Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Master of Education in the Department of Educational Planning and Administration at the University of Zululand, 2005. / Schools are judged by their results and the quality of learners they produce. The quality of learners depends, among other things, on the amount of knowledge and skills he or she acquired at school. Motivation, both intrinsic and extrinsic, plays a crucial role in the learner's performance and acquisition of knowledge. The principal, through the effective exercise of his leadership role, motivates learners to make concerted efforts to improve their academic performance. A literature study and empirical investigation were conducted to determine the principal's role in influencing learner academic performance. The study investigated the kind of leadership that the principal has to exercise in order to contribute to the improvement of learner academic performance. It also investigated the leadership style that the principal has to adopt to improve learner performance. Factors that hinder effective leadership and negatively affect learner performance were also highlighted. A key finding was that principals do not involve learners in making decisions on matters affecting them. Their leadership style has an autocratic bias and they cannot strike a balance between democratic and autocratic leadership. Most principals also did not provide instructional leadership in their schools by, among other things, monitoring learner progress, showing high expectations of learners and visiting classes regularly to ensure that teaching and learning take place. A key recommendation was that principals should keep communication channels open so that they are informed about the feelings, needs and problems learners encounter in schools. Monitoring of learner progress cannot be overemphasized. It was recommended that principals should involve learners in making decisions on matters affecting them. It was also recommended that effective leadership requires a balance between democratic and autocratic leadership styles.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The Namibian education system is at the crossroads as a result of the demands of the Education and Training Sector Improvement Programme (ETSIP), a programme initiated by the Government to address shortcomings in the education and training sector. ETSIP requires that school principals play a much more significant role to realize the goal of quality education, which is one of the major goals of education reform. In view of the ever-increasing responsibilities of the principals for ensuring the quality of education, the need for management development has become more apparent. Although management development for principals in the African context is a recent phenomenon, it has been a subject of extensive research over the years in many developed countries. The findings of these studies suggest that it has the potential to improve the quality of school leadership and ultimately lead to school improvement. In Namibia, literature suggests that little has been done to determine the needs of school principals with regards to their management development. This study therefore seeks to address that need. The study is situated in the interpretive research paradigm whose central purpose is to interpret and understand the phenomenon through the perceptions and experience of the participants. Data were collected by means of semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The findings generally suggest that principals perceive management development as vehicle to empowerment and capacity building. The findings further suggest that principals would prefer management programmes that are more experienced-based and offer opportunities for reflection. The findings also brought to light the aspect of monitoring and support as a critical element in the success of management development programmes. As far as the management development needs of school principals are concerned, the findings highlighted the following needs: the need to be trained on how to manage change which include the new curriculum and policies, training in information communication and technology and training in the management of human and financial resources which include instructional leadership and budgeting.