Head Teachers Leadership Style and Its Effect on the Academic Performance of Junior High Schools in the Nkawie Circuit of the Atwima Nwabiagya Municipality

ABSTRACT 

The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of head teachers’ leadership style on the academic performance of public junior high schools in the Atwima Nwabiagya District of the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The objectives of the study were to determine the leadership styles of head teachers in Junior High Schools, find out the perceived impact of leadership style of head teachers on teachers in the teaching and learning outcome in Junior High Schools and to examine the perceived effect of the leadership style of head teachers on students in the learning outcome. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. The target population for study was 142 consisting of 20 head teachers and their assistants and 122 teachers. The study adopted census sampling technique to select the entire 20 head teacher and their assistants. Simple random sampling was used to select the 122 teachers for the study. Questionnaire was the instrument used for the study. The data was analyzed with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. The study found that head teachers included staff in decision making on all issues bothering on the welfare and academic life of the staff. Head teachers influenced teachers in the teaching and learning outcome as they used clearly communicated criteria for judging staff performance. Also, head teachers leadership style helped to inspire teachers to improve on their instructional capabilities to improve students’ achievement. It is recommended that the Ministry of Education should collaborate with the GES to give more incentives to head teachers to enable them go the extra mile in their responsibilities to further improve performance.