Influence of Principals’ Leadership Styles on Public Secondary School Students Academic Performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.A Case of Narok South Sub -County,Kenya

Abstract

Leadership is an important aspect innation-building. In schools, the principal’s leadership style often has massive influence on the student’s performance in examinations. The main aim of the study was to examine the influence of selected leadership styles of principals on student’s academic performance in Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education in public secondary schools in Narok South Sub- County in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were; to establish the influence of democratic leadership style, autocratic leadership style and Laissez- Faire leadership styles on KCSE performance among public secondary schools in Narok South Sub County. The study adopted descriptiveresearch design. The design was suitable because the independent variable which was principals’ leadership styles and the dependent variable which was KCSE examinations were already in place. The study targeted the 13 public secondary schools in Narok South Sub- County, who had presented candidates for KCSE examination for the last 5 years. The schools have a total population of 193 teachers and 13 principals. This study used both purposive and simple random sampling methods to select the sample. All the 13 principals were considered for the study while 130 teachers were considered. Two sets of instruments were used; questionnaires for the teachers and an interview guide for the principals. Data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings of this study revealed that most of the principals either used Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-faire leadership styles. It was also established that all the leadership styles showed a positive influence with performance in the school but most principals used the democratic leadership style that involves the teachers and other stake holders at all levels. This was followed by autocratic leadership which had a positive correlation with performance but its influence was insignificant. The study also found that though Laissez- faire leadership style had a positive influence with performance but it did not have a significant influence on academic performance of the learners in public secondary schools. The multiple regression model revealed that a combination of the three selected leadership styles has a significant and positive influence with academic performance of learners. It was further noted that democratic leadership had the highest influence on the performance of the learner’s in national examinations. The study concluded that democratic leadership was the most appropriate among the principals in the Sub-County because it showed both a positive and very significant influence with student’s academic performance. This implies that democratic leadership style influences the academic performance of learners in KCSE. The study also concluded that autocratic leadership and Laissez-faire leadership styles are known among the principals. However, they were not commonly used in school administration because they did significantly influence the academic performance of the students. The study recommends that Principals should adopt the democratic leadership styles because it has a very significant influence on students KCSE performance. The study also recommended that principals who may want to use either autocratic leadership or Laissez-faire leadership style should combine with another leadership style for better results. This is because the multiple regression models revealed a very significant and positive influence between academic performance and a combined leadership style. Based on the study findings it is expected that the results shall be able to address the gaps in the literature between the various leadership styles and the performance of the learners in the final examinations. The study recommends that a further study be conducted to find out how principals can effectively integrate the various leadership styles to get the best out of them.