EFFECT OF PRINCIPAL ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT

1.1 Introduction

The school principal who is the manager has a lot of roles to play in the academic achievement of the students. Even though instructional leadership is the espoused priority of principals, it is often shunted aside by the demands of day-to-day school management. School principals, like the other members of school community, have many problems in their schools. According to principals’ views, there are also some communication problems with other institutions and some problems in control process (Büte and Balcı, 2010). Principals also face with problems of curriculum management, faculty management, student affairs management, service management and budget management, and external problems (Çınkır, 2010).

As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.

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1.2 Background of Study

In recent times, education stakeholders have expressed their concerned over the poor performance of students in the school certificate examination. Some blamed the school administrators (principals) and the teachers while some blamed the students themselves and the parents. Whoever to be blamed, the fact remains that, the school and its organizational management has correlation with the academic achievement of the students (Leith, 2004). This accountability mandate makes it necessary for principals to refocus their energies on raising test scores, while overseeing myriad responsibilities as site managers. This can be done if the principal set a clear vision for the schools, exhibit instructional leadership, and also allow for team spirit in the school.

Report of academic performance of students in the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) conducted by the West African Council (WAEC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) were poor in Nigeria between 2007 and 2010. The percentage of students who obtained credit level passes in five subjects and above including English language and Mathematics was about 25% in Nigeria (Quality Education Assurance Agency, 2010). In 2011, only 30.9% of the 1,540,250 candidates obtained credit level passes in five subjects including English and Mathematics while in the 2011 June/July NECO SSCE only 22.34% of the 1,160,561 candidates obtained credit level passes and above in English Language and 25.14% in Mathematics in the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (Owadie, 2011 and Okpala 2011). In 2012 May/June West African Senior School Certificate Examination, 649,156 candidates (38.81%) of the 1,677224 candidates that sat for the examination obtained 5 credit level passes and above in subjects including English Language and Mathematics in the 36 states of the Federation and the Federal Capital Territory (Owadie, 2011). In the states noted for good performance in the past, the performance of students in senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) was relatively low during the period under discussion.

The poor performance of students in these examinations had been largely attributed to poor management of the principals. It appears that most principals fail to monitor, and disseminate current information on educational issues and modern teaching techniques to teachers in the schools. This has been a source of concern to the government and education stakeholders. Observation shows that most schools both in rural and urban are not well equipped of learning materials, enough teachers, computers were not available which could have prepared the students for electronic examination in future Even in some urban schools where computers were available the epileptic supply of electricity has limited their use.

A principal who properly exercises his or her leadership responsibility will enable his or her school to realize good academic achievement. This augments the fact that effective management of organization is a prime contributory factor in achievement (Chitiavi, 2002). Teachers are not exempted from the controversy on the poor performance of students in secondary school examinations. The poor attitude of teachers to teaching and lack of professional development contribute to poor academic performance of students.

Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Effect of Principal on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Student.

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1.3 Statement of Problems

Investigation revealed that the dwindling performance of students of secondary schools in Nigeria in senior secondary certificate examinations in core subject of the school curriculum such as English, Mathematics and Sciences has been a major concern to stake holders in education (Ministry of Education, 2010). Poor performance of students in senior secondary school examination has persisted despite the fact secondary schools are assumed to have capable students from primary schools and also trained and qualified principals.

The reasons for poor performance cannot be easily discerned without focused investigation. This implies that much work is being expected to be performed by teachers and principals in order to improve the level of students’ academic performance in secondary schools. This study therefore aimed at focusing on the Effect of Principal on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Student using Warri-South Local Government Area as a case study.

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1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study

The aim of the study is to investigate the Effect of Principal on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Student. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:

1. To analyze the impact of principal leadership and management on the academic performance of secondary schools;
2. To find out how principal leadership and management style can improve academic performance;
3. To find factors that determine the competency of school principal leadership and management; and
4. To examine the challenges that school management faces or has been facing in its endeavor to improve school academic performance.

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1.5 Research Questions

The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:

• Is there any significant impact of principal leadership and management on the academic performance of secondary schools?
• What are the factors that determine the competency of school principal leadership and management?
• How can principal leadership and management style improve academic performance?
• What are the challenges that school management faces or has been facing in its endeavor to improve school academic performance?

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1.6 Research Hypothesis

In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.

Hypothesis One

• H0: There is no significant relationship between principals’ motivational technique and students’ academic performance in the area under study
• H1: There is a significant relationship between principals’ motivational technique and students’ academic performance in the area under study

Hypothesis Two

• H0: There is no significant influence of principal leadership and management on the academic performance of secondary schools
• H1: There is a significant influence of principal leadership and management on the academic performance of secondary schools

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1.7 Significance of Study

This research will generate information on the roles that school management play in enhancing academic performance in secondary schools, it would also reveal the challenges secondary schools face in terms of their management and recommend some alternatives measures for dealing with them to improve performance.

The findings from the study will be useful as source of secondary data references for the researchers who may wish to study the same areas. The study also is useful for policy makers, education stakeholders such as heads of schools.

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1.8 Scope of Study

The scope of the research is focused on the Effect of Principal on the Academic Performance of Secondary School Student using Warri-South Local Government Area of Delta State as a case study.

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1.9 Limitations of the Study

During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:

1. Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
2. Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this establishment to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
3. Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
4. Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
5. Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

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1.10 Definition of Terms

Management: The coordinated utilization of physical and human resources through cooperative efforts in order to realize the established objectives of a given organization namely school.