The emotional intelligence of the principal is essential in the leadership of a functional school

Abstract

Two neighboring schools, consisting of the same external and internal environment, the same political, environmental, social and technological environments and educators who are similarly qualified and experienced – yet perform as if they are in two different worlds. One school is rated as functional (80% - 100% in the SCE) while the other school is rated as dysfunctional (0%-40% in the SCE). The SCE is the common examination written by all learners in public schools after a 12 year schooling experience (Grade R -12). The principals of both schools possess teaching diplomas and have the similar number of years of experience. It is clear that the principals in these two schools possess totally different personalities. The functional school principal is highly emotionally intelligent whilst the dysfunctional school principal hardly possesses any of the competencies in emotional intelligence. The purpose of this paper is to explore whether the emotional intelligence of the principals impact on the performance of these two schools?