IMPACT OF ADMINISTRATIVE STYLES OF SECONDARY SCHOOL HEADS ON TEACHERS’ PERFORMANCE IN NWFP

Abstract

The major objective of the research study was to identify the administrative styles used by the heads of institutions and their impact on teachers’ performance at secondary level in NWFP. Ten districts out of twenty four districts were selected on the basis of law and order situation as identified by the concerned provincial department. There were a total of 666 Government Secondary Schools randomly selected in the ten sampled districts of NWFP and of these 133 Government Secondary Schools (20%) of the population were taken as a sample for the study. All the heads of 133 sampled Government Secondary Schools were taken as a sample which included 100 Government Boys Secondary Schools out of which 17 were urban and 83 rural, and 33 Government Girls Secondary Schools out of which 11 were urban and 22 rural using proportional allocation balancing gender and urban rural status. 430 teachers teaching Physics, Chemistry, Biology and English to class X were also taken as a sample, on random basis. Two questionnaires, one for the heads of institutions (male and female) and the other for teachers teaching the subjects of Physics, Chemistry, Biology & English to class X, were designed to carry out this research study. All the heads were requested to respond about their own administrative style. 430 teachers of the sampled government secondary schools also responded about the administrative styles of their respective heads of institutions. The questionnaires and the result proformas were handed over to the heads of institutions personally for providing class X results of the sampled teachers in respective subjects and administering the questionnaires to the teachers. The responses of the heads, teachers, and SSC results for two years i.e. 2007-08 & 2008-09 for class X were tabulated, expressed in terms of frequencies, percentages, mean scores, standard deviation, t-test and correlation coefficient were used to find out the administrative styles and their impact on teachers’ performance. There was a high correlation (p value ˂ 0.001) between the responses of the heads of institutions and respective teachers for determination of administrative styles (p value ˂ 0.005). It has been concluded that results of schools under democratic administrative style are significantly higher than the other two styles. Therefore, democratic administrative style has positive impact on overall performance of teachers. The subject-wise performance of the teachers in urban as well as rural area schools is better (p value 0.019) under democratic atmosphere than autocratic or laissez faire. The major findings of the study were that, there was no significant (p value ˃ 0.586) difference in overall results of the schools as regards the qualification and experience of schools heads. There was a significant difference (p value ˂ 0.005) in overall performance of the schools heads and subject-wise results of teachers. The female heads and teachers showed better performance (p value ˂ 0.001). There was also a significant difference (p value 0.019) in overall results of school as well as subject-wise results of teachers between urban and rural schools. The results of urban areas were significantly better (p value 0.019). Moreover, a significant difference (p value ˂ 0.001) was found in average subject-wise results of the teachers performing under different administrative styles. The views of the heads of institutions were cross checked through teachers’ opinions. It is recommended that measures may be taken to bring the performance of rural urban schools at par by providing necessary inputs to be identified after a study. Since democratic administrative style has been shown to result in better performance of teachers and heads, the heads of institutions may be given intensive training in this style. In-service courses in assessment techniques may be arranged for the secondary school teachers to raise the achievement level of students through feedback.