The Repositioned Role of School Leadership on Learning to Thrive in the Post-COVID-19 Pandemic Era: A Narrative Review of Uganda’s Context

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused disruptions in the education system and has worsened inequality within and between nations. The competitive power in academic achivement across nations including Uganda rests on pedagogy followed by school leadership. School leadership alone explains up to 27% of the differences in students' learning achievement across regions. While there is glaring literature on school leadership, and its role in learner achievement, the repositioned role of school leadership to match the demands of the post –COVID19 pandemic era has not been given the attention it deserves. Therefore, this narrative review specifically answered the role of school leadership in ensuring learning to thrive in the post-COVID-19 era. This role of education as a very powerful tool for socio-economic growth, development and transformation is clearly spelt out in a number of documents including; Uganda’s vision 2040 and the National Development Plan III. Despite of thorough planning, a number of weaknesses in the education system have been exposed by the COVID-19 pandemic which indicated the need for learning to thrive whereby learners are able to think, provide solutions, and adopt. School leaders have a duty beyond the managerial role and the post COVID-19 era demands re-evaluation of the processes to ensure quality and inclusive education while considering the 21st Century demands. Therefore, school leadership has an instructional, distinct, and systemic role to foster learning to thrive in the post-pandemic era. This can be supported by working more collaboratively to share knowledge and best practices with other schools and communities.