The influence of secondary school heads’ leadership attributes on students’ academic performance in Mwanga district, Tanzania

This study aimed at investigating the influence of secondary school heads’ leadership attributes on students’ academic performance in Mwanga district in Kilimanjaro region. The study was expected to help school heads to identify their roles so as to stimulate students’ academic performance. Three objectives guided the study; to examine the roles do school heads play in students’ academic performance, to trace on how school head’s leadership styles influence students’ performance, to identify the best leadership practices that enhance students’ academic performance. The study employed a mixed methods approach to bond the major parts of the study. Purposive sampling was used to select 8 school heads. Convenience sampling was also employed to select 5 teachers from each school and simple random sampling was employed to select 10 students from each school. The findings were analyzed mostly qualitatively as data were subjected into content analysis while quantitative data were analysed through SPSS. The findings reveal that school heads have a direct influence on students’ academic performance once the school heads play their roles effectively such as provision of teaching and learning materials, teachers’ motivation, monitoring students’ progress, managing funds accordingly, formulating shared school vision, involving stakeholders specifically parents and controlling school discipline. The study also found that democratic leadership style is dominantly used in schools. However, other styles such as authoritarian, instructional and laissez faire were used. Democratic leadership style was used by most of the school leads as seems to have positive effect on teaching and learning. The study led to some of the following conclusions; an effective school head is the key factor for school improvement and better academic performance as the teaching and learning progress in school is usually managed by school head. Based on the findings, it is recommended that responsible authorities should ensure; an effective preparation of school heads, motivation of teachers, running of seminars and workshops for school heads, serious involvement of stakeholders and selection of appropriate leadership style according to the situations. Further studies should be conducted in Mwanga district and beyond which involve more schools in order to shed more light on the contribution of school heads in students’ academic performance.