By Jaime C. Santos, School Principal III, Sto. Rosario NHS

The world is rapidly changing and there is the essential need to prepare the three
central elements of the educative process- the TEACHERS, the LEARNERS and the
LEARNING ENVIRONMENT. The new normal has resulted to drastic and daunting
challenges, not only to learners and parents, but to teachers and school administrators as well.
It goes without saying that we are living in a mutually dependent and supporting global
society by the way of the economic, environmental, communicative, political and social
system normally encountered and experienced in the everyday life. Therefore, the constant
challenge of globalization in the fast-paced educational world is to be engaged interculturally,
beyond geographical boundaries, societal and political challenges.
As a school head, it must be ensured that the members of the organization are
consistently encouraged or motivated to perceive, communicate, and perform well their
duties and responsibilities in an adaptive and efficient manner as the delivery of quality basic
education was suddenly hampered due to the rising pandemic infections. This is to make sure
that the legacy of education will perpetuate and the quality of learning will not be
compromised despite the setbacks being experienced.
As the world is facing the new normal context in delivering different learning
modalities, a school head must assure that his leadership is able to transform and inspire
people which in turn will produce better and improved results in their performance. This can
be done by conducting regular virtual conferences, relevant meetings with the department
heads, focal persons, teaching and non-teaching staff on a regular basis, and Learning Action
Cell sessions that will attend to their needs and concerns. Currently, the role of the school
principal became more hands-on, just like on securing funds that will be utilized in the
procurement of new normal needs such as printing machines, inks and bond papers to
produce the sufficient number of learning materials and modules that will be given to the
learners since majority have chosen the Modular Distance Learning as the primary means of
lesson delivery. In addition, there is also the demand of distributing hygiene and health kits
for the pursuing of safety protocols that will guarantee the safe delivery of materials
depending on the learning modality the school has adapted.

The school principal is also expected to be an expert in terms of pedagogy in the
current context of teaching and learning process and he/she must be able to provide and offer
various opportunities for teachers to grow professionally and develop their best practices.
Moreover, the school head must be a consistent pillar in giving the necessary tools and
assistance that will best support and satisfy the instructional leadership’s changing demands.
He/ She must also have a clear vision and goal that will soon be translated into his or her
concrete and relevant decisions, actions and plans to accomplish and reach the target
objectives. Furthermore, a school leader should be able to create a supportive environment,
inspire a shared vision and enable others to act as one towards the attainment of the goals of
the Department of Education.
However, one of the challenges of a school head is to be able to lead his/her
constituents despite of fear, discouragement, impossibilities, and help them to cope and be
adaptive in the experienced challenges by becoming an instructional leader. A strong
instructional leader has a positive impact on teachers’ performance to improve the delivery of
various learning modalities effectively even in the absence of conventional face to face
instruction. School leaders must be the key that will unlock the future and transform the
impossibilities to possibilities. They have to be the light that will ignite the fire within the
teachers that will lead to their personal growth, intensification of love and commitment
towards the field, and produce innovations that will let them maximize their full potential as
an individual and professional. This will eventually result to an improved quality of education
along with the spark of core values that will alleviate social problems and possible challenges
in the future.
Finally, it is never too late to retool and reengineer oneself to fit in the demands of the
changing society. There is a need to unlearn the traditional, archaic practices and moral
perceptions towards work, relearn humane morale virtues and professional growth and
development by being an active action researcher, critical thinker and problem solver in the
deemed puzzling challenges of the education sector. Hence, there is the need to learn
innovative strategies that will make one productive and learn as a human that will satisfy and
fulfill our existence along with the improvement of the education of the youth, which will
later become tools for civilization’s progress and perpetration of the educational seeds and
fruits that will soon bloom and propagate from generation to generation.