The overall performance of secondary schools in Zimbabwe has been of grave concern to all stakeholders in education. Several reasons for this downward trend have been proffered but perhaps without getting to the bottom of the problem. Poor student achievement at ordinary level (O-level) in most schools, including schools that seem to have adequate facilities and qualified teachers, is experienced every year. The purpose of the study was to examine and explore the instructional leadership roles of the secondary school principal towards quality school improvement in Zimbabwean schools with specific reference to Harare and Mashonaland East provinces. The research methodology that was employed was the qualitative design drawing from case and ethnographic studies to collect data from the participants. A total of ten secondary schools, their heads, and fifty teachers from the same selected schools took part in the study. While parents were not directly involved in the study, the few that l came across during visits to schools were asked for their views as seen appropriate. The research instruments that were used included qualitative document analysis, interviews and qualitative observations. Each of the ten secondary schools was visited at least eight times for the purposes of collecting and verifying data. While field notes were made during visits, an audio tape was used during interviews in order to capture what was said word for word. The results indicate that for effective instructional leadership that improve quality of schools, heads needed to exercise both instructional and managerial roles effectively. However, the findings of the study indicated that heads tended to concentrate on managerial roles and performed instructional roles indirectly although these have a direct focus on quality school improvement. School principals in the study spent a lot of their time outside the school attending meetings called for by District and Provincial Education officials and other activities that did not seem to directly impact on quality school improvement. Instructional leadership is about spending a lot of time with teachers and students in the school and in particular in classrooms, among other things. As a result, teachers in the study lacked motivation and greatly missed opportunities to be assisted by the ‘’head teacher’’ which would translate to teacher growth and development and ultimately, school improvement. Instructional leadership was relegated to heads of departments. Heads attributed their failure to perform instructional tasks to lack of appropriate interventions to improve their leadership roles, too many meetings and too much paper work which they felt needed to be reduced so that they could be able to focus on instructional leadership tasks. / Educational Leadership and Management / D. Ed. (Education Management)

Abstract The main purpose of this study has been to examine the working life correspondence of education both theoretically and empirically. In this study, three different conceptual interpretations have been used to define working life correspondence: interpretation emphasizing the know-how needs of the working life, interpretation emphasizing the educational expectations of the working life and the interpretation emphasizing the career development of the individual. This phenomenon has been studied from the point of view of computer science education in particular. The interpretations emphasizing know-how needs and educational expectations are examined using gap analysis. The correspondence between the know-how capacities and the educational expectations is significantly different from that between the know-how capacities and the know-how needs. The gaps between the individual’s know-how capacities and the educational expectations are clearly more positive, less dependent upon external factors closely related to the respondent and there was considerably less variation among them than between the know-how capacities and the know-how needs. The results showed that the know-how needs of working life are very heterogeneous and strongly dependent on the external factors relating closely to the individual. The educational expectations were shown to be very homogeneous. Therefore it seems natural that the development of the contents of instructions and the structure of the education – particularly in the case of the compulsory core contents – should be based on the very homogeneous and independent educational expectations of the working life. In the light of the results, the educational expectations point of view brings a completely new and significant perspective to the examination of the working life correspondence and the effectiveness of the education, as well as the development of the contents of instruction. In terms of explaining and anticipating student satisfaction, the results turned out to be interesting. The results showed that learning results, the age of the respondent and the satisfaction in studying are significantly interconnected. The most significant external factor anticipating satisfaction in the field of computer science was the career development of an individual, which refers to the long-term effects of the education. In terms of method, this study was conducted as field research with the help of a questionnaire. The target group were students who had graduated from the department of Information Processing Science of the University of Oulu from 1976 through 2006. The questionnaire was sent to a total of 680 persons, 210 of whom replied. This was 31.3 % of the entire target group. / Tiivistelmä Tämän tutkimuksen pääasiallisena tarkoituksena on ollut tutkia sekä teoreettisesti että empiirisesti ilmiötä ”koulutuksen työelämävastaavuus”. Tutkimuksessa koulutuksen työelämävastaavuudelle on määritelty kolme erilaista käsitteellistä tulkintaa: työelämän osaamistarpeita korostava tulkinta, työelämän koulutusodotuksia korostava tulkinta sekä yksilön urakehitystä korostava tulkinta. Ilmiötä on tarkasteltu erityisesti tietojenkäsittelytieteiden koulutuksen näkökulmasta. Osaamistarpeita korostavassa tulkinnassa työelämävastaavuutta voidaan tarkastella osaamistarpeiden ja koulutuksen tuottamien osaamisvalmiuksien vastaavuutena. Koulutusodotuksia korostavassa tulkinnassa työelämävastaavuutta voidaan vastaavasti tarkastella koulutusodotusten ja koulutuksen tuottamien osaamisvalmiuksien vastaavuutena. Urakehitystä korostava tulkinta tarkoittaa sitä, kuinka hyvin koulutuksen tuottamat osaamisvalmiudet tukevat yksilön urakehitystä. Osaamistarpeita ja koulutusodotuksia korostavia työelämävastaavuuden tulkintoja on tarkastelu kuiluanalyysin avulla. Osaamisvalmiuksien ja koulutusodotusten keskinäinen vastaavuus poikkeaa merkittävästi osaamisvalmiuksien ja osaamistarpeiden vastaavuudesta. Osaamisvalmiuksien ja koulutusodotusten väliset kuilut ovat selvästi positiivisempia, riippumattomia vastaajaan kiinteästi liittyvistä ulkoisista tekijöistä ja niiden vaihtelu huomattavasti vähäisempää kuin osaamisvalmiuksien ja osaamistarpeiden välisten kuilujen tapauksessa. Koulutuksen vaikutuksia yksilön urakehitykseen ei ollut mahdollisuuksia tutkia, joskin ammattiryhmäkohtaiset kuiluanalyysien tulokset osoittivat, että muodollinen koulutus ei kykene tuottamaan yksilön urakehityksen myötä laajenevia ja kasvavia osaamistarpeita. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittivat, että työelämän osaamistarpeet ovat hyvin heterogeenisia ja ne ovat vahvasti riippuvaisia yksilöön kiinteästi liittyvistä ulkoisista tekijöistä. Tämä osaamistarpeiden heterogeenisuus muodostuu ongelmaksi tarvelähtöisen koulutuksen työelämävastaavuuden kehittämisessä. Sen sijaan koulutusodotukset osoittautuivat hyvin homogeenisiksi. Todella merkittävä havainto on nimenomaan se, että koulutusodotukset eivät ole yksilön osaamistarpeiden johdannaisia eivätkä lainkaan riippuvaisia vastaajien taustatekijöistä, vaan ne perustuvat mitä ilmeisimmin vastaajien näkemyksiin tietojenkäsittelytieteiden ydinalueista ja sisällöistä. Siksi tuntuu luonnolliselta, että opetussisältöjen ja rakenteen kehittäminen – etenkin pakollisten ydinsisältöjen osalta – tulisi perustua työelämän hyvin homogeenisiin ja riippumattomiin koulutusodotuksiin. Tulosten valossa koulutusodotusnäkökulma tuo täysin uuden ja merkittävän näkökulman koulutuksen työelämävastaavuuden ja vaikuttavuuden tarkasteluun sekä opintosisältöjen kehittämiseen. Opiskelijatyytyväisyyden selittämisen ja ennustamisen osalta tulokset osoittautuivat mielenkiintoisiksi. Tutkimuksessa opiskelijatyytyväisyys jakaantui kahteen osaan: opiskelutyytyväisyyteen ja koulutusalatyytyväisyyteen. Tulokset osoittivat, että oppimistuloksilla, vastaajan iällä ja opiskelutyytyväisyydellä on merkittävä keskinäinen yhteys. Ulkoisista tekijöistä merkittävimmäksi koulutusalatyytyväisyyttä ennustavaksi tekijäksi nousi yksilön urakehitys, joka viittaa koulutuksen pitkäaikaisiin vaikutuksiin. Menetelmällisesti tutkimus oli kyselymetodiin perustuva kenttätutkimus, jossa kohdejoukon muodostivat Oulun yliopiston tietojenkäsittelytieteiden laitokselta vuosina 1973–2006 valmistuneet opiskelijat. Kyselyt lähetettiin 680 henkilölle ja niihin vastasi 210 henkilöä, mikä on 31,3 % koko kohdejoukosta.

Within the worldwide business community, many analysis tools and techniques have evolved to assist in the evaluation and encouragement of financial health and fiscal viability. However, in the educational community, such analysis is uncommon. It has long been argued that educational institutions bear little resemblance to, and should not be treated like, businesses. This research identifies an educational environment where educational institutions are, indeed, businesses, and may greatly benefit from the use of business analyses. The worldwide effort of Education for All (EFA) has focused on primary education, particularly in less developed countries (LDCs). In Sub-Saharan Africa, Uganda increased its primary school enrollments from 2.7 million in 1996 to 7.6 million in 2003. This rapid primary school expansion substantially increased the demand for secondary education. Limited government funding for secondary schools created an educational bottleneck. In response to this demand, laws were passed to allow the establishment of private secondary schools, operated and taxed as businesses. Revenue reports, filed by individual private schools with the Uganda Revenue Authority, formed the database for the financial analysis portion of this research. These reports, required of all profitable businesses in Uganda, are similar to audited corporate financial statements. Survey data and national examination (UNEB) scores were also utilized. This research explored standard business financial analysis tools, including financial statement ratio analysis, and evaluated the applicability of each to this LDC educational environment. A model for financial assessment was developed and industry averages were calculated for private secondary schools in the Mukono District of Uganda. Industry averages can be used by individual schools as benchmarks in assessing their own financial health. Substantial deviations from the norms signal areas of potential concern. Schools may take appropriate corrective action, leading to sustainable fiscal viability. An example of such analysis is provided. Finally, school financial health, defined by eight financial measures, was compared with quality of education, defined by UNEB scores. Worldwide, much attention is given to education and its role in development. This research, with its model for financial assessment of private LDC schools, offers a new and pragmatic perspective.