Purple Tod Consulting

Many research done in South Africa on the efficiency of the School District concluded that this part of the school system has failed us. The national policy on School Districts articulated three basic functions of the School District namely, education provisioning, school support and accountability. Speaking from experience the professional staffing of the School District Office is in crisis. The tension amongst the three pillars, education provisioning, school support and accountability is exacerbated by bureaucratic organisational demand and expediency pulling staff in all directions but masters of none. In a recent paper on the functions of School Districts the Washington University identified the following core functions of School District Personnel more specific principal supervisors;

1. The role of the school principal supervisor is to ”focused on principal growth and learning”
2. The supervisor must define the role of the principal to “focused on instructional leadership”
3. The supervisor must report (directly or close to) to the Director of the District
4. The supervisor must work with a manageable load of 8-12 principals
5. The supervisor must oversee a diverse group of principals
6. The supervisor must see their role as teaching the principal to be an instructional leader
7. The supervisor must be provided with professional development opportunities to improve the capacity of the principal as instructional leader
8. The time of both supervisor and principal must be protected
9. Align other School District Units in line with this supervisor-principal relationship.

[Washington University CEL]