HEADMASTERS’ COMPETENCES AND THE MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background to the Study

Education is the organized systematic and conscious behavior by which a society transmits its culture through teachers to learners. The need for educational system in Nigeria is the acquisition of appropriate knowledge, skills and competencies to contribute to the development of the Nigerian society.

Management is an integral part of any organization. The survival of any organization is dependent largely on the quality of management or administrative services available. The administrative of secondary school is concerned with systematic arrangement of human and material resources and programmes that are available for education and carefully using them systematically within defined guidelines or policies to achieve educational goals.

The principal is the administrator in the secondary school. He or she has the responsibility of administering the school programmes to achieve the expected teaching and learning objectives. They are those who carry out or implement policies and programmes as soon as, and after they are formulated by educational managers.

The school is an organization administered by an educational administrator. Educational administration is the application of the various principles and theories of management or organization to education, aimed at the enhancement of teaching and learning (Peretomode, 1991).

The principals of secondary school in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area are concerned with the administration of the schools, that is, implementation of educational policies and programmes in schools within the zone. The ultimate aim of the principals is the improvement of teaching and learning. In the course of performing this onerous task, the principals may sometimes be faced with some administrative problems that may affect the implementation of planned strategies which includes management of school personnel, management of school finance, and management of community-school relation and management of school plant. Maintenance of discipline in the school judicious management of resources and providing effect supervision.

Headmasters’ Competences and the Management Problems in Primary Schools

In order to achieve the above aims, Akpan (1994) made it clear that the administrator must adopt a management style, develops an organizational structure, plans and executes an overall strategy for the content and delivery of instruction; plans for an controls the fiscal resources necessary, and plans for and controls the personnel resources to Staff Education Programmes.

For the school principals to perform the above tasks effectively, there should be little or no constraints. An ideal environment and the competences of principals of secondary school are what is required for effective performance. But in secondary schools in Oruk Anam Local Government Area, the reverse is the case. This is due to the fact that school principals find it difficult to manage the above administrative problems effectively.

It is therefore the intention of this research work to find out influence of principals competences on the management of administrative problems in secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

Any careful observer of the school system in Nigeria and in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area in particular may agree that education is no more what it used to be. Today, the educational establishment is fraught with such administrative problems as lack of proper management of school resources, ineffective supervision of school personnel and lack of maintenance of discipline.

Poor management of these administrative storms in our schools has resulted in the emergence of many social vices in the school system. Each year examination malpractice is gaining sophistications in different dimensions and has become a way of life in our school system. The issue of cultism is another serious social vice that is destroying the school system.

The questions that bother my mind are: Does the principals’ resourcefulness influence management of school resources?

Do the Headmasters’ administrative styles influence the management of school discipline? The problem of the study is therefore to investigate headmasters’ competencies and management of administrative problems in secondary schools in Nsit Ibom Local Government Area.

Headmasters’ Competences and the Management Problems in Primary Schools

1.3       Purpose of the Study

1. To determine whether principals’ administrative styles influence the maintenance of school discipline.
2. To determine whether principals’ resourcefulness influence the management of school resources.
3. To determine whether principals’ supervision competency influence the management of teaching leaning in schools.
   

   Headmasters’ Competences and the Management Problems in Primary Schools

Originally posted on April 21, 2021 @ 3:43 pm