Yakubu Ibrahim Umar

Abstract: Good leadership is the major factor in the determination of the success and progress of an educational institution. Technical colleges are regarded as the key vocational institutions in Nigeria, they give full vocational training intended to prepare students for entry into various occupations. These institutions are headed by principals whose management or leadership style will enable him/her to evolve most effective way to realize the goals of the school and that of individual members of the school. Many concerned people in Nigeria have expressed their uncertainty about the quality of instruction given to students, the fall in standard of education the problem of examination malpractice, indiscipline of many kinds, moral laxity and so on. Experts in education also complained of lack of effective handling of resources available in order to provide the needed services, increase in the failure rate of students in the public examinations, dearth of instructional or learning materials and general low morale of personnel. Consequently blames have been apportioned by some parents to principals of technical colleges in connection to poor performance and behaviors of students in and outside the schools. Therefore, there is need to question strategies currently being adopted by the principals for managing technical colleges in Northern Nigeria going by complains from various stakeholders for non-performance. This study was therefore designed to identify (a) management of instructional program by the principals in government technical colleges in Northern Nigeria, (b) financial/physical resources management of principals in government technical colleges in Northern Nigeria, (c) staff-personnel administrative practices of principals in government technical colleges in Northern Nigeria, (d) student-personnel administrative practices of principals in government technical colleges in Northern Nigeria, (e) school-community relationship management practices of principals in government technical colleges m Northern Nigeria, and (f) leadership styles of principals in government technical colleges in Northern Nigeria. The study was carried out in 8 federal technical colleges and 30 states technical colleges located in federal capital territory. Abuja and 14 Northern states of Nigeria. A mixed-method design involving a descriptive survey, interview and observation was adopted for the study. A total of 352 teaching staff including principals were randomly sampled and stratified along states in Northern Nigeria, out of 677 teaching staff. A structured questionnaire; interview guide and observation checklist were used for data collection. The survey and observation data were collected by the researcher and research assistants while interview data was collected by the-researcher using face to face and telephone interview.

The reliability coefficient of the questionnaire was determined to be 905 using Cronbach’s alpha method while 6 experts from 5 different institutions validated the instruments used for the study. Six research questions and 6-hypotheses tested at 05 level of significance guided the study. Data obtained were analyzed using SPSS version 16 software. Frequency count, mean, standard deviation and ranking were employed to answer research questions, while one way analysis of variance (ANOVA). Tukey HSD, and independent sample txest were used to test the hypotheses. The result of data analysis indicated that:

1. There was no significant difference {p<.Q5) in the views expressed by the respondents on how principals manage the instructional programs ii) technical colleges with respect to experience of the principal.

2. There was no significant difference (p<-Q5) in views expressed by the respondents on how principals manage financial/physical resources in technical colleges with respect to qualification of the principal.

3. There was a significant relationship (p<05) in the views expressed by the respondents on how principal execute staff-personnel administrative practices in technical colleges with respect to principals age. Principals -in the medium age group (41-50years) had influence on other principals classified as high age group (51-60years).

4. The independent sample t-test did not show any significant difference (p<.05) in the views expressed by respondents in the state and federal technical colleges on student-personnel administrative practices of principals, school-community relationship management practices adopted by the principals, and leadership styles used by the principals.

Based on the findings, it was recommended that: government should support appropriate strategies used by the principals, administrators of technical colleges should not appoint principals strictly on experience and qualification after meeting the minimum requirement. administrators should appoint principals of middle age (41-50years) as they appeared to execute staff-personnel administrative practices better, principal should always involve staff in budget preparation, principal should sought alternative sources of funding through investment in profit making ventures like agriculture, principals should be involved it the recruitment of academic and non-academic staff by the administrator of technical colleges. Principal should continue to involve P. T. A members m planning the welfare of students as this as proved to be the major link of the schools to the community and that principal should engage in the use of leadership styles that are beneficial to the system like democratic leadership style among others.

Key words: evaluation, leadership, management, principal technical college

总 结：

1、优秀的领导是决定所有教育机构成功和进步的主要因素。技术学院是尼日利亚的重点职业院校,他们能够给将来要从事各行各业的学生以充分的职业培训。这些院校校长的管理、领导风格使他们能找到最有效的方式来了解学校的目标以及每个学校成员的目标,并将其实现。

2、本文旨在确定(a)北尼日利亚的政治技术学校校长的教学管理；(b)北尼日利亚的政治技术学校校长的金融物资管理；(c)北尼日利亚的政治技术学校校长的全体员工的行政实践；(d)北尼日利亚的政府技术学校校长的学生、全体员工的行政实践,(e)北尼日利亚的政府技术学校校长的学校社区关系管理实施；(f)北尼日利亚的政府技术学校校长的领导风格。

3、调查问卷分为2部分。第一部分是问卷回答者的一些基本信息,包括学校名手,职位,性别,最高学历,教学/行政年限以及年龄。第二部分又根据调査问题的标号分为很多小节,它包含了 78个项目,覆盖了整个调查。

4、为了能够对技术学校的校长地管理作进一步的研究.本文又研究了以下几个课题:1.北尼3利IE公立技术学校的管理实施；2北尼日利亚公立技术学校的校长的管理实施对教师表现的影响；3北尼日利亚公立技术学校的对参与组织的有效管理措施；4对比在州和在联邦技术学校的校长地管理措施；5北尼日利亚中心的技术学校的校长地管理措施对于学生的学术成就所造成的影响。

来源：Yakubu Ibrahim Umar  Vocational Education Major西南大学博士学位论文 2012年4月