The Ministry of Education and Research launched in public consultation the professional profile of the school manager, a document that redefines the role of the director of educational units as an educational leader and manager of the school organization. In this sense, the ministry proposes five essential areas of competence. “As this profile shows, it outlines the management profession as a distinct one. (…) The didactic activity component is out of the calculation”says the expert in educational policies Marian Staș. In his opinion, by 2030 the position of director could become one separated from the teaching activity.
Five Competency Areas for School Principals
The project published by the Ministry of Education structures the role of the school manager around five major areas of competence.
The first of these is educational leadership and strategic orientation, which includes change management, organizational development, inclusive leadership and the assumption of principles and values in school management.
The second field concerns administrative-financial operational management and compliance, with an emphasis on compliance with the legal and ethical framework, risk management, use of digital tools and information communication.
The document also includes quality management and internal evaluation, which involves institutional reporting, public accountability, inclusion management and the use of data to improve the quality of education.
Another important chapter is curriculum management and professional development of teachers, which includes managing human resources, supporting learning processes and ensuring student success in school.
Last but not least, the profile provides for communication skills, partnerships and collaboration in the community, such as conflict management, participation in international projects, educational entrepreneurship and attracting extra-budgetary resources.
Marian Staș: “Consecrate this position as a distinct one”
“It enshrines the school principal as a professional of management and leadership first and foremost. As such, it has almost integral relevance in the area of leadership, coordination and the curriculum area”, comments the expert in educational policies Marian Staș, regarding the five criteria.
In his opinion, the profile outlines a position that should be focused solely on running the school organization, with no other responsibilities.
,,It is a well-defined whole and which, as he now shows, enshrines this position as a distinct profession, without other teaching activities. (..) The fact of consuming time, entering the classroom and teaching, I think it is possible to have rather a negative impact on the fulfillment of the skills in the profile”explains Marian Staș.
The Ministry of Education is preparing the competition for principals. What news does it bring and what profile should a school leader have?
Moreover, the specialist supports the idea that the position of director should become completely separate from teaching activity:
“My plea is for a distinct activity: five years as a school manager, doing leadership and management, nothing else.”
How many current directors would retain their position under the new criteria
Asked how many of the current directors he thinks meet the new criteria, Marian Staș says that the distribution could follow the Gaussian curve model, where most are in the middle.
“Probably about 70% of them meet the criteria at average level, around 15% at good and very good level and about 15% at less good and poor level.”
At the same time, the specialist points out that several training programs for directors have appeared in recent years, “both at the level of official educational policies (that is, of the Ministry of Education), and at the level of highly performing programs with a good reputation, such as AVE (Association for Values in Education), a program focused on what it means to train directors as leaders of organizations, as strategic managers”.
Educational leadership, the greatest vulnerability
I asked Marian Staș which of the five criteria he thinks the directors are the best at the moment and which is the weakest.
“The key vulnerability of this profile for directors in Romania is descriptor number 1, namely the one related to leadership and strategic orientation. Why? Because they did no such thing. In a communist centralized system you have no way to do something like that, until you have a mechanism – like Daniel David’s order 4444/2025 or like the pilot schools mechanism – which brings down the curriculum development process to the school level. (…) The number of pilot schools (very few) is an indicator that speaks for itself about the lack of assumption of the strategic vision. If I were to rate the collective profile of the people who lead our schools, it is, so to speak, of grade 4-5.”
Regarding the other skills, the directors are better, in the opinion of Marian Staș: he evaluates operational management between 6 and 8, quality management between 7 and 8, curriculum management between 7 and 8.50, and communication and partnerships between 7 and 9.
“Leadership means paradigm shift, not doing the same thing with more sophisticated tools”emphasizes the expert in educational policies.
A possible change by 2030
Marian Staș believes that the document released for public consultation could pave the way for the complete professionalization of the position of school director in the coming years:
“I expect that in a reasonable interval, let’s say 2030, what Ionela Neagoe (director of the Gheorghe Lazăr National College) requested and argued solidly, namely the distinct profession of school director, will materialize”.
