AN ANALYSIS OF PRINCIPALS’ INTERVENTIONS FOR SCHOOL EFFECTIVENESS

Abstract

The study attempted to bring to light principals’ interventions for school effectiveness at the Government Secondary School level. The objectives of the study were to explore the current interventional role of government girls’ high school principals for identification of their strengths and weaknesses and to make recommendations for improving their interventional role for school effectiveness. The population of the study included 18 principals/headmistresses of government girls’ high schools, 270 senior teachers and all the 04 district level education officers (female). Of those 18 (100%) principals/headmistresses and 04(100%) female district level education officers were included in the sample. Moreover, 90 (33.3%) senior teachers were randomly selected for sampling reason being that total population of teachers could not be covered. The primary data were collected through structured interviews asked from female district level education officers. The interviews were based on 07 questions. An opionionnaire containing thirty-eight statements was handed over to principals and senior teachers. The relevant literature was reviewed, which provided indicators for development of tools. The data obtained were quantified and described. In order to measure the internal reliability of the opionionnaire, Cronbach’s Alpha Reliability Test was applied for estimating the reliability of the data. The value of Cronbach Alpha was 0.89, which indicated a high level of internal reliability. The Chi-Square Test of Association was also applied for checking the results to show association between the categories of principals’ and teachers’ statements. It showed that there were no significant differences in the responses of both principals’ and teachers’. The results revealed that principals could play more effective role for school effectiveness by developing clear vision; providing instructional feedback to teachers; effective monitoring and supervisory mechanism; setting a democratic environment conducive to teaching learning process and involving the stakeholders in decision- making. The results of the study further indicated that school effectiveness owed itself to capable principals, committed staff, non-political intervention, a procedure of incentives and disincentives, positive feedback to teachers and last, but not the least, a continuous instructional supervision to what happened in classroom. The recommendations for improving interventional role of principals required instructional supervision, commitment of teachers to the teaching profession and improved pedagogical skills of teachers as well as updating their own administrative and managerial skills.