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  5. School Principals and Administrators - Elementary and Secondary Education

Exploring Trades and Occupations

School Principals and Administrators - Elementary and Secondary Education

On this page

  • Job description
  • Advancement and mobility
  • Hourly wage
  • Job prospects for 2021-2025
  • Sectors of activity
  • Training and requirements
  • Main skills and characteristics
  • Personality profiles (RIASEC)
  • Additional information

Job description

School Principals coordinate the activities of school personnel. These individuals work in public or private primary or secondary schools.

Curriculum Administrators coordinate activities related to pedagogy. They are employed by school service centres at the elementary and secondary levels.

Environment

  • Controlled ambient temperature

Main tasks

School Principals

  • Organize, direct, and evaluate the activities of teachers and support staff.
  • Supervise department heads and supervisors.
  • Participate in the development of educational programs.
  • Ensure that programs conform to the current standards of the school service centre or province.
  • Administer the school’s budget.
  • Direct maintenance services and the use of school facilities.
  • Hire staff.
  • Teach, as required.

Administrators of educational programs at the primary and secondary levels

  • Collaborate in the management of pedagogical services with school principals.
  • Evaluate and revise curricula and teaching methods.
  • Participate in public activities related to various programs in the school system.
  • Develop and administer education and training programs.
  • Make recommendations regarding the annual budget allocated to the school.
  • Recruit, appoint, train, and evaluate teachers.

Advancement and mobility

  • There is little mobility between the posts of Primary School Headmaster and Secondary School Headmaster.

Hourly wage

The hourly wage is calculated by averaging wages from 2019 to 2021.
Minimum
$32.00
Median
$47.12
Maximum
$60.44

Job prospects for 2021-2025

sr.comparaison-region.titre

Les 2 champs de sélection ci-dessous vous permettent de comparer 2 régions. Les données des régions seront automatiquement mises à jour à la sélection. Par défaut, la province de Québec est sélectionnée pour la première région.

Job prospects for 2021-2025

Job prospects

All of Québec

Non available
Limited
Good
Very good
Good

All of Québec

Non available
Limited
Good
Very good
Non available

Total jobs for 2020

All of Québec

5,000

All of Québec

na

Gender distribution

All of Québec

Not available.
62.1% Female
37.9% Male

Not available.
  • 62.1% Female
  • 37.9% Male

Job types

All of Québec

Not available.
Full time
Part time

Not available.
  • Full time
  • Part time

Yearly wage on 2015

All of Québec

$92,000

All of Québec

Other characteristics

All of Québec

  • None

All of Québec

  • None

Sectors of activity

All of Québec

Not available.
  1. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  2. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  3. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  4. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  5. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  6. Others
    0% of jobs

All of Québec

Not available.
  1. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  2. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  3. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  4. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  5. Educational Services
    NAICS 61
    100% of jobs
  6. Others
    0% of jobs

Training and requirements

Formation

Numerous training and study programs lead to managerial or executive positions.

Also required

  • Bachelor’s in Education.
  • Several years of experience as a teacher or head of department.
  • Authorization to teach.
  • Permanent teaching certificate for school principals.

Sometimes required

  • A Master’s degree in education may be required.
  • A Principal’s certificate is sometimes required for principals.
  • A Supervisory Officer’s Certificate may be required for Administrators of Elementary and Secondary Education Programs.

Main skills and characteristics

Skills

  • Data collection
  • Active listening
  • Oral expression
  • Reading comprehension
  • Critical thought
  • Social perception
  • Learning strategies
  • Information processing
  • Written expression
  • Judgment and decision-making
  • Coordination
  • Result evaluation
  • Human resource management
  • Solving complex problems
  • Active learning
  • Teaching
  • Systems evaluation
  • Time management
  • Service oriented
  • Negotiation
  • System analysis
  • Financial resource management
  • Persuasion
  • Material resource management
  • Mathematics
More Less skills

Abilities

  • Oral comprehension
  • Verbal skills
  • Speech clarity
  • Written comprehension
  • Written expression
  • Deductive reasoning
  • Inductive reasoning
  • Speech recognition
  • Awareness of issues
  • Classification
  • Information organization
  • Near vision
  • Originality
  • Idea generation
  • Mathematical reasoning
  • Processing flexibility
  • Distance vision
  • Selective attention
  • Time sharing
More Less abilities

Knowledge and attributes

  • Diplomacy
  • Leadership
  • Political sense
  • Knowledge of personnel and human resource management
  • Knowledge of the French language
  • Autonomy
  • Capacity to influence and mobilize
  • Capacity to network
  • Versatility
  • Pedagogical knowledge

Interests

  • Direct, organize, and manage
  • Draft, communicate, and inform
  • Work with numbers
  • Work in an office

Personality profiles (RIASEC)

Social
People with this profile prefer to be in contact with others, in particular to entertain, help or teach them.
Investigative
People with this profile prefer relying on theoretical knowledge before acting. They like observation, analysis and problem solving.
Conventional
People with this profile prefer specific, well-defined tasks. They like to respect the order of things and follow established rules.
Additional information

Note about CNP

Occupational information is provided based on the National Occupational Classification (NOC) 2016. The 5-digit code of the NOC 2021 is shown in parentheses for information purposes only for occupations that correspond to those of NOC 2016.

Official name of the NOC 0422 (40021)

School principals and administrators of elementary and secondary education

Job titles

  • School vice-principal
  • Chief superintendent - schools
  • School principal
  • Elementary school principal
  • Board of education administrator
  • Assistant district school superintendent
  • Regional superintendent - schools
  • School superintendent
  • College principal - secondary level
  • Business college principal
  • Private primary college principal
  • School district superintendent
  • Director of education - correctional institution
  • Superintendent of elementary education
  • Superintendent of special education
  • Superintendent of operations - schools
  • Hall principal - secondary school
  • Superintendent of education programs
  • Community school principal
  • Vocational high school principal
  • Native school principal
  • Director of school for the visually impaired
  • Director of school for the hearing impaired
  • Director of school for the blind or deaf
  • Private school headmaster/mistress
  • Secondary school principal
  • Superintendent of academic affairs
  • Superintendent of elementary schools
  • Superintendent of education programs in public schools
  • Superintendent of student services
  • Superintendent of educational services
  • Superintendent of professional development - schools
  • School district assistant superintendent
  • Deputy superintendent - schools
  • Superintendent of secondary schools
More Less job titles

Skill type

Management

Related occupations

  • Administrators - post-secondary education and vocational training
  • Education policy researchers, consultants and program officers
  • Government managers - education policy development and program administration
  • Senior managers - health, education, social and community services and membership organizations

See also

  • Glossary (PDF 229 Kb)
  • Québec emploi This hyperlink will open in a new window.

Last update: December 22, 2022

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