INTRODUCTION
The global pandemic had its dreadful drawbacks not only in economic aspects, health and business and livelihood but also to education as it brought largely a huge learning gap which schools head instructional leadership, teacher involvement and stakeholders support combined cannot solve. The pandemic has elevated the number of non-numerates and non-readers which brought a lot of challenges among teachers and parents. Innovations and interventions were activated but learning gaps exist and teachers have to find coping strategies in order to fill in the learning gaps.
These major changes brought by pandemic post a great challenge. This puts greater emphasis on school heads accountability on instructional effectiveness of teachers.
In the Philippines, a very evident role of that most school heads are giving more attention to resources management and generation. Most principals or school heads especially in the public schools are more focused on linkages and partnership with stakeholders for classrooms, school facilities and other special projects. As observed, less and less attention is given to managing, monitoring and evaluating the quality of instruction given by teachers.
This specific situation among schools both in elementary and secondary brings the educational leaders to refocus on instructional leadership potentials and competencies of school heads/principals and how they are related to teaching effectiveness and student achievement.
Within the elementary school division of Iloilo's Schools District of Cabatuan, not every elementary school has a full-time school head.
Some elementary schools have only Teacher-In-Charge (TIC) assigned to supervise the school and do all the responsibilities of a school head aside from the teaching loads as a classroom teacher. This is where the instructional leadership abilities of TIC come into play and how did it contribute to the teacher collective efficacy and performance of the school as a whole since these assigned TIC to some extent lack administrative and leadership trainings.
The roles of the school head as an instructional leader, directly affects teachers to their teaching and indirectly to the performance of the students, teachers and of the school as a whole. It has been noted that the goal of the school is to deliver quality learning outcomes as seen evidently to school performance as translated from learner’s performance.
This can be achieved through quality instruction of the teachers. The quality of instruction is sustained and relies greatly to how the principal leads the entire school and on how he/she give utmost importance to instruction. When principal supervises, supports, monitors, works with, mentors and trains teachers, it builds the teachers morale and confidence towards their teaching.
Teacher efficacy becomes the main concern in improving student achievement and increasing school performance. In the public school, teachers are challenged with huge class sizes, meager salary, limited resources, lack of support on the teachers’ professional development, students’ motivation, lack of family support and involvement and many other concerns that may affect their teachers’ level of efficacy.
Thus, in order for the school to become successful in providing quality education, school heads need to transform and activate instructional leadership coupled by teacher efficacy to achieve outstanding school performance with outstanding student achievement.
Statement of the Problem
The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of teachers and the degree of Teacher-In-Charge (TIC) instructional leadership in the elementary schools in the Cabatuan I and II School District in the academic year 2023–2024.
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