Everyone has their own memory of their respected school principal figure. Some may think it is  memorable, ordinary, or some might not even remember the figure of their school principal during elementary to high school.

Some of us might still remember the school principal figure based on his character. For example, he seems powerful, kind, cold or distant, dignified, arrogant, firm, friendly, indifferent, flirty, and so on. There are also those who remember the principal figure because of the daily activities at school, such as often being on “out of school duty”, a supervisor for the flag ceremony, someone who never teaches, or because of other unique events.

Based on the memories we have, it shows how human a school principal is. School principal may do activities as ohter shool members do. So, what is the actual duty of school principal as mandated by the government through the Ministry of Education and Culture?

Minister of Education and Culture Regulation Number 15 of 2018 concerning Workload Compliance of Teachers, School Principals, and School Supervisors defines a school principal as any assigned teacher leading and managing an education unit. In a week, both teacher and school principal shall have 40 hours of work, consisting of 37.5 hours of effective work and 2.5 hours of rest.

The Regulation sets the duties of school principal, namely managerial duties, entrepreneurship development, as well as supervision of teachers and education staff. Managerial duties include effective and efficient school management. Supervision duties aim to ensure the teachers and education staff work according to their portions. Meanwhile, entrepreneurship duties aim to create resources in supporting school sustainability, especially in terms of financial sector.

Some might think, “If a shcool principal is a teacher as well, how come he doesn’t have any teaching hours in class?” A school principal may take teaching hours in class as substitute teacher or there is not enough teachers at school. When some might remember, “I’m pretty sure that I have never seen my school principal teaches in a classroom,”, the school might already have enough teachers to cover the in-class teaching.

Of all the tasks above, a school principal is required to be able to do many things. For example, planning school programs, managing educational standards based on provisions which applies nationally, conducting supervision and evaluation, conducting supervision on learning teacher assignments, managing school administration and finances, and many other responsibilites.

“Wow .. what a responsibility!” some might think that after knowing the duties of school principals; it means that we have a better understanding about the role of school principal. If some people are still unable to empathize, just try to imagine a teacher teaching subjects for years in a classrom all of a sudden has to lead a “human factory”. Can you imagine the responsibility he must have?

Therefore, there are a series of selection process for a teacher before get appointed as a school principal. Starting from the proposal, administrative test, academics test, training for prospective school principals to certification for school principal.

Other than the training and coaching conducted by the government, how to improve and enhance the leadership knowledge, managerial, and soft-skill of the school principlas in order to manage a better education unit? Stay tuned for our articles update.

Author: Khaerul Umur

Editor: Masdar Fahmi