Administrator's Corner
A PROFILE OF A ‘TRUE’ SCHOOL LEADER IN
THE DIGITAL AGE
BY MURAD SALMAN MIRZA
P
rogressive schools consistently
lament the dearth of capable
leaders who can take up the
reins at the top and sustain a
robust stride towards continued school
improvement. One of the challenges
facing schools in the respective
context is the changing role and skill
set of leaders that are expected to
thrive in an ubiquitous Digital world.
For example, a significant requirement
for tomorrow’s school leaders is the
penchant for service that goes beyond
the professional demands of the
assigned function and opens horizons
for permeation of altruistic thought
and meaningful contributions to the
wider goal of ensuring a harmonious
existence within the global community
for mitigating/eliminating the chance
of a misstep that might jeopardise
a school’s future in an increasingly
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‘sensitised’ and ‘connected’ world.
Additionally, most of the literature on
leadership has been written before
the dawn of the Digital Age and its
disruptive influences. Consequently,
established leadership theories and
conventional management practices
are being relentlessly tested in an
era where profitability is no longer
a guarantee of sustainability and
huge conglomerates are constantly
looking over their shoulders with
nervous anticipation of becoming
irrelevant from ambitious start-ups.
Furthermore, gaining a degree is
no longer considered ‘essential’ for
career success as ‘abandonment’
has become ‘fashionable’ due to the
‘glaring’ achievements of ‘dropouts’,
who continue to receive ‘rock star’
Class Time
status within the start-up realm.
This is being reinforced by the huge
influx of MOOCs (Massive Open
Online Courses) and core emphasis
on specific skills, rather than broad
academic credentials.
The mandate for future school leaders
increases in complexity when the
exponential strides made by Artificial
Intelligence (AI) are considered
with the prospect of incorporating
them eventually as ‘employees’,
rather than, the status-quo of being
considered as ‘advanced’ machines
which have no place in schools.
Consequently, lessons from the past
are largely becoming irrelevant as
there is no reliable precedence for
a Digital world that is constantly
being reshaped by innovations that