Evaluation Of Management Practices Of Principals In Government Technical Colleges In Northern Nigeria

Good leadership is the major factor in the determination of the success and progress of any 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 in Northern Nigeria, and (f) leadership styles of principals in government technical colleges in Northern Nigeria. The study was carried out in8federal technical colleges and30states technical colleges located in federal capital territory, Abuja and14Northern states of Nigeria. A mixed-method design involving a descriptive survey, interview and observation was adopted for the study. A total of352teaching staff including principals were randomly sampled and stratified along states in Northern Nigeria, out of677teaching 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.905using cronbach's alpha method while6experts from5different institutions validated the instruments used for the study. Six research questions and6-hypotheses tested at.05level of significance guided the study. Data obtained were anaiyzed using SPSS version16software. Frequeney count mean standard deviation and ranking were employed to answer research questions, while one way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey HSD, and independent sample t-test were used to test the hypotheses. The result of data analysis indicated that:1. There was no significant difference (p<.05) in the views expressed by the respondents on how principals manage the instructional programs in technical colleges with respect-to experience of the principal2. There was no significant difference (p<.05) 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 principal's 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 in the recruitment of academic and non academic staff by the administrator of technical colleges. Principal should continue to involve P. T. A members in 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.