A survey of current status and practices of high school headmasters/headmistresses in Sibsagar District Circle, Assam, India

Abstract

The status and practices of high school headmasters in Sibsagar district of Assam in India were studied with a sample of sixty-nine headmasters/headmistresses. The study itself was divided into three broad categories: (1) Personal and professional background of headmaster, (2) The importance of the functions and duties of headmasters, and (3) Attitude of headmasters/headmistresses as to who should perform these duties. In connection with the personal status, the study revealed that a typical high school headmaster in Sibsagar district is forty years old. He is a married man and his religion is Hinduism. His income is around three hundred and ninety-one rupees per month (the equivalent of three hundred and twenty-eight pesos and forty-four centavos), which appears to be low according to the headmasters' pay scale of Assam School Service. His extra income, which he gets either from his spouse’s salary or other sources, is only around eighty rupees per month (the equivalent of sixty-seven pesos and twenty centavos). He is in charge of a school with an enrolment of around 406 pupils and with about 15 teachers. The study revealed that 59.42 per cent of the headmasters had professional degrees in education, while 40.57 per cent had no professional background except the years of service. A headmaster of a large school devotes most of his time to administrative duties, while a headmaster of a small school spends a considerable part of his time in teaching. It was also tested whether there was a tendency for professionally trained headmasters to be assigned in the towns and for nonprofessionally trained headmasters to be assigned in the villages by chi-square method. It was found that there was no tendency for professionally trained headmasters to be assigned in the towns and non-professionally trained headmasters in the villages. In other words, professional training is not associated with the place of assignment. The study revealed that, of the eighty-four duties, "discipline pupils" was ranked first and "conduct fire drills" last. Again for comparative purposes, the given duties were divided into (1) administrative, (2) supervisory, and (5) public relations functions and ranked separately to test the difference in the rank of duties by the headmasters of large and small schools and the rank of duties by the headmasters 3 of village and town schools. It was found that there was a marked correlation in the ranking of duties by the headmasters of large and small schools, and also in the ranking of duties by the headmasters of town and village schools. The study of the attitudes of headmasters/headmistreses as to who should perform the eighty-four given duties revealed that 50 per cent of the administrative duties, 43 per cent of the supervisory duties and 10 per cent only of the public relations duties were to be performed by headmasters alone. None of these duties should specifically be done by another school or government official. On the basis of the findings, the following important recommendations were made: (1) Efforts should be exerted to require all the high school headmasters to be holders of the Bachelor of Teaching or Education degree (B.T. or B. Ed.). (2) Opportunity should be given for in-service education to the headmasters who have had no professional training in teaching. (3) The proper authorities in Sibsagar district should exert efforts to raise the headmasters' pay so as to compare favorably with the Assam School Service salary scale. (4) The headmasters should not give up all the supervisory functions and only wait for the Inspector or Assistant Inspector of schools to do the job. (5) The higher authorities should see that the headmaster of a small school is not overburdened with teaching so that he can devote proportionate 4 time to supervision and. public relations. (6) The high school headmasters should allot more time to the public relations programme. This study has pointed out the need for the following investigations: (1) A study on whether or not the emphasis on disciplining pupils is actually conducive to better pupil morale. (2) A study of the public relations duties of high school headmasters in the context of Assamese culture and community needs.