ABSTRACT

 The study investigated principals’ conflict management procedures as correlates of students' academic achievement in public secondary schools in South East, Nigeria. Nine research questions and nine hypotheses guided the study. The accessible population of the study was 27,969, consisting of 1,420 principals and 26,549 teachers from the secondary schools in the five states of South East, Nigeria. A sample of 1,028 respondents consisting of 44 secondary school principals and 984 teachers were selected using 5% of the population. Two sets of structured questionnaire were developed to collect data. The first questionnaire titled: Principals Conflict Management Procedures Questionnaire (PCMPQ) while The 'Students Grade Chart' (SGC) was used to collect the score of the students in the West African Examination Council SSCE in English language and mathematics. Data generated through test re-test were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and Cronbach Alpha to determine the internal consistency of the questionnaire items which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.81 and 0.73 (PCMPQ). Data were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient to answer the research questions and linear regression to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that there was a high extent of correlation between leadership style of the principals’ and students academic performance in public secondary schools. The study showed that there was a high correlation between communication network and students’ academic performance in public secondary schools. The study indicated that there was a high extent of correlation between motivation of teachers' and students' academic performance in public secondary schools. Some of the recommendations made include; that the school authorities must consider leadership styles, the principals motivation of teachers, boarding issues among others for the schools to achieve high academic performance. Principals should ensure adequate communication network so as to provide conducive school environment that have good climate for better academic performance and government should endeavor to motivate teachers so as to enable them put in their best in teaching for better academic performance.