“Management and supervision, actually, constitutes one of the major powers that a school principals has in his arsenal to run a school,” said Director of Education Personnel, Directorate General of Quality Improvement of Teachers and Teaching Staff or Peningkatan Mutu Pendidik dan Tenaga Kependidikan (PMPTK), Ministry of National Education, Surya Dharma, during the press conference on the First Conference of The South East Asia School Principals Forum / SEA-SPF, at Depdiknas, Jakarta, Monday (11/8)."

To become a principal, said Mr. Surya, one must show competence in five skill areas at the very least, as set forth in the National Education Minister’s Regulation No. 13/2007. This skill set includes the following areas: character, social, managerial, supervisory and entrepreneurial.

Unfortunately, Mr. Surya added, an assessment done on 250 thousand principals from Kindergarten through to upper secondary and vocational school level, from both private and public institutions, turned up with results confirming that many principals do not meet the regulation’s requirement.

According to Mr. Surya, current methods for principal recruitment and appointment are have for the many principals do not satisfy the ministry’s regulation. Since regional autonomy laws have been in effect, the power to appoint school principals were handed over completely to the regent or mayor.

“Such authority allows the regents or mayors to freely appoint principals; perhaps these appointments are made to further other agendas, maybe support in the upcoming election for regional heads or governor (political interest),” Mr. Surya added.

Moreover, Mr. Surya stated, many principal appointment processes are carried out without the proper training. In fact, in a number of countries, a minimum of 6 months training is required to occupy the position of principal. In Malaysia, teachers who want to become school principals must receive around 300 hours of training at Institut Amiruddin Bakri.

Therefore, Mr. Surya hopes, regents and mayors will be conducting recruitment and appointment of school principals in accordance to the standard requirements. “Funds should also be made available for their training to ensure they are fully prepared to become principals,” he said.

Eleven countries are expected to participate at the SEA-SPF forum, to be held on 15-18 August. These are: Indonesia, Brunei Darussalam, Kamboja, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Laos, Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand and Timor Loro Sae. (Dik/OL-2)