This article examines the state of principal recruitment in Hong Kong and Singapore. Whereas there is no discernible shortage of people willing to serve as principals in either society, there are serious concerns about the quality of both incumbent and future principals. The reasons behind these interrelated phenomena, however, are very different in each society and relate to a unique mixture of political, structural and cultural factors. For example, the extreme centralisation of the political and structural systems in Singapore explains the steady supply of new principals. By contrast, the much more disconnected nature of education governance in Hong Kong accounts for the ready supply of available new principals. The article focuses on analysing how and why the configurations of each system affect principal supply and principalship quality.
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