THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL LEADERS ADMINISTRATIVE STYLE ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS

THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL LEADERS ADMINISTRATIVE STYLE ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN GOVERNMENT SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPITER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study (1.1)

Nigeria’s national progress is facilitated by education. The National Policy on Education outlines the nation’s educational goals in terms of their applicability to society and individual needs (FRN, 2014). In this regard, the National Policy on Education defined goals and targets meant to aid in the development of education throughout the nation. The school principal is crucial in advancing these aims and targets. One of these responsibilities is to provide effective administrative skills and methods for managing secondary schools, as well as to enhance teacher effectiveness, which might enhance students’ academic success. According to Fika, Ibi, and Aji (2015), many educators are worried about how well the principal is handling these duties. Senior secondary education in Nigerian schools lasts three years and is only open to students who have completed the Basic 9 education program. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that competent secondary school management is highly sought after in Taraba State, Nigeria. However, it indicates that a significant portion of school administrators in the State and around the nation have not looked at their administrative practices as factors in kids’ academic progress. As a result, some of them seem to struggle to effectively run their schools (Akininbagbe, 2002). Research on human capital development agrees that a nation’s human resources, not its capital or natural resources, ultimately determine the pace of its economic and social growth because education is still a crucial approach for societal development in the developing world. The most significant institutional mechanism for producing human capital is the formal education system, which includes elementary, secondary, and university education (Nsubuga, 2003). There is a close relationship between education and socioeconomic productivity since education is a long-term investment. Muthondu (2007) asserts that because of the world’s rapid change, it is practically impossible for anyone, regardless of gender or preferred leadership style, to have all the knowledge, insight, or authority required to achieve success. The previous system of government, which granted power and a title to one or a small number of people, the most of whom were men, is progressively failing and being phased away. Potential leaders of both sexes should make every effort to educate others about the administrative style that will best guide the organization toward its goals and should get ready to adapt to a changing society. Students’ exam success is influenced by a variety of factors, including the availability of physical facilities, classroom size, effective school discipline policies, administrative support, and effective leadership. Research from Papua New Guinea, Nigeria, and Botswana lends credence to this (Muli, 2005). A competent administration provides the necessary leadership, direction, and rewards for students’ successful performance. According to Okumbe (1998), human resources are the most important resources in any organization, hence the success of the company is entirely dependent on how well its employees are managed. This suggests that integration requires ongoing work in which all members participate actively and work together with the common goal of achieving the organization’s goals. The administration of schools must be viewed as a social activity. There are two categories of phenomena in a social system: independent and interactive. The first class consists of the institution, its duties, and expectations that are in line with the objectives of the system. The second class is made up of the people who use the system, according to their personalities and dispositions (Okumbe, 1998). The principal, instructors, support staff, and students all collaborate to accomplish set goals in a school. To maintain a school organization, effective management and administrative skills are required (Farrant, 1997). Effective school administration has frequently been mentioned as a characteristic that separates achievers from non-achievers. The workplace will experience significant gains under visionary leadership that motivates and persuades rather than commands others to share the same aims. According to Bukar, Ibi, and Abdullahi (2015), principals actively participate in influencing how students and schools conduct in order to set and achieve goals. In light of the aforementioned, the study examined how the administrative styles of school administrators in Nassarawa State senior secondary schools connect to student academic progress.

Statement of the problem: 1.2

It has been seen throughout time that stakeholders’ responses to effective administrative techniques used by secondary school principals in Nassarawa State, Nigeria, have been inconsistent. However, it seems that many of these principals have not considered how they run their schools as a factor in how well their students perform academically in the state. Parents have a lot of anxiety about the experiences and administrative techniques that principals use because it has been found that these things directly affect how well students and teachers perform overall, who are both monitored and overseen by a principal. Concern among stakeholders and parents in the education sector has been raised by the diminishing performance of students in senior secondary schools in core academic topics on the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE). Several things could be the cause of this. One of these was presumably the observed subpar administrative approach taken by school principals, which has been shown to have a direct impact on students’ academic progress.Therefore, the goal of this study was to determine how the administrative style of school leaders affected students’ academic performance in government secondary schools.

1.3 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVE

Examining how school administrators’ styles affect students’ academic progress in government secondary schools is the study’s main goal. The research specifically intends to:

i. To recognize the various administrative philosophies employed by secondary school administrators in government institutions.

ii. To identify the variables influencing school administration’s decision on leadership style.

iii. To ascertain how administrative personnel affect students’ academic performance.

iv. To suggest ways that management can raise students’ academic achievement in public secondary schools.

Research question: 1.4

The following query serves as the basis for the research:

i. How do administrators in government secondary schools run their institutions?

What are the variables influencing school administration’s decision on the leadership style?

What impact does the leadership style of the administrative staff have on students’ academic success?

iv. How can school administration in government secondary schools raise students’ academic achievement?

1.5 RELATIONSHIP TO OTHER STUDIES

This study will make it possible for various governments to realize how crucial administration and support workers are in secondary schools. The research study will be useful to educational institutions that are dealing with administrative difficulties. The study will raise public awareness of the impact of administrative employees in government schools and the difficulties they encounter. Understanding the connection between student achievement and school administration is made possible by this study.

1.6 ANALYSIS OF THE STUDY

This study’s focus is on how administrative style of school administrators affects students’ academic performance in government secondary schools. The study will look at the leadership style of the principals and the variables that influence their choice of administrative style. The study is restricted to a few Keffi Local Government Area public secondary schools in Nassarawa State.

Limitations of the study: 1.7

While conducting the study, the researchers ran into some minor obstacles, just as in every human endeavor. The researcher was forced to choose a small sample size that only included a few secondary schools in the Keffi Local Government Area in Nassarawa State because there was little existing literature on the topic due to the fact that it was a new discourse. As a result, the researcher had to incur additional costs and spend a lot of time searching for relevant materials, literature, or information. Therefore, conclusions from this study cannot be generalized to other secondary schools in other Nigerian States. Additionally, the researcher’s concurrent involvement in this study and other academic activity will prevent them from giving the research their full attention. Finally, the researcher was only able to use the questionnaires that really reached him because the respondent was unable to return all of the ones that were delivered to him. Nevertheless, despite the difficulties experienced during the research, every component was minimized in order to deliver the best results and ensure the success of the study.

1.8 TERM DEFINITIONS

Admin: The word “educational administration” is fairly all-encompassing. It is focused on the creation, implementation, and evaluation of educational policy. A school is created through the organizational process. The administration of it follows. The head of the institution is in charge of making the school run or operate, but this does not mean that only the Head and no one else is in charge of administration. In actuality, management requires a large number of minds and heads. merged into one whole. The institution’s head is the authority figure who must command everyone to follow him. Thus, educational administration is essentially a cooperative endeavor and is described as a nonprofit making activity in the language of economics. Various definitions of education administration exist. The following list of definitions includes several crucial terms: Administration is defined by the American Association of School Administrators as “the total of the processes through which appropriate human and material resources are made available and made effective for accomplishing the purpose of an enterprise.”

Academic achievement is the degree to which a student, instructor, or institution has accomplished their short- or long-term educational goals. It is sometimes referred to as (academic) performance. Academic accomplishment is measured by cumulative GPA and the attainment of educational milestones such secondary school diplomas and bachelor’s degrees.

Exams or ongoing assessments are frequently used to gauge academic success, but there is no consensus on the optimal method of assessment or which components—declarative knowledge like facts or procedural knowledge like skills—are most crucial (Ward, Stoker; and Murray-Ward, 1996). Aspects like test anxiety, surroundings, motivation, and emotions need to be taken into account when building models of academic achievement because there are conflicting data regarding which individual components correctly predict academic performance. Schools are now paid primarily on the academic success of their students. A school would get more funding than a school with less accomplishments in the classroom (Ziedner, 1998).

Management:

The “art of knowing what you want to do and then seeing that it is done the best and cheapest way” was coined by F.W. Taylor.

“To manage is to forecast, plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control,” said Henry Fayol.

Peter F. Drucker once said, “Management is work, and work has its own skills, tools, and techniques.” The art of management is working with and through people to accomplish goals.