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RECOGNITIONS poured in even before the opening of the
school year as the Department of Education on Thursday promoted
1,818 head teachers to principals across the country to further
improve school management and implementation of much-needed reforms.
“The new principals will help
fill up the public school system’s needs for managers who will
oversee school improvement and relations with the community and
local government officials in their respective areas,” Education
Secretary Jesli Lapus said.
“The key to a successful
school-based management is the presence of an official school head
that could lead the school towards continuous improvement.”
The promotion of the new
principals came after President Gloria Arroyo issued a memorandum
directing the Education department to upgrade the head teachers to
Principal 1 through the reclassification of their positions.
“This is in recognition of the
critical role of principals in the management of schools and the
fact that many public schools are headed by head teachers who are
qualified but cannot be promoted owing to the limited number of
principal positions created every year,” the memorandum said.
Lapus said the new principals
were able to pass the guidelines for their promotion which includes
passing the principalship test, and receiving a very satisfactory
performance rating for the past two appraisal periods.
“Moreover, they were also
serving ably for at least one year as elementary school head and
officer-in-charge of a secondary school,” Lapus said.
But even with the hefty number of
promotions, data from the Education department showed that there are
still roughly 24,709 elementary and secondary schools without
principals for the school year 2008-2009.
--James Konstantin Galvez
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