ABSTRACT
This chapter provides information on the preparation of school principals and begins with a brief discussion of some of the approaches used by other countries and the use of standards and competency frameworks in leadership development and assessment. The discussion of principal preparation and development in Malaysia includes an overview of the curriculum used in the various principal leadership development programmes provided by Institut Aminuddin Baki, the only school principal and leadership training centre in the country. Principal preparation and development were given greater prominence with the launch of the Malaysia Education Blueprint. In Malaysia, the formal principal leadership development programme is the National Professional Qualification for Educational Leadership (NPQEL), the only structured programme for teachers who aspire to be principals. The NPQEL participants can choose the schools for their apprenticeship, enabling them to select schools similar to their own and to learn from appropriate role models.
