Role of Principals’ Instructional Leadership Practices on Learners’ Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Baringo County, Kenya

Abstract

The quality of education is enhanced by the level of desired instructional leadership which in turn advances the level of instructional activities resulting in improved student learning. For a school to attain success it is imperative that instructional leadership is put into focus. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of principals’ instructional leadership practices on learners’ academic achievement in public secondary schools in Baringo County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were: To examine principals’ instructional leadership practices implemented by principals to enhance academic achievement of learners in schools; To establish the impact of school principals’ instructional leadership practices on learners’ academic performance in schools; To determine the strategies that ought to be adopted by school principals so as to improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning in schools; To establish the obstacles that hamper school principals from practicing instructional leadership practices in schools. The study was guided by systems theory which emphasized that the success of every institution depends on the contribution of each of the teams involved (parts). The target population of this study was 6901 Form Four students, 1266 teachers, and 140 principals, during the 2017-2020 school years, 6 Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards officers (SCQASOs) and one County Director of Education (CDE). The study adopted descriptive survey research design. Stratified random sampling technique was applied to sample 30% of each of the categories of the study populations. The sample consisted of 2,070 students, 380 teachers and 42 school principals. Six Sub-County Quality Assurance and Standards Officers were selected through purposive sampling method. The research instruments for this study were questionnaires for students, teachers and principals and semi-structured interview guides for education officers. The validity of the research instruments was determined by consulting supervisors and experts in the department while Pearson’s product moment coefficient was computed to test for reliability of the research instruments. The reliability value of the research instruments was 0.819. Data was analyzed with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS, version 23). The quantitative statistics used included frequencies, means, percentages and standard deviations and the results presented using tables and charts. Qualitative data were thematically clustered in relation to the objectives of the study. The study found out that principals gave less emphasis on the elements of class-visits(53%), inspection and approval of teachers’ lesson plans (68%), inspection and approval of teachers’ lesson notes (62%) and inspection and approval of students’ lesson notes (57%). The study revealed that principals’ instructional leadership activities strongly impacts on learners’ academic performance. It was established that the strategies of encouraging and facilitating workshops for teachers (60%) and modeling of good instruction (60%) were lowly adopted by school principals. The study found that the dominant obstacles of instructional leadership activities were inadequate educational infrastructure (4.8), big class sizes and overburdened teachers (4.7). The study concluded that principals were not up to date in their mandate since they gave less emphasis on some key issues such as: class-visits, inspection and approval of teachers’ lesson plans, inspection and approval of teachers’ lesson notes and inspection and approval of students’ lesson notes. It was also concluded that principals’ instructional leadership activities strongly impacts on learners’ academic performance. The strategies of encouraging and facilitating workshops for teachers and modeling of good instruction were lowly adopted by principals The main impediments to principals’ instructional leadership practices include inadequate educational infrastructure, big class sizes and overburdened teachers. The study recommended that principals should be thorough in their instructional leadership responsibility by undertaking all it takes to ensure that teachers are up to date in their preparation and delivery of content; principals should prioritize and put the most focus of elements of instructional leadership that impact student learning so as to constantly improve learners’ performance. Principals should allocate budgets and resources to finance teachers to attend workshops and seminars. School principals in liaison with relevant entities should ensure that schools are adequately provided with sufficient teaching and learning resources; School principals should make an effort to construct more classrooms in schools in order to reduce the big class sizes and overcrowding in the classrooms. The findings of this study are expected to contribute to the body of knowledge on instructional leadership and its impact on learners’ academic performance as well as providing insights and recommendations to educators, policy makers, and administrators on how to improve instructional leadership in educational institutions.