Preparing school leaders for the fourth industrial revolution: An assessment of their continuous professional development needs

Abstract

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) radically altered career and institutional development. Hence, this study assessed the CPD needs of school leaders to prepare them for 4IR. The human capital development (HCD) theory was adopted. A survey approach was used. Random and snowball sampling approaches was used to select 284 school leaders. School leaders exhibited moderate proficiency in basic IT applications. The type of school only significantly affects information management and evaluation (IME) skills among school leaders. Primary and secondary schools have different CPD needs for school leaders regarding IME. The study concluded that school leaders should receive training on 4IR attributes, basic IT applications, and cutting-edge 4IR technologies.