Eureka! Institutional Repository

Finding an objective and permanent way of choosing the most appropriate person to be the head of a school unit has been a matter of concern for the Greek state for a long time without success. In the present study, we sample the opinions of teaching personnel regarding the evaluation procedure and the selection criteria of school directors according to law 4473/2017 and discuss the suggestions made by political parties and educational organizations. At a theoretical level, we present related work in the context of the importance of school administration and the associated role of school director, we detail the legal and institutional framework since the establishment of the modern Greek state we review the selection criteria that apply in Europe and review previous proposals and relevant efforts.. At a research level, we favor a quantitative approach which we implement based on a questionnaire that incorporated 29 questions and was answered by 262 teachers located in the region of Thrace, of both primary and secondary education. Quantitative data analysis was performed using descriptive statistics. Many of the research findings confirmed earlier surveys and opinions of teachers' views on the evaluation and selection criteria of school unit headmasters. It was found that the role of the headmaster is very important and the most important criterion is their personality. This criterion should be judged through an interview by a council by specialist and non-scientist experts and from the Teachers' Board. However, the participation of other local authorities was not evaluated positively. Essential qualifications are considered to be the administrative experience and knowledge on ICT, scientific degrees must be relevant to the administration field, and participation in school actions should be taken into account. Finally, τhe headmasters are appointed for a specific term and after being trained in management and organization they should be evaluated by their superiors..