Increasing Principals’ Autonomy in Administrative Decisions in Lebanese Public Schools

Abstract

There is an emerging call for new reforms in the educational system emanating from the poor quality of education. Lebanese educational system must undergo major restructuring towards decentralization by granting greater autonomy at the level of the school districts and schools. Shifting towards schools' self-management requests a diminution of central government authority and an increasing of school responsibility and accountability. This latter requires a major change in the role and leadership style of school principals in developing a centrally determined framework for setting goals and accountability. This study aimed at exploring which principles of School-Based Management (SBM), related to the administrative decisions can be applied at the administrative/principalship level in the Lebanese Public Schools, from the perspectives of ministry representatives and principals of Lebanese Public schools. A qualitative interpretive study was adopted within which policies of the internal organization were reviewed and 11 semi-structural interviews were conducted with nine Lebanese basic and secondary public-school principals (PB&PS) and with two government representatives (GR) in the Greater Beirut. The findings showed that the participants were optimistic regarding increased principals’ autonomy and shared decision making, yet within certain conditions. However, a clear contradiction about reasons for the ineffectiveness of centralized system between GR of basic schools and PB was detected. Situating the study results in international literature indicated that schools operating under highly centralized system face similar challenges. As a starting point, the study’s discussion implied that SBM in Lebanese Public Schools requires a reformation of Lebanese policies in terms of shifting the roles of superiors and principals under a collaborative and trustful school culture.