Specific training needs for school principals in Angola

Abstract

The school principal is responsible for the achievement of the school’s educational goals, the proper performance of all the school members and the fulfillment of the quality patterns defined by the learning system and the national or local legislation (Lück, 2009) [1]. Within the Angolan educational system, the nomination of school principals appears to be more a matter of politics than particular academic and professional competencies of those who are appointed to the job. It is therefore urgent to rethink the formal and non-formal training of school principals, to avoid a situation where the school management is based more on good sense and reactive responses than in a knowledge-based action. In this context, the present case study, centered in the High Schools of the Benguela Municipality (Angola), aims to define a set of competencies that should be required for the job and, hence, the specific training needs for the exercise of the school principal’s functions. In order to respond to this research question three goals were defined: i) to characterize the academic and professional profile of the school principals of the 1st Cycle of Benguela’s High School Principals; ii) to diagnose the training needs of the school principals of the 1st Cycle of Benguela’s High School Principals; and iii) to produce knowledge about the specific training needs for the exercise of the school principal’s job in High Schools of the Benguela Municipality. The empirical study was developed during the academic year of 2014. A mixed methodology was used, and data collection was based on institutional documentation, participatory observation and a questionnaire created by the authors of the present study. The sample coincides with the population and consists of all the 25 school principals of the Benguela Municipality High Schools. Preliminary data analysis that will be presented in this paper is based on descriptive statistic technics applied to the results of the inquiry. In the face of the multiplicity of competences and intrinsic dynamics of the situations that may occur in school context, results show that there is an effective need of investment in specialized training for the exercise of the job of school principal; in fact, besides specific programs centered on specific themes, theoretical and practical post-graduate training is demanded, making it possible for future and existing school principals to analyze and reflect on the job, characterized by complex situations that can’t be solved or predicted without qualified knowledge, no matter how many years someone has already experienced on the exercise of the functions