IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bcp/journl/v8y2024i3sp4290-4304.html

Effect of School Leadership on Academic Performance of Public Senior High Schools in Ghana

Author

Listed:
  • Kwame Owusu-Ansah Owusu Afram

    (Management University of Africa)

  • Washington Okeyo

    (Management University of Africa)

  • Charles Owusu Kwarteng

    (Management University of Africa)

Abstract

Since gaining independence, Ghana has implemented several reforms to enhance secondary education. However, these reforms have yet to fully achieve their intended improvements in the academic performance of second-cycle schools. According to the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education, while pass rates in core subjects have improved from 2006 to 2021, performance in the core subjects still falls short of 40%. This persistent underperformance has been attributed to school leadership and their capacity to effectively implement a vision for enhancing teachers’ skills and knowledge. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of school leadership on academic performance of public senior high schools in Ghana. The study examined the instructional and supervisory functions of school leadership. The study was anchored on distributed leadership and social learning theories. The study employed a positivist approach to systematically explore the relationship between the variables. The target population of the study was the 928 public senior high schools listed by the Ghana Education Service as of December 2023. The study applied the cross-sectional design survey and cluster-stratified random sample to collect data from 2176 respondents. The primary data was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results revealed that there was a significant positive correlation (R= 0.669) between school leadership and academic performance of public senior high schools in Ghana. The study may be limited due to the use of the cross-sectional design survey, which cannot determine cause-and-effect relationships as data were collected at one point in time. The study recommends that school leadership should be prioritised in senior high schools in Ghana to facilitate the achievement of academic performance improvements in the schools. The Ministry and Ghana Education Service must ensure the appointment of competent school leadership to the senior high schools. Stakeholders of senior high school education in Ghana must equip school leadership for the performance of their roles. School leadership must adopt interventions to give teachers professional development to be effective in their teaching and learning methods.

Suggested Citation

  • Kwame Owusu-Ansah Owusu Afram & Washington Okeyo & Charles Owusu Kwarteng, 2024. "Effect of School Leadership on Academic Performance of Public Senior High Schools in Ghana," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 8(3s), pages 4290-4304, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:8:y:2024:i:3s:p:4290-4304
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/Digital-Library/volume-8-issue-3s/4290-4304.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/articles/effect-of-school-leadership-on-academic-performance-of-public-senior-high-schools-in-ghana/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicholas Bloom & Renata Lemos & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2015. "Does Management Matter in schools?," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 0(584), pages 647-674, May.
    2. Berry, James & Karlan, Dean & Pradhan, Menno, 2018. "The Impact of Financial Education for Youth in Ghana," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 71-89.
    3. Ibrahim Mohammed Gunu, 2018. "Alternatives to School Exclusion in Ghana: Changing the Rhythm of Dealing With Truancy in Ghanaian High Schools," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(4), pages 21582440188, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bottazzi, Laura & Lusardi, Annamaria, 2021. "Stereotypes in financial literacy: Evidence from PISA," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Grohmann, Antonia & Klühs, Theres & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Does financial literacy improve financial inclusion? Cross country evidence," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 111, pages 84-96.
    3. Kaiser, Tim & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2022. "Active learning improves financial education: Experimental evidence from Uganda," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 157.
    4. Kaiser, Tim & Menkhoff, Lukas, 2018. "Active Learning Improves Financial Education:," Rationality and Competition Discussion Paper Series 131, CRC TRR 190 Rationality and Competition.
    5. Rodríguez, Catherine & Saavedra, Juan E., 2019. "The persistent effects of youth savings reminders: Experimental evidence from text-message campaigns in Colombia," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 135-156.
    6. Shiyou Wu & Mathieu R. Despard & Gina Chowa, 2017. "The Role of Parents in Introducing Children to Financial Services: Evidence from Ghana-YouthSave," Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 453-462, September.
    7. Blimpo, Moussa P. & Pugatch, Todd, 2021. "Entrepreneurship education and teacher training in Rwanda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    8. Lee, Yong Suk, 2018. "Modern management and the demand for technical skill," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 328-343.
    9. Ishizaka, Alessio & Resce, Giuliano, 2021. "Best-Worst PROMETHEE method for evaluating school performance in the OECD's PISA project," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    10. Tommaso Agasisti & Giuseppe Munda, 2017. "Efficiency of investment in compulsory education: An Overview of Methodological Approaches," JRC Research Reports JRC106681, Joint Research Centre.
    11. Bojidara Doseva & Catherine Dehon & Antonio Estache, 2025. "Can artificial intelligence help improve the financial literacy of primary schools’ students?," Working Papers ECARES 2025-13, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    12. Tommaso Agasisti & Francesco Avvisati & Francesca Borgonovi & Sergio Longobardi, 2021. "What School Factors are Associated with the Success of Socio-Economically Disadvantaged Students? An Empirical Investigation Using PISA Data," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 157(2), pages 749-781, September.
    13. Morshadul Hasan & Thuhid Noor & Jiechao Gao & Muhammad Usman & Mohammad Zoynul Abedin, 2023. "Rural Consumers’ Financial Literacy and Access to FinTech Services," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 14(2), pages 780-804, June.
    14. Mario BENASSI & Matteo LANDONI & Francesco RENTOCCHINI, 2017. "University Management Practices and Academic Spin-offs," Departmental Working Papers 2017-11, Department of Economics, Management and Quantitative Methods at Università degli Studi di Milano.
    15. Karlan, Dean & Linden, Leigh L., 2025. "Loose knots: Strong versus weak commitments to save for education in Uganda," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    16. repec:osf:osfxxx:b7zd6_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    17. Thomaz Teodorovicz & Sérgio Lazzarini & Sandro Cabral & Anita M. McGahan, 2024. "Investing in general human capital as a relational strategy: Evidence on flexible arrangements with contract workers," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 902-938, May.
    18. Sun, Yucheng & Zhou, Xianbo, 2022. "The effect of teacher's concurrent administrative position on students' academic outcomes: Evidence and mechanisms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    19. Sebhatu, Abiel & Wennberg, Karl & Lakomaa, Erik & Brandén, Maria, 2020. "Work Environment and Competition in Swedish Schools, 1999-2011," Ratio Working Papers 330, The Ratio Institute.
    20. Steinert, Janina I. & Zenker, Juliane & Filipiak, Ute & Movsisyan, Ani & Cluver, Lucie D. & Shenderovich, Yulia, 2018. "Do saving promotion interventions increase household savings, consumption, and investments in Sub-Saharan Africa? A systematic review and meta-analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 238-256.
    21. Vera Ogeh Lassey Fiador & Mohammed Amidu, 2021. "Inclusive finance, bank pricing behaviour, and livelihood activities of households in Ghana," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-29, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bcp:journl:v:8:y:2024:i:3s:p:4290-4304. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Dr. Pawan Verma (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://rsisinternational.org/journals/ijriss/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.