Teachers are known to be intellectual individuals who continue to teach students in classrooms and have an influence that extends beyond the periphery of classroom space. Leadership is one of the desired qualities of a teacher and the Principal is portrayed as the school leader. Hence, it is imperative to understand the conception of ‘leadership’ among the school principals. This research study aims to explore the issues and challenges of school leadership among the principals of Government High Schools (GHS) under the RMSA scheme (which is now an integrated part of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan) in Eastern U.P. The rural areas like Eastern U.P. tend to have the scope of improvement in secondary education and schemes like RMSA promote the access, equity and quality of secondary education. Yet, the quality secondary education in Eastern U.P. is affected by various factors and the conception of leadership of principals plays a significant role in quality attainment of secondary education. The research is qualitative in nature. The purposive sampling was opted. Observations of schools and online consultative meetings held with the principals and teachers of GHS of Eastern U.P. Narrative analysis has been done. Findings suggest they faced

challenges due to lack of human and material resources which led to adopting different leadership styles. It was concluded that there is a gap which exists between the ideal conception of leadership qualities and ground realities in the context of Eastern U.P. as the principals were not able to access the required resources which also affect their personal-social interaction towards the goal of holistic development.