Run a whole school. Ten years of teaching first, then a leadership qualification and a job with no union to hide behind.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Good for a wall or a guidance counsellor.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Principal
$115,000
Vice-principal, small school
$76,000
Large high school
$149,000
Job Bank's national median works out to $55.29 an hour, about $115,000 a year full time. Principals are salaried, not hourly, so treat the hourly figure as a conversion. Pay goes up with school size and enrolment, and boards publish their administrator grids.
$76,000 to $100,000
Vice-principal
Almost nobody goes straight to principal. You do 2 to 5 years as a vice-principal first, and in a small elementary school the raise over a top-grid teacher is smaller than people expect.
$135,000 to $149,000
Principal of a big secondary school
Above this the next rungs are board office roles: superintendent and director of education, which pay more again and need a further qualification.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
Every stage after the teaching degree is paid while you are on a full teacher salary, which makes it far easier to carry than the original degrees. The low end is a cheaper bachelor's degree plus a B.Ed (Bachelor of Education), two specialist qualification courses instead of a master's, and the two part Principal's Qualification Program. The high end swaps the specialists for a full M.Ed (Master of Education) at a full price university. Many school boards reimburse part of the leadership courses, and most of the ten to fifteen year timeline is required classroom experience, not study.
You pay for all of this while working as a teacher on full salary, so it is far easier to carry than the original degrees. Many boards reimburse part of the leadership courses.
Defined-benefit pension
You stay in the teachers' pension plan, and your higher salary raises what you eventually collect.
Year-round contract
Principals work through much of the summer, but they are paid for 12 months instead of 10.
Full health and dental
Professional allowance
Boards usually fund leadership training and conferences.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no shortcut. You have to teach first, for years.
Become a certified teacher
5 to 6 years
Bachelor's degree plus a Bachelor of Education (B.Ed), then registration with your provincial regulator.
Teach, and build breadth
5 or more years
Ontario asks for at least five years of successful classroom teaching and qualifications across three divisions, so you need experience with more than one age group.
Build the academic piece
2 to 4 years, part time
Ontario requires either a master's degree, or two specialist qualifications, or one specialist plus graduate credits.
Principal's Qualification Program
1 to 2 years, part time
Two parts plus a leadership practicum, run through the Ontario College of Teachers framework. Other provinces have their own leadership certificate.
Vice-principal, then principal
2 to 5 years as a vice-principal
You apply to a board pool, get interviewed, and get placed where they need you. Expect to move schools.
Anything you would want to teach
Your teaching subject is the foundation and you need it first.
English
The job is writing: letters to families, reports to the board, staff evaluations.
Business or accounting
You will manage a school budget, staffing and facilities.
Student council or team captain
Leading people who did not choose you starts here.
You must hold a valid teaching certificate and a provincial leadership qualification. In Ontario the prerequisites for the Principal's Qualification Program are set out by the Ontario College of Teachers: an acceptable degree, five years of successful teaching, qualifications spanning three divisions, and a master's degree or the specialist course equivalent. Other provinces run comparable leadership certificates through their ministry or a university. The qualification does not move between provinces as smoothly as a teaching certificate does.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Department head or curriculum lead
The standard proving ground. Run something before you ask to run everything.
Special education or safe schools experience
Boards want administrators who can handle the hardest files.
French-language qualification
French boards have a thin leadership pipeline and promote faster.
Willingness to move north or rural
Remote boards will hand you a school years earlier than a city board will.
Master of Education (M.Ed)
Satisfies the academic prerequisite in one step and signals you are serious.
Supervisory Officer's Qualification Program
The next credential after principal, needed for superintendent roles.
Budget and human resources training
Most of a principal's headaches are money and staffing, not lessons.
A mentor who is already a principal
Boards promote from pools, and the pool is full of people who were coached into it.
Independent schools and international schools abroad hire heads of school without requiring a provincial leadership qualification, and some pay well above board rates with housing included. The trade-offs are no public pension, no tenure, and a board of parents who can end your contract. Canadian-curriculum schools overseas actively recruit experienced Canadian principals.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In before the buses. Cover an absent teacher's class because no supply teacher showed up. Then a parent meeting about a suspension, a staffing call with the board, a walk through three classrooms, a budget approval, a fire drill. Lunch is eaten standing up during supervision. After the bell: staff meetings, evaluations, and the evening event, because the principal goes to the concert, the game and the parent council.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Ontario legislation in the late 1990s removed principals and vice-principals from teachers' federations. They now belong to separate principals' associations and bargain terms with their boards instead.
Ontario's leadership prerequisites ask for qualifications spanning three divisions, so a teacher who only ever taught Grade 3 has to add qualifications before they can even apply.
Most Canadian school boards run a vice-principal pool: you apply, interview, and then wait to be placed wherever a vacancy appears. You usually do not get to pick the school.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.