Leadership in education – conditions and challenges in the Republic of North Macedonia

Abstract

The issue of leadership in schools is a particularly current problem in our country, given the knowledge that there can be no successful school without good leadership. For that purpose it is necessary to establish a system and mechanisms for training school directors in order to professionalize their function. The paper firstly gives the legal framework, preparation of principals, selection of principals, induction, licensing, career progression, etc). Then there is a display of the current state of educational leadership in the country, based on experience from practice and analysis of research conducted through Coaching-N in 2018 by prof. Petkovski and MSc. Hristovski, principal of school. At the end of the paper some recommendations are given. For the improvement of educational leadership in the country, it is necessary to make changes in the laws on primary and secondary education, as well as the law on training and taking the exam for school directors. It is necessary to establish a school or academia for school principals, which should be a kind of institute that, in addition to carrying out trainings, will carry out scientific research activities from the educational leadership and the development of the education and educational policy in the country.