School heads’ leadership role in early childhood education and its challenges

School heads play a central role in ensuring the quality of early childhood education (ECE) through core leadership functions in planning, staffing, organizing, controlling, and directing. This study assessed teachers’ perceptions of school heads’ leadership roles in ECE settings in Vinzons District, Camarines Norte; identified challenges encountered in performing these functions; examined the relationship between perceived leadership roles and challenges; and proposed an intervention to strengthen leadership capacity. A quantitative descriptive–correlational design was employed, with 86 public-school teachers selected through total enumeration. A researcher-made questionnaire measured leadership role performance and corresponding challenges. Data were analyzed using weighted mean and Pearson product–moment correlation in SPSS. School heads were rated at a high level across all leadership domains (overall means: 3.47–3.57). Reported challenges were also consistently high, with directing rated as the most challenging domain (overall mean = 3.52). Correlation analysis indicated statistically significant positive relationships between leadership roles and challenges (r = 0.495–0.690; p < 0.01), suggesting that greater engagement in leadership functions is associated with greater perceived constraints. Based on the findings, a handbook for school heads “Empowering Leadership in Early Childhood Education” was proposed, emphasizing strategic directing and school-based professional development to support sustained ECE implementation.