A Comparative Analysis of Principals’ Decision-Making Process in Public and Mission Secondary Schools and School Performances

The purpose of this study was to compare the influence the decision-making process of principals in Public and Mission secondary schools has on school performance in. Seven hundred and eleven (711) questionnaires were used to collect data on the influence of the decision making by consultation, delegation of powers, communication and motivation from 08 public and 05 Mission secondary schools. These schools had a population of 665 and 224 teachers respectively. The sample for the study was five hundred and twelve (512) teachers for public schools and one hundred and ninety-nine (199) teachers for mission schools. Ten (10) interview guides were administered to principals. A descriptive research design and a mix method of qualitative and quantitative approach was adopted for the study. Taro Yamani sampling and simple random sampling techniques were employed. The instruments were subjected to form and content validation by some teachers and principals of secondary schools in Limbe. Cronbach alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument which yielded a high reliability coefficient for public schools 0.797 and for mission schools the coefficient was 0 .907. The Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significant. Based on the findings, it was revealed that consulting of teachers, delegation of powers, effective communication and motivation of teachers during decision-making had a strong positive relationship with school performance. The coefficient was 0.753 and 0.903 for consultation, 0.620 and 0.798 for delegating powers, 0.772 and 0.951 for effective communication and for motivation, it was 0.685 and 0.895 respectively. It was therefore recommended that principals of public schools during decision-making should always consult, delegate powers, carry out effective communication and motivate their teachers as carried out in mission secondary schools for excellent school performance. Thus, the decision making process of principals in mission secondary schools positively influence school performance more than that which is carried out in public secondary schools in Limbe Sub-Division, Fako Division.