A general outlook to the daily works of the school administrators

The purpose of this study is to examine how principals use their time during workhours and which administrative and instructional activities intensively performed by schooladministrators. The population of the study consists of all school principals working withinthe schools systems of the province of Usak. The sample of the study consists of 20principals. The instrument has two main sections. The first section consists of open-endedquestions related to the most time consuming activities, the most liked activities, the mostdisliked activities, and the activities that they most likely to change if possible. In the secondpart of the instrument, a series of fill in spread-sheet charts containing pre-determined datesand times was provided to the principals. Principals were asked to fill in the activity theyperform during the time and date specified in the form just after the activity carried out. Afteraggregating all data from 20 principals, a minute by minute activity report for a two weekperiod is formed.Activities were compared to a pre-determined list of possible administrative activitiesdrawn from leadership, administration literature and from legislative and legal literature.Findings show that principals spent an overwhelming portion of their time in activitiesunrelated to instructional and educational issues. Activities that have the highest frequenciesin the fill-in forms include official written correspondences, supervision of bureaucraticprocedures, and money related paper works. Principals frequently perform duties that they donot like. They find very little time for administrative and leadership roles they like to performthe most. In daily operation of schools, principals unable to exercise administrative andleadership functions that are the most frequently cited in educational leadership andadministration literature. The field and the theory have little in common.The latest initiatives such as OYGEP stresses that ?A school is ?the? school as good asits principal;? however in the light of such findings the role of school principals and their jobdescriptions will not let them to perform like a leader. A school secretary similar to theposition of a collage secretary may help.