The top job in a school soon will require a return to school. Under government policy to be implemented next year, principals and aspiring ones will have to complete continuous professional education to be licensed to lead a school. So a host of programmes has been launched by local and overseas institutions to fill the need.
It will be through principals that Hong Kong's ambitious education reform programme will rise or fall. Research by the Chinese University of Hong Kong has shown that when principals are unprepared for change, the whole school stands still. When they are, the result is a 'culture of collective learning'.
Lilian Chan Lui Ling-yee, a former principal and a member of the working group that came up with the new framework for principals' professional development, said schools used to be subject to tight central control from government. Under the reforms, they are being given more responsibility but also face greater accountability. 'Principals are now responsible for their own strategic planning and must be more flexible in the deployment of staff, funding and curriculum planning. There is also greater accountability. New concepts of stakeholders and quality assurance have to be taken on board,' she said.
Principals must learn to lead rather than manage their schools, she said, and are doing so through training programmes for aspiring, new and serving heads.
Newly appointed principals are trained by the Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) in a two-year programme involving workshops, mentoring, action research and overseas study visits.
Ip Kin-yuen, who runs that programme, said: 'Leadership is becoming more complicated. Traditionally it used to be about getting things done. Now we count on principals to set the direction for a school. We also have to count on them for understanding the outside world, locally and internationally, because schools are under intense external pressures.'