School Leaders’ Perceptions on the Importance of Acquiring Skills in Mentoring Staffs and Engaging Parents

Abstract

Pursuing study at the higher learning institution largely depends on the academic performance of a student. However, struggles of school community in getting their students ready for college are reported. Studies consistently show that school leadership has a great influence on students’ learning, a result of quality teaching and learning. There are two main roles of school leaders that affects the teaching and learning quality: mentoring the teachers and engaging the parents in the students’ learning. Studies about the school leaders’ perception on acquiring these two skills are lacking. This study aims to survey the school leaders’ perception towards the importance of having these two skills with regards to the gender, age group, school level (primary or secondary school), and school location using a questionnaire. It is distributed via online platform to all the school leaders of a state of which 477 had responded. The results show that the school leaders regard both skills as important. Statistically significant difference was reported in both skills by school location and in skills on mentoring staffs by the school leaders’ age group.