Leadership in the New Normal
Ruby Rosa C. Sagum
The worldwide health crisis affecting all aspects of life is yet another challenge that will test the leadership skills of every school head. Since the lives of students and teachers are on the line, every decision a leader makes is crucial, as every action will impact the entire community.
These circumstances under the New Normal have made the yoke of managing the school even much heavier than it actually was. When everything must be done virtually such as faculty meetings, webinars, orientations and others, leading the flock is not as smooth sailing as being with them face to face. Though distance leading does not really match up to having personal and face to face encounter with the faculty, it is something that we have to get used to as a way of making education survive through the pandemic.
Getting the wheels of education to start running in the context of distance learning is another challenge to step up to. Initially, there was the question on the presence of learning materials suitable for independent learning at home. When this was answered by our teachers who worked really hard day in and day out to have the self-learning modules ready, another glaring question on how these modules can be reproduced in overwhelming numbers for all the students somehow caused the vigilance of everyone to falter. The estimated figures are frighteningly huge and it was nearly impossible to shoulder everything.
In spite of these, school heads are very fortunate for they are not alone in facing the battle created by this pandemic. The thought of us fighting the problems on lack of learning materials, lack of funds to purchase machines for reproduction, the absence of face to face interaction, the lingering threat of the virus and other issues surrounding the delivery of quality education under the new normal is no longer that burdensome for we have the full support of the Department of Education, the local government unit, the community, the parents and of course, the teachers.
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The author is Principal IV at San Luis National High School