The performance of Thai children has continually gone down. This can be gauged from various types of
Ordinary National Educational Test (O-NET). It was found that the scores of Thai students who responded for
the test in 2010 were lower than 50%. Grade 9 students passed in just one subject: health education. They failed
in all other subjects. The results of O-NET in 2011 showed that Grade 6 students secured scores higher than 50%
in mathematics, social studies, culture and physical education, however, their scores were lower than 50% in
English, and art (National Institute of Educational Testing Service, 2012). In terms of primary school, the
evaluation conducted by the external education quality during 2006-2010 found that the average value in 14
standards was satisfied. Among the total of 12,268 Thai primary schools, 79.10% accredited and 20.93% were
not accredited.
The poor performance of Thai primary schools in administration and management was indicated in the second
round of external quality assessment. This poor performance was caused by the poor quality standard of student
development competencies such as: critical thinking and practical capacity, problem solving abilities, curriculum
based outcomes, learning commitments, and lifelong learning. In terms of school administration and
management, it was comprised of improper curriculum development, poor student-center teaching and learning
style, low quality in standard improvement, and ineffective teaching and learning capacity (Office of National
Education Standards and Quality Assessment, 2010).
The above problems were related to the problem solving to be implemented as holistic one without separation
into parts, especially the academic affairs administration system, including the effective academic work of
schools which would help to elevate the Educational Quality of schools with adequate as well as appropriate
support of resources by the government, including the Public Educational Policy, precisely and continuously,
sufficient budget, the rules and regulations facilitating Quality Development, Teacher Development to obtain
professional competency, and the administrators’ academic leadership.
1.2 Academic School Leaders
Since the1999 Thai education reform, schools have more opportunity to make decisions and responses to the
decentralization of power to schools more responsibly. It is very critical that administrators are required to be
aware of and equipped with administrative skills. This refers to the five principles of the role, position, and
attitude of the school leaders. There are curriculum development, instructional development, student
administration, community services, and resources and facility management (Ubben and others, 2001). These
five principles of leadership can lead the school to happiness and benefit the teachers, students, and schools
themselves. The instructional leadership was developed from the transformational leadership. This leadership
style is specified for school principals based on the knowledge of educational theories, instructional, and
curriculum development and management and it is also a driving force in educational development. According to
this combination, this leadership style was called “academic leadership”, comprised of capacity for
communication with teachers, students, and parents (McEwans, 1998).
1.3 School Leader as Transformer
The development of educational quality in schools is a significant responsibility for school leaders. The school
leaders have to be people who can plan for educational outcomes in advance for the school, be aware of specific
knowledge and experiences in educational administration, and be equipped with the knowledge of politics,
society and relationship that can motivate school leaders to be active in applying their leadership. The playing
role as the model of teaching and learning activities, school vision formulation, and school quality assurance are
required for school leaders. Moreover, motivation for internal and external stakeholders such as teachers and
communities around with a new vision in working and surviving is needed (Razik, 2001). The school leaders’
roles and responsibilities consisted of coaching and monitoring school teachers, ability to design the processes
and models for curriculum development, capacity in school resources management, flexibility with the new
context of teaching and learning, understanding of students’ learning behaviors, ability to design the instructional
model, and the application of new techniques in teaching and learning processes.
According to the reviews of Drucker (1996), it is mentioned that effective leaders can be developed and it is not
relevant to personal performances, styles, capacities, or the interests of those leaders. Effective leaders
demonstrated 4 points of view: first, the effective leader must have followers, second the effective leader has to
have outcomes-based thinking and implementation orientation, third the effective leader has to be a role model
and fourth, the effective leader has to be responsive to vision, mission, objectives of organization and
responsibilities in utilizing curriculum and managing the learner-centered processes (Kaewkeeyun, 2002).
Student commitment for learning, quality of teaching, and school administration affects education and is in direct
relationship (Dimmock and Walker, 2005). The school principal leadership must be equipped with academic.