ABSTRACT
This study was designed to develop and validate Leadership Skill Inventory (LSI) for principals of Mission schools in South East, Nigeria. The study employed an instrumentation research design. A systematic sample of two hundred and five (205) principals of mission secondary schools in South East was used. Five research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. Data were collected using a draft copy of the Principal Leadership Skill Inventory. Data collected were subjected to construct validation using factor analysis with varimax rotation for purpose of establishing the psychometric properties of the LSI. Thirty-two out of sixty items attained acceptance minimum factor loading of 0.35 on five factors .The factors represented the sub-scales of Principal leadership skill inventory as, Administration, Welfare, Instruction, Communication, and Discipline. Test of internal consistency using Cronbach Alpha showed that the overall reliability index of 32 items of LSI is 0.91.The influence of some independent variables – gender, job experience and school location on LSI were determined using the mean and standard deviation.Data analyzed showed that the ratings of principals on all the sub-scales of LSI were similar in magnitude and distribution pattern, and had minor standard deviations close to their mean across the variables. The three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance,while the hypotheses of no significant differences in the mean responses of respondents with regard to gender, job experience and school location on all the sub-scales of LSI were not rejected. The results showed that leadership skill inventory can be used with confidence by all categories of the principals of mission secondary schools and cannot be discriminated on the ground of gender, job experience and school location. The leadership skill inventory is recommended for use by principals of mission schools to achieve success in their schools; and the inventory can also be used by school boards to appoint principals and train school administrators in leadership skills.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Leadership of mission schools which are owned and managed by the church before the government take-over of schools in 1970 had a culture of moral goodness, academic excellence and hard work. Today, the leadership skills for mission schools to continue in the culture of leadership excellence are lacking in many principals selected without an inventory in leadership skill; and there is ugly situation in the leadership of some mission schools. Leadership is an indispensable tool in the school system because of its far-reaching effects on the accomplishment of educational goals .Leadership is a social influencing process for the attainment of goals (Nwachukwu, 1988). It is seen here as the ability to obtain and influence followers through a process in order to attain specific goals and not as an ability to maintain a position. Leadership has obvious characteristics of no universally accepted definition, Peretomode (1992), in his survey of leadership theories, opined that there are almost as many different definitions of leadership as there are persons who have attempted to define the concept. Researchers conceive leadership from a varying theoretical and practical aspects which range from skill to behaviour exchanges. But in the long run varying conceptions of leadership from different researchers tend to converge at a point where leadership could be generalized to mean the same thing.
The leadership of schools are responsible for ensuring that schools meet their objective in an effective and most efficient way. Principals are the leaders who provide direction, guide group activities and make sure that the goals of the schools are achieved (Ogbonnaya, 2003). But leadership incompetence and poor academic achievement characterize some mission secondary schools. This occurs as a result of appointing principals without any available inventory in leadership skill for selection of competent principals. There is paucity of principal leadership skill inventory for the Missions to use in the appointment and leadership training of principals. This has become a problem that developing and validating an inventory in leadership skill for appointing and training skilled principals is paramount
The modern trend in leadership introduced two major concepts of leadership style:- transformational and transactional leadership styles (MacGregor, 1992). Transformational leader motivates followers to serve and achieve set out goals; he is like a teacher, mentor, and coach to the followers: whereas his leadership brings positive influence on the superiors, peers or subordinates, the transactional leader seeks to influence others by exchanging work for salary and his interest is not on the workers’ welfare. Leaders are not marked out for leadership from the womb, a view many people have traditionally taken. However, the modern view is that through education and hard work one can acquire leadership skills that smoothen their path towards inevitable success. The success of a school depends on how skillful the leader
is in a specific content. There are certain skills that are used in school leadership. The researcher views leadership skill inventory as the list of skills that make for effective leadership. An inventory of this sort exists to help identify the skills leaders have used or could use, identify the ones they would like to acquire in the future and highlight patterns of skills for effectiveness of leadership function. Leadership skill inventory allows a school administrator to take accurate inventory of their skills, to prioritize skills according to level of interest, and then to assess their proficiencies.
The principals need be well equipped for their function in the secondary school system irrespective of their gender, job experience and location of school. These variables are important but not at equivalent level with the necessary skills needed for leadership function. Leaders who have the requisite training, qualification, knowledge, skill and experience have been acknowledged as better managers or administrators than their counterparts who have no adequate training and experience (Adesina, 1981). This notion seems to stress that better school administrators with requisite skill could be appointed using the leadership skill inventory. The personality trait of a school leader appears to influence leadership skill inventory (LSI). Variables such as job experience and location of school may produce influence for the synergy that can actualize leadership excellence in the use of leadership skills. An important variable as gender is not major issue here given that an individual exercises leadership function well whether male or female (Nwosu, 1984).
An important instrument as leadership skill inventory should be stable across variables. However, a research instrument of this type must take into consideration two essential ingredients of a sound instrument – the degree to which the test measures the qualities, abilities, skills and information which it is designed to measure – validity (Green and Jorgenson, 1929), and the degree of consistency between two measures of the same thing-reliability (Mehrens and Lehmann, 1991). The stability of an instrument of this type across these variables need be determined in consideration of their influence on the leadership skill of the principals.
Leadership in secondary education and all other levels of education determines the rising or falling of education. What a principal as the leader does or fails to do could make or mar the progress of his institution (Adesina, 1980). Macgregor (2000), Agugbuem (2002), Oyebade (1999) and Sobowale (2000) all agreed that there is a fall in the quality and standard of education in our public secondary schools. Secondary education is meant for children that are between the age of 12 to 17 in different forms of secondary schools – mission, private and public. Mission secondary schools are those schools that are owned, administered and managed by the Church.
Missions were solely in the management of secondary schools before government take-over of some schools in 1970. Missions were first to introduce western education in Nigeria during the colonial era. The government started at the take-over of mission schools in 1970 to manage and administer the schools; but it seems that various governments in Nigeria have hardly shown any willingness to invest significantly in education, Now education with its subsequent cost becomes more tasking with sophisticated learning materials and skilled manpower. Governments in South Eastern Nigeria apparently have not adequately promoted conducive environment by erection of new school buildings, provision of equipment and other facilities in the face of dilapidated ones. Consequently, public secondary schools in South Eastern Nigeria are by this condition regarded as dumping ground for the poor and less privileged (Onah, 2004). Public secondary schools appear to be missing their students whose parents and guardians show a lot of concern about their progress and welfare by taking them out of these schools to get them enrolled into mission secondary schools which are characterized by a culture of discipline, obedience, and hard work, as attributed by good leadership. It seems a popular choice even among the poor these days for parents to enroll their children and wards in mission schools. It is also believed that mission schools can impart in the students the training, virtues, and security which are disappearing from public/other secondary schools. The understanding of good leadership situation of mission schools before 1970 has made some people clamour that the government who took over the mission schools in 1970 should hand over schools formerly owned by the church back to the Church. It was observed from the submission in the memorandum for the return of schools to the missions that moral education has disappeared in the public schools (Church of Nigeria, Anglican Communion, 2000). Some schools however were returned back to mission in South Eastern Nigeria. States in other political zones for example, the Lagos State government during 2001/2002 academic year handed over schools back to missions (Adeogun and Aigboje, 2005). Missions should appoint skilled school leaders to run their schools. As such, it is obvious that developing an inventory in leadership skill for appointment and training of school leaders could help to bring competent and proficient school leaders in the leadership and management of mission schools.
In the context of school system, leadership does not exist for itself, rather it exists for the staff and students and its efficacy must be measured by the extent to which it contributes to teaching and learning (Bolaji, 1990). This entails that the entire activities of the school system can be positively affected and administered by an effective leader. Leadership becomes highly effective by acquiring skills, experience as well as the leader’s general understanding and interpretation of life. The enquiries made by the researcher at the Diocesan Education Boards of some Roman Catholic and Anglican Dioceses, State School Boards in April, 2009, showed that appointment of principals for mission schools is based more on Church faith rather than educational qualification and experience, and the State School Boards use salary grade level 15 and above, academic qualification and experience as the criteria for appointment of principals for public schools. Infact the enquiries revealed that
there is paucity of inventory in leadership skill (LSI) for promotion and appointment exercise for the missions and state school boards.
The government of some states in South East began to administer and manage secondary schools after taking over secondary schools from missions in 1970. The promotion and appointment of principals and training of teachers and principals for leadership appear to be porous by political influence resulting to disciplinary problem, poor academic achievement and leadership incompetence in some schools. This is in contrast to the good image and situation of moral, academic and leadership of mission schools before 1970. Most churches now have schools which are opened by them after 1970 with schools that are now returned to them by the government for effective leadership and management. Hence, churches recommend and appoint church leaders’ favorites as principals for their schools without considering their skills in leadership.
