Administrative practices and attainment of academic goals in seed secondary schools in Ngora district, Uganda

Abstract

Although the phenomenon of attaining academic goals in Seed secondary schools is supported by the Ministry of Education and Sports, it has suffered from lack of attention for decades. The study was guided by specific research objectives which included: determining the influence of planning, leadership, organizing on attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools and identifying ways and strategies that school administrators can use to improve attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools. The study used descriptive research design and the case study was Ngora District of Uganda. The study used purposive and simple random sampling during sample with a sample size of 80 respondents including students, head teachers and teachers. Data was collected using questionnaires and interviews. Data from questionnaires was analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) while interview data was analyzed using frequency. Qualitative and regression analysis were used to present data using different methods such as simple frequency tables. Findings on objective one of planning and attainment of academic goals in SEED Secondary Schools in Ngora District, revealed that planning is used to attain academic goals in SEED Secondary Schools in Ngora District. However, the study findings also revealed that planning does not significantly influence (R2 = 0.12, p = 0.000) attainment of academic goals in SEED Secondary Schools in Ngora District. Concerning objective two of influence of leadership on attainment of academic goals in SEED Secondary Schools in Ngora District, findings showed that leadership is not properly utilized and yet it is very significant (R2= 0.181, p= 0.000) in attainment of academic goals in SEED Secondary Schools in Ngora District. The study findings also revealed that leadership is strongly correlated to attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools in Ngora District by 8.1%. Objective three findings on organizing and attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools in Ngora District, findings show that organizing is not properly utilized and yet it is very significant (r = 0.484 p = 0.000) in attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools in Ngora District. The study findings also revealed that Organizing was strongly correlated to attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools in Ngora District by 8.4%. These results meant that organizing has the capacity to stimulate attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools in Ngora District by 8.4% if they are properly adopted by Seed Secondary School Administrators. On the fourth objective findings revealed that strategies had a significant relationship to Attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools as indicated by a Pearson correlation coefficient of r = 0.484 p = 0.000. This implies that ways and strategies have only 48% influence on the attainment of academic goals in Seed Secondary Schools in Ngora District. In addition, the overall mean μ= 2.5 implies that the strategies are at a high level. The study recommended that government should build the capacity of planning for school administrators in Seed secondary schools to attain academic goals, Seed secondary school administrators should take advantage of various leadership practices that can enable them attain academic goals, and the administrators of these schools should collaborate with stakeholders within education sector in organizing if academic goals are to be attained.