Digital Leadership of Public Elementary School Heads: Basis for the Development of Capability Building Program

As technology evolves how schools work, school leaders must be able to lead in a digital world. This study was conducted to see how well school heads are managing digital tools and what problems and challenges they encounter. The goal was to use this information to create a capability training program that truly helps them improve. The researcher used mixed methods with a sequential explanatory design that combined quantitative and qualitative methods. The first stage used quantitative methods to gather the data through a survey, and the second used qualitative methods gathering detailed responses from the interviews. The results showed that school heads believe they are doing a very good job. They gave themselves high scores in areas like setting a digital vision (3.99), using technology (4.05), digital communication (4.04), managing resources (4.04), and staff training (4.01). Overall, they feel they are practicing digital leadership to a great extent. However, the study also found that school heads face real problems. These include the lack of knowledge and expertise in technology, falling behind on new trends, and facing resistance to change. They also deal with practical issues like poor internet and the challenge of teaching parents how to use digital tools. Based on these findings, the study suggests that schools may start a digital mentorship program or capability-building program instead of just conducting workshops. This program would provide effective mentoring and better materials and infrastructure to help school heads overcome the challenges experienced by the school heads.