EVALUATION OF THE IMPACT OF INNOVATION AND THE ROLE OF THE SCHOOL PRINCIPALS AS AGENT OF CHANGE

Abstract

School managers have always been on the forefront of the administration of education system since they are the active agents who lead their schools towards wider goals of improving access and quality of education. The purpose of the paper is to give an assessment and evaluation of the concept of innovation by school managers and leaders in the schools. This paper explores impact of innovation and the role of school managers in creating and maintaining an innovative culture and academic performance in selected public schools of the Cofimvaba Education District, which has become synonymous with declining pass rates post-1994.A qualitative research approach was used where existing literature collected, collated and thematically analysed. This paper is novel because it seeks to contribute to the current debate in the literature of educational innovation. The scientific novelty of the article also consists of a conducted large-scale study describing the author's theoretical and practical prerequisites as a former school manager and evidence presented in the research empiricism. The findings of the paper indicated that the school principals are not empowered or willing enough to catalyse the creation and sustaining of innovative cultures in schools. Furthermore, the novelty of the results shows the innovation effects in the high schools and the criteria that school managers employ to get results. Other findings include evidence policy gaps on what is innovation and who must do what in schools which affects the efficacy of school managers. The paper also established that the bureaucratisation of the education sector has done nothing by crippled school managers’ ability to innovate by school managers.  Furthermore, the paper recommends strategies on how school managers can become that active catalyst that they should be, to drive innovation include in-service training and setting minimum benchmarks for school managers eligibility. Also, policy interventions such as 4th industrial revolution aligned innovation regulations, exchange of ideas with countries which successful school innovation formulating a sanction model of non-performers, towards improving access and quality of education in the Cofimvaba Education District.