Principals’ Management Support Practices for Enhancing Teachers’ Performance in Secondary Schools in Nigeria

Nwite Onuma

Abstract:

This paper investigated principal’s management support practices for enhancing teachers’ performance in secondary schools in Nigeria. The study adopted the survey research design, the population comprised all the principals and teachers in public secondary schools in Ebonyi State totaling 5,083 (221 principals and 4862 teachers) out of which a sample of 1803 respondents were selected using propionate random sampling techniques. A structured questionnaire “Principals’ Management Support Practice (PMSPQ) and Teachers’ view on Management Support Practices Questionnaire (TVMSPQ) were the instruments used for data collection. The four research questions were answered using mean score statistics while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using z-test. The result of data analysis showed that most school principals lacked supervisory skills and as a result entrusted academic supervision in the hands of external supervisors. Most principals feel reluctant to endorse in-service training for their teachers and teachers in turn hid their pursuit for higher degree from principals for fear of victimization. The result on motivation and welfare of teachers showed no significant difference in the mean ratings of both the principals and teachers. The findings will be beneficial to educational policy makers, school principals, teachers and researchers. Specifically, the school principals will be in position to use the findings as a guide in building a better, more efficient and result-oriented school environment that can facilitate higher teacher performance. In the light of the findings, recommendations were made