COMPLETE SCHOOL PROJECT TOPICS & MATERIALS :
CHAPTERS: Chapter 1-5
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ABSTRACT
This study assessed principals’ leadership styles on the management of Federal Unity Colleges in North-Central Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria. Seven research questions were formulated and seven null hypotheses were stated and tested to answer the research questions. The research design adopted was descriptive survey carried out ex post facto. The study population schools comprised all the 24 Unity Schools in the Zone. Out of this population, a sample of 12 Unity Schools was taken and selected through the systematic sampling technique. Out of the 2,345 staff (including principals) in the sampled schools, a sample size of 245staff was selected using stratified proportional random sampling techniques. The sample size was made up of 36 management staff (including principals), 132 academic staff and 77 non-academic staff.For the data collection, only the primary data collection technique was used by the researcher. Questionnaire was given to sample schools in order to get needed data. The seven null hypotheses were tested using one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) to determine the difference in the opinions of the management staff, academic staff and non-academic staff. From the findings of this study, three hypotheses were retained while four were refused to be retained. It was, however, discovered that principals in the study area commonly adopted autocratic and nomothetic leadership styles in performing their leadership role in the Colleges against democratic, idiographic and transformational leadership styles. On this basis, the researcher recommended that autocratic style, nomothetic style and laissez- faire style are not suitable in the school environment rather democratic style, idiographic style and transformational style should be encouraged. Finally, the Federal Ministry of Education should rescued the various colleges in the study area by providing training and re-training, give room to further studies, organise refresher courses,workshop and seminars for principals on effective leadership styles in the school system so as to strengthen their professional competences and enhance their efficiency in the management of their schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education in Nigeria is an instrument for effecting National Development. The country‟s educational goals have been set out in the National Policy on Education (NPE) in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individual and the society (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013). Towards this end, the NPE sets up certain aims and objectives which were to facilitate educational development in the Country. In fostering these aims and objectives, the school Principals have important roles to play. Among these roles is to provide Effective Leadership in secondary schools, thereby enhancing better job performance among staff and improving the academic performance of their students. How effective the Principal is in performing this role has been a matter of concern to many educationists (Olubadewo, 1992; Aghenta, 2000; Ige, 2001). It needs to be mentioned that Federal Government Colleges (Secondary Schools Education) in Nigerian schools are for a period of 6-years and for students who had successfully completed the Basic 1 to 6 education programme and passed the Federal Common Entrance Exams conduct by National Examination Council (NECO). Admissions to these schools were based on the quota system, making it representative throughout the country (Akpa&Udoh, 2004).
It is therefore not surprising that there is a mounting pressure on effective leadership among Principals of Federal Unity Colleges in Nigeria. It seems however that many Principals have not considered their styles of leadership as determinants of staffs‟ job performance in their schools. Hence, some of them seem to find it difficult to effectively administer their schools (Gronn, 2000; Adeyemi, 2004). As such, leadership style occupies an important position in school management in Federal Unity Schools, Nigeria. The Principal is in a unique position as the manager or administrator who controls schools‟ resources for the purpose of attaining organisational goals.
Today, there are 104 Federal Government Colleges cut across the six Geo-political zones in Nigeria. Although since independence, according to Fafunwa (2004), “Education in Nigeria has been recognized as a veritable tool for socio-economic and political changes in the country, resulting to greater part of the national budget accrued to the sector. Yet the rate of performance in the sector is decline”. The gradual decline in performance of the educational sector as an industry in the process of socio-economic and political development of Nigeria, according to Okeke (1986) “is as a result of different issues and problems whose roots can easily be traced to leadership in efficiency”. This revelation receives high support from Ovwigho (2006), Tijjani&Shehu (2007),Igunnu (2008) andMaina (2008)who unanimously affirmed that “the main problem of Education in the 21st Century is Leadership”. This of course had made leadership education of recent to be the most fascinating and highly discussed aspect of educational administration in Nigeria.
Many studies on leadership have attempted to understand what makes a leader effective. Are leadership skills born with the people? Or can they be taught and learnt from the characteristics of effective leaders?Or does leadership depend entirely on the situation? What personal characteristics distinguish leaders from non-leaders? What leadership behaviours distinguish effective leaders from non-effective leaders? What role do followers play in leadership? Is each leader equally suited to influence all types of followers? What role does the context or situation play with respect to leadership? Do all situations involving group effort require leadership? This of course, prompts Nwachukwu (2004) to reveal that “of all the hazy and compounding areas in social psychology, a leadership studies undoubtedly contends for top nomination”. He however added that “more had been written and less known about the concept of leadership”. It is on this regard therefore, that management scientists since the beginning of 21st Century became curious on developing a dependable solution to the question of: who a distinct leader is, his traits and styles of leadership in order to resolve high pending issues of administrative inefficiency in a productive and competitive society.
Differentials in perceptions on leadership studies by different management scientists such as Adesina (1990), Harvart (1997), Nwachukwu (2004), Ngu (2005), Creighton(2004), Demmock&Walkeer (2005), Hoyte (2002), Snowden & Gorton (2002), Obamiro (2011), and Lunenburg & Ornstein (2012) among others gave rise to diverse views on the concept such as, that leadership can be perceived as: a set of personality characteristics; the exercise of influence;afocus on group process; the act of inducing compliance;an act or behaviour;a form of persuasion;an effect of interaction; an instrument of goal achievement;differentials in roles; or the initiation of structures.
It is fallacious to assume that all leaders will behave the same to subordinates or subjects in all situations in an organization. In fact, some leaders may be found utilizing their authority or trait in most extreme cases while others may tend to be moderate as upheld by Ngu(2005). Therefore, each leader develops his own styles of leadership or motivating his staff depending on his philosophy of management. According to Barbara (2005), “a mark of a good Principal is to be able to provide consistent motivation to staff and students, encouraging them to attain excellence and quality in their performance. A good Principal is always looking for ways to improve job performance and the academic standards in a school”. One would be left with such questions as: What is the best leadership style in a school system? What is the common leadership style of Principal in a school?Are all leadership styles suitable for school management? In attempt to provide viable responses to the above questions, the focus might be an assessment of various principals‟ leadership stylesin the school. Indeed, the aim of this research work is to provide an objective answer to issues ofprincipals‟ leadership styleson the management ofFederal Unity Colleges in Nigeria using an instrument titled = Questionnaire on Assessment of Principals‟ Leadership Stylesin the Management of Federal Unity Colleges in North-Central Geo-Political Zone, Nigeria.