Leadership Roles Influence on Academic Achievements of Secondary School Students in Minna Metropolis of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study, investigated the influence of leadership roles on secondary school students’ academic performance in Minna metropolis in Niger State. It explored the commonly used leadership role, and benchmark practices on leadership roles that can lead to students’ academic performance and to establish the relationship between school heads’ leadership roles and student’s academic performance. This study employed cross sectional survey research design whereby data were collected through questionnaires. The data collected were analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software. Chi- square test T-test was employed in testing association between leadership roles and student’s academic performance. The findings established that democratic leadership roles mostly influence students’ academic achievement/performance (R-value was 0.932), implying that there is a strong and positive influence and significant at p=0.004 level of democratic leadership roles on students’ academic achievement. For Laissez-faire leadership role, the relationship revealed negative influence on students’ academic performance and was very weak (R-value of 0.1) and not significant (p=0.072). Autocratic leadership roles, although the relationship was very strong (R=0.546, the relationship was insignificant with p value = 0.08. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that educational administrators should ensure that principals are given appropriate orientations before they are appointed as school heads. And, principals are asked to use more democratic leadership role if they want students to achieve or excel good academic performance.