HIGH-PERFORMING public schools would earn greater freedom to make their own decisions, while underperforming schools would be subjected to intervention and external management, a new paper reveals.

Principals and preschool directors would be given authority to manage staff and their performance, budgets and public reporting, the concept paper, presented to the department's top executives last week, says.

But while principals have backed the need to "remove roadblocks" for successful schools, they warned against the risk of turning schools into rivals.

"The better a site is performing, the more autonomy it can have from external management by the state. Conversely, preschools or schools that are not performing well require a higher level of external management, intervention and support," the paper states.

Principals have been told changes would start in 2014 and be implemented over five years.

An Education Department spokeswoman said the paper was part of a broader discussion that began following recent state and federal reforms to devolve public education systems.

"The idea is very much at the conceptual stage and the paper presented at the schools executive was designed to encourage thinking and discussion among school leaders," the spokeswoman said.

The idea follows similar moves in WA and NSW where schools are allowed to make decisions about their curriculums, staffing, school resources, educational programs and expenditure.

SA Secondary Principals Association president Jan Paterson said any policy change must ensure schools were not pitted against each other.

"We do have pockets of fabulous work but at times we find roadblocks to do it and we need to ensure there are no roadblocks."

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More freedom for better schools