Headteachers’ leadership styles and their influence on pupils Performance in public primary schools of central division, Mandera East district, Kenya

Abstract

The main objectives of this study are to investigate the relationship between the head teacher as a leader in influencing the students' academic performance outcomes in Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (KCPE) in public primary schools in central division of Mandera East District. Specifically the study intends to establish the types of leadership employed, investigate factors that contribute to effective leadership, to investigate to what extent leadership affects students’ performance and establish the challenges faced by head teachers as leaders in public primary schools in central division of Mandera East. The students' performance is chosen as a dependent variable in this study because of the importance of above average performance in our public primary schools system. Performance plays a strategic role, because a good performance in almost all subjects is a prerequisite to admission to secondary school education especially national schools. The independent variables in this study were school leadership, school infrastructure, and teacher competence. The literature review centers around the concept of leadership, and its influence on student performance. There is a strong indication that, effective leadership leads to high performance not only in academic but also in the social and community setup. Transactional and transformational style of leadership and how they influence performance have been reviewed. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population target was all the 37 head teachers of public primary schools in central Division of Mandera East District. The study respondents were head teachers, teachers and standard eight pupils. The study made use of a sample of 10 head teachers of KCPE schools, 50 teachers, and 200 standard eight pupils were chosen from the target population using stratified random sampling technique. Data was collected using questionnaires, documentary analysis and interview. Data was analyzed as per objectives using descriptive analysis such as frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviation through IBM SPSS 20.0. Data was presented using graphs, pie charts, and tables. Reports from open ended questions and interviews were analyzed through content analysis. The findings of this study were useful in policy formulation on the relationship between the head teachers and student’s performance at school level, District level as well as at the Ministry level. The study concludes that head teachers in public primary schools of Central Division, Mandera East District, Kenya use democratic leadership style and that it contributes to effective leadership in Public Primary schools of Central Division, Mandera East District, Kenya. It concludes that there are several challenges like overpopulation, and lack of enough facilities in school, inadequate number of teachers that face head teachers in public primary schools. It concludes that introduction of school based examination on a monthly basis and building more classrooms among others are coping strategies for the challenges identified. The study recommended that educational administrators should ensure that head teachers are given appropriate orientation before they are appointed as school heads or principals, education inspectors should also regularly monitor the administrative works of head teachers, head teachers should be made to go for managerial and in-service training to help improve their leadership skills.