INFLUENCE OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND CRISIS MANAGEMENT IN THE EDUCATIONAL SECTOR

Abstract

The Coronavirus (Covid-19) emerged as a health crisis in China, but shortly after it resulted in a global outbreak with severe global economic crisis. The COVID-19 pandemic global outbreak caused disruptions almost in every area: stock market, transport, supply chain, production, increase in shut down of shops and plants, inflation, tourism as well as the education. Extraordinary challenges for the educational systems and school leaders were created by the pandemic. Since march 2020 and 2021 in many countries worldwide the school were closed as part of health measures for physical and social distancing policy. This measurement aimed to protect the students and the teaching staff, but the closure affected the education of more than 1.6 billion school children worldwide. The aim of this paper was to review the published papers with particular focus on primary and secondary school leadership practices in the period 2020-2021 and to investigate the influence of COVID-19 crisis on the Macedonian schools. In our study, 24 school leaders were interviewed, from which 8 were males and 16 were females. The interviewees answered to a semi-structured interview, in which they shared how they managed the education of the students, the consequences of the crisis, the personal and professional growth they experienced as well as what were the lessons-learnt from this era. Our findings revealed that the school’s leader addressed the threats and challenges associated with the crisis and lockdowns. Majority of the school leaders identified five common key attributes: communication skills, decisive decision making, empathy, flexibility and creative thinking. As major challenges in providing the educational services in primary and secondary school that the school leaders encountered were in first line associated with the e-learning, i.e. the technical equipment from both parties (students and teaching staff), funding, followed by the academic challenges during the transition to distance learning and its quality. The alternate strategies and digital education provided opportunity for school leaders to advance their managerial skills and encourage the school community to respond positively to all the changes. Lastly, the school leaders fought to maintain the positive working atmosphere and to encourage the teaching staff, parents and students. After 2021 and slowly continuing with the pre-COVID-19 life, the school leadership have started to set a recovery plan. Further studies are needed in order to overcome the limitations of this study, to deduct more generalizable findings by wider sample, performing multivariant statistical analysis and concluding relationships among investigated variables. The school leaders have managed the educational crisis as a result of the COVID-19 economic crisis in the Macedonian schools, but better reflection and adjusted programs may provide better future response in managing a new crisis in the educational sector in the future.