Physical Activity, Sports and Co-Curricular Assessment (PAJSK) is a non-academic component of Malaysia’s School-Based Assessment that documents students’ fitness, participation, engagement and achievement. Although the Ministry of Education Malaysia provides operational guidelines, implementation quality also depends on principals’ ability to coordinate responsibilities, develop teachers’ competence and sustain assessment consistency. This conceptual article examines principals’ practices, challenges and strategies in implementing PAJSK in secondary schools through a narrative synthesis of policy documents and educational leadership literature. Instructional leadership, distributed leadership and change management are considered alongside the assessment principles of validity, reliability and fairness. The analysis identifies seven interconnected challenges: rubric interpretation, evidence documentation, continuity of activities, data integrity, digital capacity, stakeholder communication and equitable opportunities for participation. It proposes an integrated PAJSK governance framework and a four-phase strategy encompassing alignment, system development, monitoring and institutionalization. The framework constitutes a theoretical proposition rather than an empirically validated model. The article contributes by mapping leadership mechanisms onto observable indicators of implementation quality, providing a basis for school-level improvement and future research. The proposed strategies must be interpreted in accordance with current ministry requirements and differences in secondary schools’ capacities.
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Shah, M. A. B. N., & Alias, B. S. B. (2026). Principals’ Practices, Challenges and Strategies in the Implementation of Physical Activity, Sports and Co-Curricular Assessment (PAJSK) in Secondary Schools. International Journal of Academic Research in Progressive Education and Development, 15(4), 1058–1069.
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