ABSTRACT

The study examined Principals’ Administrative Skills for the Effective Management of Secondary Schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. Four research questions were answered and four null hypotheses formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The population was 4,308 principals and teachers which comprises 258 principals and 4,050 teachers. A sample size for the research was 520 principals and teachers. This comprises 156 principals and 364 teachers in Anambra. Taro Yamane mathematical model was used to determine the sample size of the study. A sampling fraction of 0.2 was used to multiply the population of the study of each strata to obtain the sample size of each state. Data for the study was collected using researcher’s developed questionnaire titled Principals’ Administrative Skills Survey questionnaire (PASSQ). The instruments were validated by two experts from the Department of Educational Management and one expert from the Department of Science Education all from MOUAU. The reliability of the instruments was determined using Cronbach Alpha Method which yielded an alpha of 0.64 which were considered reliable. Data were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions while t-test analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that instructional leadership skills of principals has an influence on effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State, that supervisory skills of principals has an influence on effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. The study recommends amongst others that principals should keep track of their students' academic progress as well as their attitudes toward learning. This can be accomplished by creating learner monitoring systems in which all major stakeholders, namely the principal, teachers, parents, and the student council work effectively together. Stakeholders should devise a system and ensure that it is consistent and effective. This will aid in the restoration and maintenance of discipline in the school, allowing for a healthy learning culture as well as optimal teaching and effective secondary school management.