ABSTRACT
Secondary education occupies a strategic position in the national education system. The secondary school is an institution established for refining human beings in terms of skills, behavior and all round excellence. A Principal is regarded as the leader and head of secondary school; he is responsible for all that happens in the school who administers the school with other teaching and non teaching staff, the principal is directly in every aspect of school operation and his primary aim is determining the school quality and character. His roles in the management of schools covers many areas which include leadership, teacher evaluation, student discipline, hiring of new teachers, staff delegation and parent community relations. This study was conducted to look into the roles of principals in the management of secondary schools in some selected secondary schools in kebbi metropolis. Twelve schools were randomly selected through educational boards, Two hundred questionnaires were administered. One hundred and forty questionnaires for the principals and forty for the teachers and the results obtained were applied in computing coefficient of correlation between two sets of data collected independently and further analyze, the findings showed that there was a sharp departure between the views of principals and those of their teachers on whether principals were instructional or administrative leaders of their schools. In the light of the findings, it was recommended that principals should try as much as possible to give much emphasis on both Instructional and Administrative duties to ensure smooth running of activities in the schools, it also recommends that principals should have firm grip of their curriculum in order to offer useful advice or assistance to the teacher’s e.t.c.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
Secondary education occupies a strategic position in the national education system. It bridges the gap between the primary and tertiary levels of education in Nigeria. It absorbs the primary level and prepares them for the tertiary which is the manpower based on the nation. The secondary school is an institution established for refining human beings in terms of skills, behavior and all round of excellence.
A principal is regarded as the chief executive of a school; he is a leader and head of a secondary school. In this project we will analyze and review the roles of the principals in the management of secondary schools. It is a survey research on some selected schools in kebbi state, Nigeria.
Leadership is also of particular importance in the education administration because of its far reaching effects on the accomplishment of school programmes, objectives and attainment of educational goals. Peretomode,(1991), at the head of the leadership of secondary schools in Nigeria is the principal who administers the school with other teaching and non teaching staff.
Accordingly, the principal is regarded as the chief executive of the school, who is responsible for all that happens in the school Fasabi (2006). As the chief executive, the principal assigns duties to those who could perform the duties, through all responsibilities still reside in him as the accounting officer.
The position of the principal in the school is so germane to the extent that the school cannot exist without that position. Realizing the important role of the principals within the secondary school system, it is important to examine the leadership capacities of the secondary
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school principals. This is particularly important because of the fact that secondary education, especially in Nigeria serves as the bridge between the primary and tertiary level, although the junior secondary school (JSS) level in particular now is the integral part of the basic education (UBE) program in Nigeria. The (U.B.E) is free, compulsory and universal. Principal competencies can be measured from the various dimensions from the perception of students, parent, communities and their employers. For instance Scott, Jr and William (1987) agreed that, teacher’s perception of their principal’s leadership behavior is also related to teacher’s morale.
The principal is directly in every aspect of schools operation and thus the primary figure in determining the schools quality and character. Barth (1991) states that “show me good school and I will show you good principal’.
To develop harmonies and improve the quality of teachers and students performance in kebbi state secondary schools, principals play a vital role in the achievement of these objectives. This is because the smooth running or failures of the schools are attributed to its leadership. In the same vein, Arobayi (1984) pointed out that when a school is seen to be performing well in aspect of its objectives, it is the principal that receives its credit and when the school is not performing well, it is the principal that receives the blame. This goes on to show that, the ultimate aim of most schools is to get the right individual who will be an effective leader.
1.2 Statement of the problem
It is often alleged that, most of the principals today seem to be heavily occupied by routine administrative duties and do not appear to be adequately involved in instructional programming of their respective schools. It is probably for this reason that Abubakar (2001) observed that, the principals of kebbi state secondary schools are more of administrative managers than supervisors
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of instruction; and this could obviously hinder the successful implementation of school instructional program.
Furthermore, the academic performance of kebbi state secondary schools student in external examination such as (WAEC, NECO and JAMB etc) is not commiserating with the investment made in the secondary school by the state government. Like the May/June result of Government science secondary school, Yauri, the 2012 West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) shows that less than 15 per cent of candidates obtained credit passes in five subjects in the school, including English Language and Mathematics. The poor performance of the student may be attributed to the roles of the principals of secondary schools in kebbi state, on the other hand, it was reported that political interference in the appointment of principals to a large extent impacts on their overall performance and administrative competence. (Ozigi,1994). This necessitates the need to examine the roles of the principals in the management of some selected secondary schools (Kebbi state).
