Globally, educational leadership is in crisis. Many school leaders, particularly in low-income countries, are overburdened, under-supported and too often reduced to administrative caretakers.
Yet strong leadership at every level - from ministers to headteachers and community organisers - is critical if we are to close global learning gaps.
The , published today, shows that in countries within the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development around one third of public school principals and one fifth of private school principals report that they lack time to focus on staff and student development.
The report shows that recruitment and training are also an issue: over a third of countries do not have open and competitive school principal recruitment processes in place. And even in wealthier countries, half of principals do not receive training for their role before they take up their posts.
Leadership in education is also marked by significant gender gaps. As highlighted in a , while most teachers are women - up to 93 per cent at the pre-primary level - most school leaders are men.
As Audrey Azoulay, Unesco’s director-general, said: “Women face challenges to climbing the leadership ladder in education, just as they do in all professions. This must change.”
The gender gap in school leadership
Indeed, female representation dwindles dramatically as the leadership stakes rise. A new analysis of secondary education across 70 countries shows a gap of 20 percentage points separating the share of female teachers from the share of female principals.
Unesco’s new report shows the benefits for the entire education system that can come from having women at the top. Schools with female leaders in several African and Asian countries demonstrate significantly improved learning outcomes for students, sometimes equivalent to months of additional schooling.
In the United Kingdom, a study of the time principals spend on nine different domains of leadership shows that female principals spend a higher proportion of their time working with others in planning and setting goals than men.
Token targets?
Based on this research, Unesco recommends that countries find out where the rungs on the leadership ladder are broken and where gender barriers have settled in.
Multiple countries across all continents have drawn attention to the gender gap by setting targets for women in school leadership positions, but these will remain token unless they are accompanied by other measures.
Unconscious bias is a pest precisely because it is invisible. Training is needed for all those who make decisions affecting education leaders so that they recognise that true strength in leadership comes in multiple shapes and sizes.
Mentorship is also needed for incoming female leaders to help them deal with specific problems they encounter on appointment.
And regardless of gender, there can be little leadership when there is no opportunity to make decisions. Education systems need to empower leaders with sufficient autonomy to manage financial and human resources and to make decisions related to teaching and learning.
By combining evidence, targeted policies and cultural change, we can transform education systems so that every capable leader has both the opportunity and the support to drive excellence for all learners. The future of learning, and the future of a more equitable society, depends on it.
Manos Antoninis is the director of Unesco’s Global Education Monitoring Report
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