director’) and Thailand (‘school manager’), the title reflects distinct aspects of leadership. Countries like Sierra Leone and South Sudan use different titles for primary and secondary schools, signifying varying levels of responsibility. This diversity also highlights how school leadership ‘adjusts’ to local educational contexts as shaped by cultural, societal and political factors.
2. National professional standards for school principals can help foster professionalism and leadership effectiveness. About 49% of countries embed national standards for principals in standalone documents, while 79% of countries embed standards into laws or policies. In most cases (56%), professional standards are set by the Ministry of Education alone, or jointly with other departments (7%). About one third of countries involve other government departments in setting standards while in 4% of countries trade unions and professional organizations set them.
3. Key leadership dimensions are insufficiently emphasized in the standards: Despite the different leadership models debated and highlighted in academia, their underlying dimensions are not consistently included in professional standards for school leaders. For example, although many advocate for shared leadership, only about half of countries explicitly require school leaders to promote teacher collaboration. Moreover, an analysis of training programmes suggests that this dimension is also least likely to appear there. Around 64% of countries mandate that principals share important information with parents or provide feedback to teachers.
Not all leadership dimensions are equally embedded in national professional standards
4. Not all countries prioritize teacher assessment as a task for school leaders. In 70% of countries, principals are responsible for evaluating teachers, which has an impact on promotions and career advancement but also for improving teaching quality and ensuring accountability. Oceania emphasizes teacher assessment the most (85%), while Eastern and South-Eastern Asia the least (50%). Low-income countries prioritize teacher evaluation more (77%) than high-income countries (63%).
5. Teaching experience is often prioritized in principal selection and recruitment processes. Three quarters of countries require candidates to be fully qualified teachers. About half of countries only focus on teaching experience when selecting school principals, while over one third of countries consider both managerial and teaching experience. About 63% of countries use open competition for principal selection in both primary and secondary schools.
6. Selection, recruitment and working conditions are shaped by education governance. Governance mechanisms significantly affect the selection and appointment of school principals. While 42% of countries centralize selection and 23% handle it locally, 57% of appointments are validated at the central level. Most countries set in their policies and legislations that principals in public schools are civil servants (75%), but only in 37% have permanent contracts. Contractual flexibility varies, with some countries offering temporary contracts with unlimited renewals. 66% of countries set standardized salaries for school principals. Regular principal evaluations exist in 78% of countries.
7. Training for school principals is essential for effective leadership and school improvement. Globally, 88% of countries have in place in-service, continuous professional development programmes for principals in their laws or policies but only 60% mention pre-service training and 31% induction training. The lower rates of pre-service and induction training highlight gaps in preparing and supporting new leaders. Information on 142 principal preparation and training programmes from 92 countries was extracted from the PEER profiles to assess their content focusing on the four core dimensions of leadership emphasized in the 2024/5 GEM Report. Setting a vision (linked to transformational leadership) (42%) and focusing on learning (linked to instructional leadership) (47%) leadership were the two most common areas covered, especially by in-service programmes, followed by staff development (31%) and shared leadership (29%). Only 18% of all programmes covered all four dimensions.
At most one fifth of principal training programmes cover all four key dimensions of leadership
Percentage of school principal preparation and training programmes, by type and area of focus, selected countries, 2024
Source: PEER country profiles on school leadership.
8. Shared leadership is essential for improving schools. Globally, 83% of countries mandate parental involvement and 62% community representation on school management committees. About half of the countries mandate student councils, with higher rates in high-income countries. Teachers are required to participate in school boards in 81% of countries, and students in 57%. There is growing emphasis on inclusivity, with 16% of countries implementing rules for women’s and minority representation.
PEER country profiles aim to foster national policy dialogue on the focus themes of the GEM Report. In addition to school leadership (2024/5), PEER has therefore also covered inclusion (2020 GEM Report), regulation of non-state providers (2021/2 GEM Report) and technology (2023 GEM Report). In addition, it has also covered selected other topics, such as financing for equity, climate change education and communication and comprehensive sexuality education.