




































    

 American Journal of Arts and Communication 

Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

ISSN: 2994-0540 

Impact Factor: 7.94 

1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States 

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PRINCIPALS’ INSTRUCTIONAL LEADERSHIP COMPETENCY AND 

EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA 

STATE 
 

Obidile, Stella Ogechukwu (PhD) 

Department of Educational Foundations and Administration, Nwafor Orizu College of Education, Nsugbe, 

Anambra State 

Email: ellajoseph1920@gmail.com 

DOI:  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15341181 

 

Abstract: This study determined the principals’ instructional leadership competency and effective management 

of secondary schools in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were 

tested at .05 level of significance. Related literature pertinent to the study were reviewed which exposed the need 

for the study. Correlational research design was adopted using a population of all the 263 principals of public 

secondary schools in the area of the study. The entire population was used as the sample size since the population 

is a manageable size and the respondents were adequately reached. The instrument for data collection was 

researcher’s structured questionnaire. Cronbach Alpha method was used to establish the reliability of the 

instrument. The overall reliability indexes obtained were 0.81, 0.79 and 0.83. Data collected were analyzed using 

Pearson Product Moment Correlation to answer the research questions and to test the null hypotheses at .05 level 

of significant. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data collected. The results 

showed that there is an average positive relationship between principals’ instructional leadership competency 

(monitoring of instruction and promotion of professional development) and effective management of secondary 

schools in Anambra State. The results also showed that there is a significant relationship between principals’ 

instructional leadership competency (monitoring of instruction and promotion of professional development) and 

effective management of secondary schools. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that 

principals should always have routine instructional supervision taking into cognizance the effective classroom 

management strategies, lesson preparation and delivery as well as class interaction. 

Keywords: Instructional leadership competency, principals, effective management of secondary school. 

 

Introduction 

Secondary education is very important in the Nigerian education system and also serves as the link between the 

primary and higher levels of education. Ownership of secondary schools in Nigeria is categorized as private and 

government owned. Secondary schools owned by the government are referred to as public schools while those 

owned by others (religious organizations, non-governmental organizations and individuals) are known as private 

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https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15323413


    

 American Journal of Arts and Communication 

Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

ISSN: 2994-0540 

Impact Factor: 7.94 

1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States 

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schools. Nnorom, Okonkwo, Ezeanolue and Nwankwo (2020) noted that secondary education develops the 

individual’s mental capacity, character and behaviour for higher education and useful living within the society. 

The broad aims of secondary education according to Nigeria National Policy on Education, FRN (2014), are 

preparation of students for useful living within the society and for higher education. The future of a country is on 

the quality of education given to its citizens, because, education assures the future of the society and provides 

continuity, as such, it is imperative that a school manager adopts some financial management competencies in 

order to enhance effective school management in secondary school. For this reason, educational managers 

responsible for educational institutions have important responsibilities in ensuring quality outputs. This is so 

because educational system is in continuous interaction with socio-cultural, political and economic systems which 

surround it.  

In view of this, for the goals of secondary education to be achieved, school administrators should apply 

management practices that would help improve school processes and activities. Kafele (2016) saw school 

management as the organization of educational resources and programmes available for education and using them 

carefully and systematically for achieving educational objectives. School management could be seen as the 

systematic process of managing the available resources to attain predetermined goals. These resources include; 

human, time, material, and financial. In secondary schools, principals are the chief executive officers of the 

schools and they are the head of the school management team. The principal directs the way things are done in 

the school. Thus, principals are in charge of the management of secondary schools. For an administrator to 

perform effectively, he needs management competency backed by education as a means towards effective 

management and learning. For example, effectiveness is best estimated in relation to goals of teaching and 

research. Effective school management becomes a necessity for the successful attainment of any educational 

policy.  

Effective management is the capacity of an administrator to produce desired result of attaining the school 

objectives. Wagbara and Ukaigwep (2019) defined effective management as the extent to which the secondary 

school administrators are able to effectively execute and implement the school policies with regard to the task 

areas of school administration as laid down by the ministry of education and schools board. Wali (2018) stated 

that effective school management is the process of coordinating human, material and time-based resources 

efficiently towards the attainment of pre-determined objectives of a school. Effective school management should 

consider successful administrative strategies of what teachers and student value. This is because the underlying 

basis of secondary school administration and management is the existence of adequately trained administrators 

with a set goals or aim, and members who have roles assigned to them and a person at the top who coordinates 

activities to attain the already set goals of the school.  Effective school administration cut across effective 

leadership, communication, commitment, social interaction, persuasion and risk management (Manager, 2021). 

According to Bilkisu (2018), the success or failure of any educational institution in terms of quality education 

provision rests highly on the management competence of the administrator. It is most disheartening to note that 

most principals are underperforming in their statutory administrative functions. Empirically, it was reported by 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

ISSN: 2994-0540 

Impact Factor: 7.94 

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Nmaduagwu (2019) that most public secondary school principals find it very difficult to influence their 

subordinates to work expectedly. In the same vein, in study involving public secondary school principals, 67% of 

them agreed that they are not satisfied with their level of achievement in the school administration (Nworgu, 

2019). Similarly, most of the principals submitted that it is difficult to effectively harness the limited human and 

material resources in the school system (Amadi, 2019). Thus in any educational enterprise, school administrators 

with right competencies are hired to perform certain tasks using materials to facilitate the performance of the 

tasks. Okafor in Omeke and Onah (2012) noted that in Nigeria, most of the successes or failures in secondary 

school management or other institutions depend largely on the influence of these leaders on their subordinates. 

Therefore the success of an organization depends greatly on its management. School management by principals 

is the planning and delivery of education to ensure that both human and material resources allocated to education 

are efficiently and effectively used in the achievement of educational objectives and goals. Effective school 

management depends on the competency of principals in handling the activities of the school. 

Stronge, Richard and Catano (2016) described competency as the ability to do something well, measured against 

a standard especially ability acquired through experience or training. Kruger (2009) stated that competence is a 

person’s capacity to connect knowledge, skills, attitudes and professional identity that are relevant for a certain 

profession. It is also described as being adequately or well-qualified physically and intellectually to perform duties 

of any specific profession. In other words, a competent principal should possess the right knowledge, skills and 

behaviour needed for effective administration of secondary schools. For organization to meet the expectations of 

its set goals, it must be effectively and efficiently organized and managed. The ability of the manager to provide 

sound skills for administration of the school programme is known as managerial competency. Managerial 

competency involves demonstration of one’s abilities through efficient supervision in the classroom, managing 

human and material resources to achieve the mission and vision of the school.  

In Nigeria today, there is an increasing public fear and complaints that the administrative effectiveness of the 

principals is jeopardizing due to the falling standard of education over the years (Muraina, 2014). Ineffective 

administration have led to hostile school environment, poor implementation of school policies in the area of 

maintenance of school facilities and inadequate students’ personnel services such as selection, orientation, 

placement, guidance and counseling as well as poor staff personnel management in secondary schools in Nigeria 

(Wagbara & Ukaigwep, 2019). There seems to be variations in teachers’ punctuality to school, coverage of 

scheme of works, mode of continuous assessment of students, date of examinations among others in public and 

private schools in Anambra State. This may be attributed to the difference in instructional leadership practices of 

public secondary principals.  

Instructional leadership is the act of influencing learning process for desirable academic outcome. According to 

Makau, Tanui and Ronoh (2016), instructional leadership practices refer to the activities that the principal engages 

in or delegates to others that promote growth in student learning. Si-Rajab and Musa (2019) defined instructional 

leadership as the process of setting goals, providing resources for learning, managing curriculum, controlling 

lessons and evaluating teachers teaching performance. Instructional leadership depicts ability to influence people 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

ISSN: 2994-0540 

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to strive for the accomplishment of certain objectives of teaching and learning. The notion of instructional 

leadership is the attainment of academic excellence for all students. According to Boe, Lahui and Ako in Ismail, 

Don, Husin and Khalid (2018), instructional leadership is very closely related to the role and duty of a school 

principal such as developing and disseminating school aims, setting targeted standards, coordinating curriculum, 

supervising and evaluating teachers’ classroom instructions, encouraging students to study and increasing 

teachers’ and staff professional development. In the view of the researcher, instructional leadership is the act of 

planning teaching and learning programmes and inspiring, motivating, and exerting influence over staff and 

students to attain set objectives.  

There are various components of principals’ instructional leadership practices. These include: framing and 

communicating, communicating school goals, supervision and evaluation of instruction, curriculum management, 

monitoring of students’ progress, management of instructional time, providing incentives for teachers (staff 

welfare), promotion of professional development and providing incentives for students (Ahmed, 2016; Medina, 

Mansor, Wahab & Vikaraman, 2018; Si-Rajab & Musa, 2019). Hui (2020) noted that the vital roles of principals 

as instructional leaders include: communicating the vision and mission of the school, using assessment data to 

improve teaching and learning, monitoring and evaluating teaching and learning, providing professional 

development programs for teachers, creating and enforcing policies that prioritized teaching and learning. It also 

involves developing the school time-tables, supervising teachers’ activities and providing resources for effective 

curriculum implementation. As instructional leaders, school administrators help teachers in identifying trends, 

discuss with them new teaching techniques and strategies that enhance their teaching skills that benefit learners 

(Lincuna & Caingcoy, 2020). The authors also added that it entails managing the introduction of curriculum 

initiatives in line with policies, working with teachers in curriculum review, enriching the curricular offerings 

based on local needs, managing the curriculum innovation and enrichment with the use of technology, and 

organizing teams to champion instructional innovation programs toward curricular responsiveness.  

The principal can demonstrate effective instructional leadership practices through: planning of school syllabus, 

assigning tasks to teachers and constantly supervising their instructional for attainment of educational objectives 

and promoting of sustainable development. Instructional leadership practices of principals are directly linked to 

creating the conditions for optimal teaching and learning. In the context of this study, instructional leadership 

practices could be referred to as administrative activities and roles that are geared towards providing support for 

teachers and students to ensure quality instructional delivery for school effectiveness. Based on this, it becomes 

necessary to determine the relationship between principals’ instructional leadership competencies and effective 

management of secondary schools in these areas of competencies namely monitoring of instruction and promotion 

of professional development.  

The quality of teaching and learning outcomes depend on monitoring of instructional practices as well as the 

administrators involved (Komar, Komar, Kolomiiets, Roienko & Diachuk, 2019). Monitoring is a management 

tool used in overhauling schools to ensure that effective teaching and learning take place.  Ndungu, Gathu, and 

Bomet (2015) define monitoring as an activity that incorporates constant and systemized checking and keeping 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

ISSN: 2994-0540 

Impact Factor: 7.94 

1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States 

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under scrutiny a program/project that is implemented to improve on the standard of teaching and learning. Kyalo, 

Mulwa and Nyonje (2015) posited that monitoring is imperative as it guarantees the implementation of the 

program/project based on plan. It aimed at seeing to it that the project or program plan is followed consistently. 

In a school set up, monitoring requires inspection and control through ongoing, intermediate and final assessments 

to highlight improvements in the attainment of learning goals and for quality teaching and learning outcomes. For 

quality teaching and learning outcomes to be achieved, the school principals’ must put in place and enhance 

practices that increase monitoring (Ibrahim & Benson, 2020).    

In a school, the principal serves as the team leader who monitors teaching and learning processes in schools by 

putting necessary strategies (Kiptum, 2018). Principals monitors instructional practices of teachers such as their 

preparation for the lesson, lesson presentation, assessment methods used by the teacher as well giving monitoring 

feedback to teachers on their teaching methods and resources. Monitoring helps school principals to discover the 

needs of the learners and difficulties encountered by the teachers as they dispense knowledge (Mngomezulu & 

Bhengu, 2015). Leiva, Montecinos, Ahumada, Campos, and Guerra (2016) asserted that monitoring practices 

should be more than just formal method of complying with rules/policies but should give information concerning 

the strengths and weaknesses of a project/program.  Niyivuga , Otara and Tuyishime (2019) established that 

monitoring of instructional practices also apply to different levels of staff self-assessment, student-staff 

evaluation, peer evaluation, and principals’ evaluation.   

However, most principals spent most of their time going for meetings and doing other administrative duties with 

little focus on management of teaching and learning processes (Mngomezulu & Bhengu, 2015). Ndungu’, et al 

cited in Otieno (2022) observed that most of the principals are not checking lesson plans because the teachers are 

not preparing them, and that a few teachers who make lesson plans are more productive than the ones who did 

not. The head-teachers’ involvement in observation of instructional process was not frequent, monitoring 

preparation and use of professional document was never done and that checking of learners’ notebooks was rarely 

conducted (Sankale, 2015). When teachers are not monitored well, their efficacy to instructional delivery is 

negatively affected and the instructional objective may not be well achieved leading to low quality of teaching 

and learning outcomes (Sule, Ameh & Egbai, 2015). Thus, monitoring makes it easy for managers (principals) to 

maintain clarity, responsibility, reporting and empowering all the concerns of the people in the organization  

Teachers’ professional development is regarded as a key contribution to enhancing quality education. Professional 

development involves the career-long processes and related systems and policies designed to enable educators 

(teachers, administrators and supervisors) to acquire, broaden and deepen their knowledge, skills and commitment 

in order to effectively assist students perform well in their examinations. Staff professional development is a 

learning programme designed to help the staff update and refine their knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to 

meet the new challenges and technologies in the education system. Onyali, Akinfolarin and Famuti (2018) 

asserted that teachers’ professional development broadens their knowledge and modernizes their skills to cope 

with changes and innovation and also handle the various challenges brought about by advancement in technology. 

Teachers require staff professional development programmes to address dynamic roles and responsibilities of 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

ISSN: 2994-0540 

Impact Factor: 7.94 

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teaching profession so as to meet the contemporary needs of the society. The staff development practices include; 

evening courses, short courses; conferences, workshops and seminars; correspondence courses and study leaves 

with pay among others (Ojiemhenkele, 2014).  

 Professional development’s main purpose is to improve learner achievement as attested by majority of 

educational researchers and policy makers (Mwihaki, Kagema & Wambugu, 2019). Teachers require ongoing 

and appropriate training to be able to incorporate evidence-based methods into their teaching, to enhance the 

quality of instruction given to students and to improve educational outcomes (Didion et al., 2020). According to 

Mutuku (2015), the teacher training keep the teachers in touch with the current educational thinking in order to 

maintain good practice and raise standards of teaching. Mutuku (2015) further asserts that these skills promote 

the performance of the teacher, the teacher is able to transmit the acquired knowledge, skills and attitudes to the 

learners in the learning process hence attainment of quality education by learners. Mwihaki, Kagema and 

Wambugu (2019) stated that professional development influences student performance in three different ways: it 

enhances teacher knowledge and skills which then enhance classroom practice and teaching which on the other 

hand elevates students’ attainment. The most useful professional development activity focuses on engaging 

instructors to concentrate on the needs of their learners. They learn together with an aim of ensuring that all 

students achieve success. 

School principals as instructional leaders have to employ instructional practices. Monitoring of instruction and 

promotion of professional development of teachers is among these practices. All these are geared towards the 

achievement of the school’s intended objectives which include better academic performance. School principals 

have the pivotal roles in leading and managing schools. School principals have crucial roles in any school system 

in the world especially in developing countries. However, reports showed that principals of Nigerian secondary 

schools are more of administrative leaders rather than instructional leaders because according to the reports, they 

are mostly preoccupied with strictly administrative duties in their offices, leaving the management, instructional 

leadership, monitoring of instruction and promotion of professional development responsibilities in the hands of 

teachers alone. It is against this background that the researchers sought to evaluate the principals’ instructional 

leadership and effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. 

Statement of the Problem  

Ideally, secondary school principals are expected to promote effective management in education of the citizens 

for national development. It is the expectation of the government, parents and even students that quality education 

is received by students in Nigeria secondary schools through the adoption of appropriate instructional leadership 

competencies by the principals. However, observations have shown that there seems to be poor principals’ 

management processes which have led to an ineffective management in secondary schools in Anambra State. 

Lack of principals’ effective management and supervision make the teachers to abscond from their duties. Some 

of the teachers do not even properly prepare their lesson and as such dictates or give to the class prefect to write 

on the board. A good number of them leave their duty post at will. This unfortunate development may negatively 

affect the performance of the students in both internal and external examinations. This may in one way or the 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

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Impact Factor: 7.94 

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other disrupt the normal school operation as well as in the actualization of the lofty goals and objectives. This can 

be seen in the areas of the inadequate instructional leadership by the principals like school facilities and 

professional development among others. For any school to function effectively, the school facilities must be in 

good condition. These situations seem to have led to poor academic achievement among the secondary school 

students, among others. The above situation should not be allowed to continue, hence the problem of this study 

put in question form is, ‘what is the relationship between principals’ instructional leadership competency and 

effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State? 

 

 

Purpose of the Study 

The main purpose of the study is to examine principals’ instructional leadership competency and effective 

management of secondary schools in Anambra State. Specifically, the study sought to determine the principals’: 

1. Monitoring of instruction and effective management of secondary schools 

2. Promotion of professional development and effective management of secondary schools 

Research Questions 

 The following research questions guided the study: 

1. What is the relationship between principals’ monitoring of instruction and effective management of 

secondary schools in Anambra State? 

2. What is the relationship between principals’ promotion of professional development and effective 

management of secondary schools in Anambra State? 

Hypotheses 

 The following null hypotheses were tested 0.05 level of significance: 

1. There is no significant relationship between principals’ monitoring of instruction and effective 

management of secondary schools in Anambra State. 

2. There is no significant relationship between principals’ promotion of professional development and 

effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. 

Method 

The correlational research design was adopted in this study.  Nworgu (2015) defined correlational design as the 

type of design that seeks to establish the relationship between two or more variables as well as indicating the 

direction and magnitude of the relationship between the variables. The study was carried out in state-owned public 

secondary schools in Anambra State. The population for this study consisted of all the 263 principals of public 

secondary schools in the area of the study. The entire population was used as the sample size since the population 

is a manageable size and the respondents were adequately reached. Two structured questionnaires which were 

developed by the researcher were used for data collection from the respondents (that is; principals). Both 

questionnaires designed for only principals as the respondents, were constructed in line with the purpose of the 

study and research questions. The first questionnaire was titled “Principals’ Instructional Leadership 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

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Impact Factor: 7.94 

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Questionnaire (PILQ) containing 20 items. PILQ has two sections of A and B. Section A contained the personal 

data of the respondents and elicited such information as the status of the respondents based on their education 

zones. Section B of the PILQ was arranged and organized into 2 clusters. The second questionnaire titled 

“Effective School Management Questionnaire (ESMQ)” was designed to gather information from the principals 

on effective school administration. ESMQ have only one section with 10 items.  

The instrument designed for this study was subjected to face validity. The instrument were validated by three 

experts in the field. To ascertain the internal consistency of the instrument, Cronbach Alpha was used. The 

application of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 25 using Cronbach Alpha reliability method 

was used to determine reliability coefficient values of 0.81, 0.79 and 0.83. The researcher administered 263 copies 

of the questionnaire personally to the respondents in their schools with the aid of five research assistants who 

were briefed by the researcher. A period of two weeks was used for the administration of the instrument to ensure 

a high response rate. Out of the 263 copies of questionnaire distributed, sixteen were incompletely filled and eight 

were not returned, hence twenty four copies of the questionnaire were not utilized. Thus, 239 copies of the 

questionnaire represented 90.87% return rate were used for data analysis.  

The data collected for this study was analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation to test the degree 

of relationship. The decision rule for the two research questions, the coefficient (r) and the size of the relationship 

was interpreted using the interpretation of correlation coefficient by Onunkwo in Obi (2016) as 0.8 to 1.0 (Very 

high), 0.6 to 0.8 (High), 0.4 to 0.6 (Average), 0.2 to 0.4 (Low) and 0.0 to 0.2 (Very low). For the hypotheses, p-

value was used for decision making for the hypotheses. Where the calculated p-value is less than the stipulated 

level of significance (.05), it means that there is significant difference between subject mean scores and the null 

hypothesis was rejected. Conversely, where the calculated p-value is equal to or greater than the stipulated level 

of significance (.05), it means that there is no significant difference between mean scores of variables in emphasis 

and the null hypothesis was not rejected. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 was used to 

analyze the data. 

Results  

Research Question 1 

What is the relationship between principals’ monitoring of instruction and effective management of secondary 

schools in Anambra State? 

Table 1: Pearson r on the Correlation between Principals’ Monitoring of Instruction and Effective School 

Management 

Source of Variation                           N                 R Remark 

Principals’ Monitoring of 

Instruction 

Effective School Management 

        239 0.593  

Average Positive 

Relationship 

Table 1 shows that there is an average positive relationship existing between principals’ monitoring of instruction 

and effective management of public secondary schools in Anambra State. This is evident by the size of the 

Pearson's Correlation Coefficient r, which is 0.593. 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

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1252 Columbia Rd NW, Washington DC, United States 

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Research Question 2  
What is the relationship between principals’ promotion of professional development and effective management 

of secondary schools in Anambra State? 

Table 2: Pearson r on the Correlation between Principals’ Promotion of Professional Development and 

Effective School Management 

Source of Variation                             N                 R Remark 

Principals’ Promotion of 

Professional Development 

Effective School Management 

         239 0.515  

Average Positive 

Relationship 

Table 2 shows that the Pearson’s r = 0.515, indicating that there is an average positive relationship between 

principals’ promotion of professional development and effective management of secondary schools in Anambra 

State. 

Hypothesis 1 

There is no significant relationship between principals’ monitoring of instruction and effective management of 

secondary schools in Anambra State. 

Table 3: Test of Significance of Pearson Correlation between Principals’ Monitoring of Instruction and 

Effective School Management 

Source of Variation                            N                 r p-value Remark 

Principals’ Monitoring of Instruction 

Effective School Management 

239 0.593  

0.001 

 

Sig 

Analysis in Table 3 shows that there is a significant relationship between principals’ monitoring of instruction 

and effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. The calculated r (0.593) had P-value < 0.05. 

The 1st null hypothesis was therefore rejected. 

Hypothesis 2 

There is no significant relationship between principals’ promotion of professional development and effective 

management of secondary schools in Anambra State. 

Table 4: Test of Significance of Pearson Correlation between Principals’ Promotion of Professional Development 

and Effective School Management 

Source of Variation                            N                 r p-value Remark 

Principals’ Promotion of 

Professional Development 

Effective School Management 

239 0.515  

0.00 

 

Sig 

Table 4 shows that there is a significant relationship between principals’ promotion of professional development 

and effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. The calculated r (0.515) had P-value < 0.05. 

The 2nd null hypothesis was therefore rejected. 

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Vol.10, Issue 2; March-April 2025; 

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Discussion 

Results of the study revealed that there is an average positive relationship between principals’ monitoring of 

instruction and effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. This implies that principals 

diagnostic monitoring include access to curriculum, abiding by scheme of work, use of diary, writing of lesson 

note, writing of lesson plan, truancy in students, discipline and counselling of students in public secondary 

schools.  This finding corroborates with that of Akporehe and Asiyai (2021) who discovered that some principals 

conferred desired courtesy to monitoring of teachers’ school attendance, adequacy of diaries and preparation of 

lesson notes while duties such as the provision of reference books, instructional materials, review and feedback 

of activities with educational stakeholders were slightest performed by most school principals. In support of this 

Akinfolarin and Emetarom (2017) revealed that school principals are not involved in instructional supervision 

practices to witness classroom instruction and ensure that curriculum are covered, teachers’ compliance to 

schedules in school was not monitored, regular meeting with teachers where instructional challenges were 

discussed and give feedback to teachers after class surveillance in Anambra State. In line with the study Opurum 

(2019) stated that instructional supervision helps in lesson preparation, feedback mechanism and teaching aid 

utilization. Effective monitoring to ensure high quality organizational outcomes requires careful consideration of 

appropriate assessment and data tools. Furthermore, findings of this study also indicated a positive significant 

relationship between principals’ monitoring of instruction and effective management of secondary schools in 

Anambra State. 

Results of the study indicated that there is an average positive relationship between principals’ promotion of 

professional development and effective management of secondary schools in Anambra State. This finding is in 

consonance with that of Ololo, Onditi and Mwebi (2024) who observed that most teachers have embraced 

Continuous Teacher Professional Development to equip themselves with current professional knowledge and 

skills to effectively deliver the curriculum and promote good quality learning outcomes.  Effective professional 

development should take cognizance of the needs of teachers, learners and school context. These findings were 

further supported by the principals during the interviews who reported that a few number of teachers demonstrate 

changes in their professional behaviours after attending T.P.D. courses.  The finding imply that the principals 

should connect professional development of teachers to improvement in academic performance by ensuring that 

all professional development courses attended by teachers address school needs (Darling-Hammond, 2017).  

Ndabuki, Kasivu and Mwanza (2020) also revealed that principals support staff professional development in their 

schools by ensuring that funds are made available in the school annual budget for capacity- building. These study 

findings imply that principals of public secondary schools greatly support and promote the idea of staff 

professional development for their teachers. Furthermore, findings of this study also indicated a positive 

significant relationship between principals’ promotion of professional development and effective management of 

secondary schools in Anambra State. This finding is in agreement with that of Shikokoti, Okoth and Chepkonga 

(2021) who reported that there is a relationship between principals’ involvement on professional development 

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ISSN: 2994-0540 

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38 | A m e r i c a n  J o u r n a l  o f  A r t s  a n d  C o m m u n i c a t i o n  
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and teachers’ job satisfaction. This implies that the more principals do promote professional development the 

more teachers are satisfied with their jobs. 

Conclusion 

The findings of the study showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between principals’ 

instructional leadership (monitoring of instruction and promotion of professional development) and effective 

management of secondary schools in Anambra State. Principals’ application of instructional leadership 

competency in school management is essential for improving quality of instructional delivery. It is hoped 

therefore, that if all these tasks are satisfactorily performed by the principals and their performance greatly 

enhanced through ways suggested improving their competencies, the quality (in terms of professional and 

technical competencies) of our secondary school products will be improved. It will also ensure the attainment of 

the objectives of secondary school education as stipulated in the National Policy on Education. 

Recommendations 

Based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: 

1. The school principals should always have routine instructional supervision taking into cognizance the 

effective classroom management strategies, lesson preparation and delivery as well as class interaction. 

2. School principals should appoint head-teachers who could assist them in checking teacher lesson note. 

They should ensure that records (diary, result, continuous assessment) are monitored in the school.  

3. There is need to encourage teachers to attend professional developments this will enable them teachers 

advance with current trends in education. 

4. Government of Nigeria through the Ministry of Education and Teachers Service Commission and all other 

education stakeholders embrace and support staff professional development to enhance learner performance in 

secondary schools.  

5. Training of both principals and teachers will equip them with knowledge and skills required in curriculum 

delivery in schools for better learner performance. 

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