Abstract:

In the current conditions of the knowledge society, it is inevitable to adjust to the new developments and constantly changing demands of this period. Schools, like the whole society, have been undergoing significant changes in recent decades. It is possible to expect that the requirements for further changes in schools will increase in the future. One of the basic preconditions for the success of schools to cope with current and future tasks is the readiness of school managers. For this reason, managerial work has become a demanding area of human activity. It is essential that the position of a school manager is held by an individual with adequately developed key competencies. Acquiring and mastering key competencies means being ready to learn throughout all your life. The issue of acquiring, developing, and mastering the key competencies of school managers is directly and closely related to increasing the effectiveness of school management. By decentralizing and strengthening the autonomous processes of lower levels of management in education, school headmasters gained more competences; the range of their managerial activities expanded and became more complex. The role of the school headmaster always includes demands related to management and leadership. The school headmaster is expected to be a good quality manager as well as a good leader, who can take on the responsibility for the running of the school, its culture, and the employees. This makes it necessary for the school manager to solve several dilemmas related mainly to the issue of priorities. The paper analyses the results of the research, which was aimed at finding out the current state of key competences among headmasters of primary and secondary schools in Slovakia within 2021-2022. We focused primarily on the personal (behavioural) and work competencies of school managers. The quantitative survey, which was a partial output of the research, showed that the largest part of school managers decides on the admission of students and the selection and hiring of teachers. At the same time, many of them also participate in the management of the educational process, namely in the creation of the school curricula or in deciding on the subjects that will be taught in the school. Another interesting finding was that a relatively high proportion of headmasters influencing the content which will be taught in the given subjects and what textbooks will be used. Finally, more than two-thirds of school managers also stated that they decide on teacher remuneration and the use of the school budget. The stated results were obtained, processed, and evaluated based on the implementation of the following research methods: participant observation, questionnaire, time snapshot of professional activities, focus group and statistical methods.

Keywords:

School principal, key competencies, school managers, readiness of school leaders.