Leadership Styles and Academic Performance of Pupils in Government Aided Primary Schools in Kwania District

Abstract

The study established the relationship between leadership styles on academic performance of pupils in government aided primary schools in Kwania District, determining the effect of democratic authoritarian and Laissez-faire leadership styles on academic performance of pupils in government aided primary school in Kwania District. The study employed a cross-sectional design with mixed approach (quantitative and qualitative methods) in the investigation. Key information interview was used to collect qualitative data from key District education officials of Kwania. Data was analyzed inform of descriptive statistics, Peason correlation and robust regression. The result indicated that there is a positive significant relationship between Democratic leadership style and academic performance of pupils in Kwania District evidenced by the P-value (sig=0.00) being less than 0.05 level of significance further contributing 0.488 (48.8%) to academic performance of pupils in Kwania, that there is a moderate positive significant relationship between authoritarian leadership style and performance of pupils in Kwania District evidenced by the p-value (sig.=0.00) being less than 0.05 level of significance, contributing 0.378 (37.8%) to performance of pupils in Kwania while there is a negative relationship between Laissez-faire leadership and performance of pupil in Kwania evidenced by the p-value (sig. = 0.214), it contributes -0.069 (-6.9%)to performance of pupils in Kwania. Recommendations arising from the study are that head teachers of school need to be encouraged to adopt a combination of leadership styles for an improved academic performance to be realized. Strict enforcement of District policies to ensure the headteachers remain at school