Principals Managerial Competence as A Correlate Of Students’ Academic Performance In Ecwa Secondary Schools In North Central Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness and competency of principals of ECWA Secondary Schools in North Central Geo-political zone of Nigeria and how well they were professionally trained in School administration. It was also to find out how effective the training in-service was implemented in order to develop Principals and staff professional competency. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of research were employed in order to establish how competent the principals were in their leadership role, the officials of the ECWA Education Department were interviewed and questionnaire administered in 15 ECWA Secondary Schools on 20 teachers in each school in the North Central Geo-political zone. The study found out that most ECWA Secondary School principals, though educated in other fields, were not professionally competent in school administration and planning. Also, principals’ managerial competence had a negative relationship (-0.02) with students performance in ECWA secondary schools. It was therefore recommended that Principal of ECWA Secondary schools should be trained professionally in education administration. They should improve in the teaching-learning process in schools, as well as ensure that the factors that led to student poor performance in external examination should be investigated.

Keywords: Principal, Management, Competence, Secondary schools