A private school is an organisation as it entails the three features above people sell service sector, in this case education and the leader is in charge of people and this organisation is in a particular location with hierarchy of roles, this being the structure. There should be a distinction between the use of the word organisation to describe the process of organising and to describe the social entity formed by a group of people, the former being the concern of this study.
There are various definitions of organisation which help in understanding the term “organisations are systems of interdependent human beings”(Pugh 1990:33),the use of the word interdependent points to the idea that in an organisation there are human beings whom are unable to function effectively without the corporation of each other and rely on one another for the smooth day to day running of the business for example the private school which is made up of the teaching staff such as the teachers and the dean but also the non-teaching staff like the security man and the nanny and the paying public such as parents and wards. If teachers come to work but the security man is absent, then the buildings are locked and no one can get in and if the nannies do not come to work, the compound is dirty and not conducive for learning but if there are no wards, both the teaching and non teaching staff have no one to impact knowledge on. Hence it is a circle in which every individual involve is interconnected.
Simon (1976:81) goes further to suggest that organisation is a system of behaviour which assists manpower and machinery to accomplish aims and goals such as keep a high standards thereby produce fruitful results, it should involve human behaviour and the nature of the enviroment, this has to do with the characteristics of the leader and how it affects the working enviroment which could include their attitude to work.
Effective leadership leads to sustainable school improvement as according to (Walter: 2004) there a certain issues faced by a leader and ability to solve this situations show effectiveness they include;
Build commitment-That is providing rationale for change.
Develop capacity-That is establishing clear, ambitious and measurable goals and Distribute leadership.
Find time-That is delegating leadership, Making every minute count, Using all available autonomy to restructure scheduling and staffing and provide incentives for the outcomes of extra work and responsibilities.
Increase staff retention –That is make sure you want the staff you have, survey school staff members to find out where they leave and where they stay, review recruitment, hiring and induction practices for new teachers, regularly monitor teacher needs and accordingly prioritise human resource efforts.
Find money- That is there should be a balance between your expenses and profits and the money spent should show a positive outcome, the leader of a school needs to be able to source for funds such as grants from nongovernmental organisation and philanthropic citizens to better the standard of the school.
Huber (2007),basically states that the leader must have moral purpose, and be involved in adaptative work, establish responsibilities and know their environment and seems to be in agreement with Walter as developing capacity for example is establishing responsibilities in that a leader is more likely to delegate responsibilities to a teacher whose capacity has been developed through teacher training amongst other things.
2.2 LEADERSHIP STYLE
Style is a particular way something is done or carried out and how a leader does this is referred to as leadership style (Mullins 2007), he goes further to say that this includes their behavioural pattern which can be learnt or instinctive explaining that some leaders are born(naturally have characteristics such as charisma which draw people to them) while others are made(Educational qualification and experiences). There are three main leadership styles and states categorically that all types of leadership come under these three classifications.
The Autocratic style as the term implies the leader only takes into consideration his decisions and policy and all the powers belong to him.
The democratic style tends to listen to the opinion of others as regards policy and decision making, there is team work and every member is equally important.
The Laissez-faire style is also known as the genuine style as here the leader gives others freedom to act on their duties but offers assistance should it be required.
These leadership styles can be used individually or in any or all combination as Stogdill (1974) stresses the importance of having the ability to switch styles as the situation demands and draws the conclusion that this ability is what highlights a leader as effective.
2.3 LEADERSHIP APPROACH
There has been a longstanding debate in educational leadership over the differences between the transactional and transformational approaches(Hopkins:2003),He goes on to mention that leadership is all encompassing and should include students performing better academically.
There are various leadership approaches and in this chapter, I would look at the transformational, transactional and the contingency approaches to leadership. Burns(1978) reffered to transformational leadership as "extraordinary" where staff are motivated to value their jobs and look up to the future and the transactional leadership as "ordinary " where staff work in anticipation of reward.In the same light Bass and Avolio(1997)identified the behavioural patterns of transformational leadership as the encouragement of staff to be innovative, develop their skills and relate personally with the leader and the transactional leadership as giving rewards for meeting set tasks, management by active means supervise to avoid problems and passive means involvement only when there is a problem .
There is a high probability of school improvement occuring when the leadership approach is transformational than any other approach(Burns 1978,Caldwell 1999,Leithwood and Jantzi 1990),that is transformational leader is not only interested with the structure of the school but the entire culture of the school to bring about a positive change .
Theory varies from practices as Eden(1998) is of the belief that even though the above leadership approaches have contradictory qualities they are interwoven for example staff are paid their salary monthly but are motivated to work hard for example, by promise of a promotion for example and are still promised extra money for the holiday season as an incentive to work harder, motivation is transformational and this financial incentive is transactional.
A major disadvantage of the transformational which in theory is widespread in Abuja would be that due to the inconsistent change in educational policy there is no room to look to the future as laws may materialise and render staff redundant conversely,an advantage is that there are still individuals who believe in the dignity of labour and that change is good for the society, they would perform their jobs to the best of their ability when they are motivated by the authorities in this case the leader whom they see constantly trying to make a change.In the transactional a disadvantage would be that being a third world country individuals crave security and would pretend so as to be rewarded and once left to work without supervision there is a tendency to relax and watch things go wrong but a true advantage of this would be that with the economic recession crippling the economy individuals are careful not to offend the authority and be without a source of income on which to survive. The most frequent system is a mixture in the transformational is applied where they have promises of a better package should the school environment improve then they work harder so there is a balance, hence an introduction at this stage of the project a term contingency.
The above term simply means that those of the contingency school will agree that there is no one best approach in the process of organizing/leading and the most effective approach is highly dependent on the enviroment (Lawrence and Lorch 1986),they go further to explain that performance is highly unlikely to be achieved within a structure if there is allegiance to only one approach, take for instance in a school setting dealing with mature staff who have experience there is less supervision however with young staff with no experience it is highly unlikely that they would perform well without motivation and constant supervision.
CHAPTER THREE
3. I GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION.
The Federal capital territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, west of Africa and is located in the middle of the country with latitude 80 25N,longitude 60 39ʹ and a land area of 8,000 square kilometres it was formed by the decree six of 1976(Nigex:2006) with currently 5,000,000 residents and daily increase. It is divided into six municipal are council namely Abaji, Abuja municipal, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali.
It is bound on the north by Kaduna state, on the south by Kogi state, on the east by Plateau state and on the west by Niger state,(FCTA: 2009).The three main languages spoken are Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba with the English Language as the Lingua Franca.
Access into the federal capital territory is by land via motorcycles, cars and buses and by air via the Nnamdi Azikiwe international wing and local wing airport. These are the only established means of transportation.
3.2 ABUJA AND EDUCATION.
The British colonised Nigeria till 1960 and left behind Language, religion, trade, and formal education as we previously had a traditional system of education which consisted mainly of storytelling but by 1976 few private schools emerged into existence and became part of the universal primary education (UPI) who sought to provide education for all with no assistance from the government which is still the case till date. In Abuja today there are now over 300 schools and all decisions taken here affect the other 36 states in the country and have a governing body known as the National association of private school owners (NAPS).
Abuja is home to people of different cultures and nationalities, as the capital with headquarters of companies,financial houses and international bodies for instance, British council, central bank of Nigeria, embassies of various countries of the world and Ecowas(The economic community of west African states). therefore international expatriates and indigenes from other states come to settle here for work and others the idea of brighter opportunities, these group all have educational needs on the other hand, it is a capitalist society where the means of production is not evenly distributed as a result the majority of people who can afford to send their children to private schools are the middle class and the rich,Melah 2007 writing for the elendure report explains this further by demonstrating with verifiable facts and figures the exorbitant fees of most of these schools which the average man would be unable to afford.
Due to the above factors amongst others the education secretariat was created in 2004 to serve as some form of control for both private and public schools.It is one of the seven mandate secretariats of the federal capital territory administration and was created in 2004 to replace the defunct Education department ,which existed from 1976-2004.Its mandate is to provide qualitative, accessible and affordable education to the residents of the fct through concerted efforts of its agencies and departments(FCTA 2009).
Its vision and policy direction includes;
To meet the educational needs of all residents of the fct.
Promote private sector participation.
Ensure that education in the fct complies with national and global standards.
Ensure that products of our school system would compete globally.
Ensure that practitioners at all levels of schooling adopt best professional practices.
Inspection and monitoring functions in the fct, fall directly to the education secretariat through the. P.I (department of policy implementation and there are clear procedures for establishment and operation of education institution in the approved guidelines, these inspections are carried out at the zonal levels and Harmonised instruments in the sense that every school is judged equally are used for effective inspection and monitoring that is the same standards are used to cover areas such as infrastructure and environment,staffing,administrative management of the school. In Abuja all the schools have their records such as scheme of work and duty rooster scrutinised and school employment is open to only individuals in possession of teacher certificate N.C.E or degree in education also the school calendar must include extracurricular activities. The failure of proof of these can lead to non accreditation or complete close down of the school.
The secretariat carry out six different kinds of inspections for private school, which include; Site inspection, Inspection for commencement of school operation, routine inspection, recognition inspection, and follow-up inspection and accreditation inspection. They are repeated yearly and serve as checks and balances to ensure that the laid down rules are being followed and the correct procedures are being carried out.
THE CHALLENGE OF RUNNING SCHOOLS IN ABUJA.
The education secretariat to Satisfy the wide variation in the educational needs of the population has to identify the educational needs of the civil servants who want later closing hours for children because of their extended job hours,politicians who mark education as social status,merchants who are able to afford expensive schools due to their businesses,nomadic ,challenged persons who have special needs due to their disabilities which maybe physical such as aultism and down syndrome, as well as the international communities whom are concerned with security consciousness and avoidance of corporal punishments.
The education secretariat therefore are the leaders of the proprietor(tress) who are in turn leaders of their various schools and have to cope with a large daily influx of people migrating from other places to Abuja.Private schools have to deal with management crises as they Struggle with inadequate and dilapidating infrastructure which they have to renovate to avoid government issues of health and safety(Adefisayo:2009) but she mentions also that despite these challenges private schools continue to thrive admist the economy because of independent financial control and innovation.In my opinion this innovation is made possible partly due to to the fact that there is lack of bureaucracy and decisions can be taken faster and the effectiveness of the leader to carry the burden.
3.3 SURVEY DISCUSSIONS
The sample
There are over 300 duly accredited private schools in Abuja and by means of random sampling through the toss of a coin. I choose 50 schools to email my questionnaire direct to the proprietor (tress).I took into consideration that my topic dwelt on leadership and how it affects the management of private schools therefore only schools established and still in business after at least ten years should be taken into consideration as still being in business after so long suggest they are doing something right. The survey comprised seven questions fashioned so as to provide a combination of quantitative and qualitative answers because quantitative answers provide an accurate numerical data calculation of interview but would not allow the respondent give any additional point of view in the event they do not agree with your options while the qualitative is open ended hence they can express themselves according to their individual ability however it is difficult to present in figures.
The survey were distributed and collection of feedback done over a three month period (January to March 2010). Due to the fact that respondents of a survey should not be affected by the outcome of it should it prove negative and to abide by the rules of research ethics and for confidentiality (Sapsford and Abbott 1996:318), I have not included the names of the proprietors (tresses) nor the names of the schools used in this survey.
The seven questions posed were;
1. Do you receive funds from government?
2. Do you delegate most of your work?
3. Do you go to school at least three times a week?
4. What is your leadership approach?
5. Does leadership affect the management of private schools?
6a. If yes how does leadership affect the management of private schools.
6b.If no why does leadership not affect the management of private schools?
Question one is to determine the validity of my earlier position that private schools do not financial support from the government. All the respondents confirmed that they do not receive any form of funding.
Question two is to ascertain the level of responsibility placed on subordinates by the leader, as delegation of duty by a leader shows trust is a motivating factor.33 respondents said yes while 4 respondents said no.
Question three is to determine if personal presence of the leader determines more efficiency in the school enviroment for example in an autocratic style of leadership there is bound to be some form of eye service and things hadly get done in the absence of the leader.However the leader lives by example when they notice the leader comes more often to work and on time.29 respondents said yes while 8 respondents said no.
Question four is to compare choice of leadership styles to my argument that no one style is sufficient, here I posed three options of transactional ,transformational and contingency as a combination of whatever approach the respondent may preffer.3 choose respondents transactional,7 respondents choose transformational and 37 respondents choose Contingency. The fact that well over half of my survey choose this option shows that most of the private schools lead by the contingency theory being a combination of both transactional and transformational and answers my project question how leadership affect the management of private schools, It affects the management of private school through the characteristics of the contingency theory.
Question five is to verify that they have a viewpoint that leadership affects the management of private schools.31 respondents said yes and 6 respondents said no.
Question six was split into a and b,as it is taken into consideration that some respondents may well be of the opinion that leadership does not affect the leadership of private schools.
Find below a graphical representation of my findings.
There were 37 respondents and 13 non respondents represented above in percentage format.
The pie chart above illustrates the leadership approaches of the various respondents and I clearly stated a definition of these approaches for them to work with in my survey the outcome was: with Transactional-3/8%, Transformational-7/19% and Contingency-27/73%.
The questions in the table are close ended hence they have been grouped together and represented in percentage and the respondence were given the option of either yes or no answers.
The last question in which 31 out of the 37 respondents were in agreement that leadership affects the management of private schools uncovered some interesting information in which respondents said they could not use a particular type of approach as the situation depends on the case at hand.The respondents also involved the government,physical presence and the issues of funding in their discussion as the following extract shows:
"….It just does, a leader that knows her onions motivates her staff and every other thing falls into place, we are one family here…"(By saying a leader that knows her onions the respondent means aware of the needs of her school everything else has a natural way of taking shape as she treats every individual as though she was their biological mother).
“Pardon my choice of words but it seems a bit short-sighted to assume that any one leadership approach can thrive perfectly in a school environment as the occasion at hand is what matters, a leadership that uses only the transformational or transactional will not effectively run a school most times there is need to be authoritative my staff members are all pretenders”
"Leadership is of utmost important as the education system crumbles with no one to oversee affairs and it would be supportive of the government to provide us with support as we are after all the ones cleaning up the educational system"...
"An effective leader makes certain of the smooth running of the school,I for instance come to school daily and on time to motivate my staff to behave likewise.It is also my duty to organise seminars to enhance teacher training and thereby turn out better results as the common entrance examination"…
"….Some of my staff say I am mean, but it works and that is all that matters but I am here to run a school not a charity organisation so I do not need their love,they cannot leave because we pay better salaries compared to government schools"…
The second speaker has ran a highly successful private school in Abuja for over 15years and is a very strict and seasoned educationist with over 30 years experience in education, though very judgement in calling me short-sighted the subject strongly communicated that there is sometimes need to apply force when dealing with Human beings.
From my survey, the general findings show that leadership affects the management of private schools in Abuja and it entails motivation of staff,taking caring of the school financially to pay salaries and provide teaching aids,leadership by example for instance arriving work early and the ability to switch from one style to another should the situation demand.
CHAPTER FOUR
4.1The Contribution of Private schools to Abuja.
They complement the effort of the government in bringing education to individuals.
They have also contributed by generating employment as there as positions such as Teachers,medical personnels,security, cleaners and receptionists.
They have stimulating remuneration for teachers hence the array of qualified teachers and the continuous influx of pupils into these schools.
They maintain an interrupted school calendar devoid of strikes unlike the public schools.
The private schools also remit Pay-as-you-earn taxes (P.A.Y.E) which generates additional income for the government.
4.2 Factors against primary school establishment.
There are various factors militating against the establishment of private schools which include but are not limited to;
Acquisition of land from the government takes a long process.
Finance is a major problem as banks/building societies place premium collateral and high percentage charges on loans.
Cost of building materials and labour is high
High rate of Taxation in that revenue goes back to government who do not contribute financial towards these educational projects.
4.3 Conclusion.
I have used secondary research consisting mainly of management text books and educational Journals and internet based articles and also primary research in which I have gathered first hand information from stakeholders in the private school industry in Abuja the federal capital territory of Nigeria.
The work has been divided into four chapters to clearly outline how leadership affects the management of private schools. The first chapter has posed an introduction into what I set to find out the private school including my methodology. Chapter two is the main part of the project and I bring forward established writers one management and leadership with a point being made that there is no one established style of leadership (stogdill 1974,Lawrence and Lorch 1986,D’ Souza 1999) that works best as the situation determines what style to apply, and it is not factual to assume any one leadership approach should function in isolation. The transformational which is referred to as extraordinary as well as the transactional which is referred to as ordinary(Burns 1978) both have their advantages and disadvantage but will not work well at every given time hence the application of the contingency theory of leadership which combine the two character traits as I gave an anology about treating matured staff with less supervision would be different from inexperienced staff who require more supervision and motivation.The next chapter educates the reader on the geographical location and culture of the Abuja population to help understand why more private schools are located in that environment irrespective of the fact that they are expensive(Elendure report:2007) reasons being given include that it is a capitalist city and also the federal capital,the location of headquarters both foreign/national and education secretariat,the survey report shows that the most popular approach in use in Abuja is the contingency approach to leadership.I have therefore drawn a conclusion backed by the above evidence that Leadership affects the management of private schools in Abuja, Nigeria as the effectiveness of the leader determines the school performance, the staff behaviour and the general work enviroment of the school.
REFERENCE LIST
Adefisayo,F.(2009) whole educational system reform.ISIS submit,Abuja 2nd December 2009.
Bass,B.(1985)Leadership and performance beyond expectations.
Newyork:Free press.
Bass,B .and Avolio,B.(1997)The full range leadership development manual for the multifactor leadership questionnaire,mindgarden,redwood city,CA.
Brech,E.F.L(1957)The principles and practice of management.London:Longman.
Burns, J.M (1978) Leadership. Newyork: Harper and Row.
Caldwell,B.J (1999),Reinventing school leadership for lasting reform in the third millennium,Day,C,Fernandez,T,Hague,T and Moller ,J.
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D’Souza.A. (1999) Leadership: Trilogy on leadership and effective management.(3rd ed.).Kenya: Pauline’s publication Africa.
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Fayol,H(1984) General and industrial management.Great Britain:Pitman.
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Hopkins,D.(2003)Instructional leadership and school improvement .In H. alma Effective leadership for school improvement.London:Routledge,55-60.
Lawrence,P.R. and Lorch,J.W.(1986)Organization and enviroment: Managing differentiation and integration.Boston:Harvard business school.
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APPENDIX
ACADEMIC SURVEY ON EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP
(PLEASE TICK YOUR OPINION).
1. Do you receive funds and/or grants from government?
A. Yes.
B. No.
2. Do you delegate most of your work?
A. Yes.
B. No.
3. Do you go to school at least three times a week?
A. Yes.
B. No.
4. What is your leadership approach?
A. Transformational (characterised by motivation and change).
B.Transformational (characterised by Reward).
C.Contingency (A combination transactional and Transformational).
5. Does leadership affect the management of private schools?
A. Yes.
B.No.
6a.If yes how does leadership affect the management of private schools?
6b.If no why does leadership not affect the management of private schools?
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Thank you for taking out time to answer this questionnaire. The Information above is to be published with the kind permission of the respondent in my INTO Newcastle University project April 2010.Newcastle upon tyne.United Kingdom.
