East African Journal of Education Studies

The purpose of the research study was set to investigate the impact of heads of secondary schools’ managerial skills on students’ academic performance in Morogoro Municipality in Tanzania. The specific objectives were to determine the managerial skills possessed by heads of secondary schools which influenced academic performance in Morogoro municipality, to find out how heads of secondary schools’ managerial skills influenced the students’ academic performance and measures of improving heads of schools’ management skills in Morogoro Municipality in Tanzania. The saturated sampling technique was used to identify the respondents for the study. Thus, all respondents were given opportunity to participate in the study. Twenty-three heads of secondary schools within Morogoro Municipality were involved in the study. The data were collected through closed-ended questionnaires for quantitative data and open-ended questionnaires for qualitative data. The instrument reliability was tested using Cronbach Coefficient Alpha where the coefficient of 0.757 was realized and it was considered reliable. The quantitative data were presented in the APA tables for discussion whereas the qualitative data were analysed thematically. The results revealed that most heads of schools were


INTRODUCTION
Recent years, have seen rapid changes in education system in African countries, due to new technological, cultural, and political impacts which necessitated appropriate approaches in teaching and learning process and management of schools (Omer, 1996). Moreover, Marvel and Morton (2006), in the study of characteristics of principals in USA described the principal as the most powerful single person in a school. It is the principal's management skills that set the school's style, the teaching climate, the teachers' morale, and professional's development so as to influence students' academic performance. In addition, MOE (2013) in Addis Ababa revealed that, due to poor managerial skills of the heads of schools, the students' academic performance is criterion to judge effectiveness and efficiency of the heads of schools. Principals should be developer by putting more in developing academic performance. Furthermore, Okumbe (2001) in Kenya supported that heads of schools should be able to put more skills in the development of students' academic performance.
In Nigeria, Akpan (2012) supported the view that in order to achieve the goals, the educational institutions need effective management. The central theme of organizational management is harnessing of both human and material resources with the aim of achieving desired goals and objectives. The educational manager must have the ability and the requisite skills to intelligently manage the available educational resources for successful performance.
Furthermore, Magoma (2017) in Tanzania reported that, the good school performance can only be reached by having well skilled heads of schools to manage secondary schools. The trend of the performance reports for the past five years (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) from the certificate of secondary education examination (CSEE) in Tanzania leave a lot of doubt on effectiveness of school managerial skills to ensure high standards of performance. The uncertainties were by the manner in which managerial skills were used to manage for effective teaching and learning. According to Gaparay (2008), almost all wards in most of the regions had constructed secondary schools and had students already selected with insufficient number of teachers. This led to appointment of incompetent and effective school administrators characterized with poor basic administrative skills, hence failed to become effective administrators.
The literature review demonstrated that management skills are important for many reasons. They position the head teacher to act as an effective leader who motivates teachers, hence academic improvement. Moreover, head of school is the answer to the general running of the school and academic improvement. Effective leaders drive their organization towards success (Hurley, 2015). Through the management skills, heads of schools may use different strategies to influence students' academic performance. Some of strategies are teachers team building, management of educational resources, creating conducive learning environment, preparation of remedial programmes, staff appraisal and motivation, maintain staff and students' discipline, and managing examinations in school and national level. Komba (2008) in Tanzania commented on a number of ways through which heads of schools can develop the managerial skills which give abilities to lead schools for effective academic performance. The management skills development programmes include continuing professional development, inservice, pre and post succession to headship, and mentoring. The study further indicated that different managerial programmes can help head teachers to maintain, improve, and broaden their knowledge, skills, and personal qualities to lead the schools so as to improve students' performance.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The researcher used survey research design. Thus, the researcher aimed at finding facts as they were without manipulating information (Kothari, 2009). The research design made the research efficient as possible for collection of maximum information with reasonable efforts, time, and costs. Moreover, it ensured the research methods matched with research aims, collection of quality data, and analysis of data correctly.
Target populations are all people under consideration in any field of inquiry which constitute a universe or targeted population (Orodho, 2009). According to District Secondary School Education office (DSSEO) (2012) the target population during the study were twenty -three heads of secondary schools from public schools in Morogoro Municipality, to whom the questionnaire was administered.
This study deployed a mixed research approach which facilitated the collection of both qualitative and quantitative methods in data gathering and analysis. The advantage of using mixed research approach was that, the combination of qualitative and quantitative approaches provided a more complete understanding of a research problem than either one approach alone (Creswell, 2012).
In a view of the number of public secondary schools in Morogoro Municipality, the study employed saturated sampling technique, thus all respondents were given opportunity to participate in the study. A total of twenty-three heads of public schools presented the entire heads of schools in Morogoro produced valid results while reducing time and resources.
To ensure reliability of the instrument in this study, piloting was done. A sample of twenty heads of Secondary schools from Morogoro District Council which is different from the study area was for this study. The reliability statistics showed that the Conbach's Alpha was set to test reliability which yielded a correlation of 0.757. This was found to be reliable.
The instrument for research included open ended questionnaire and closedended questionnaire which collected qualitative and quantitative data respectively. According to Creswell (2012), these survey forms of instruments were preferred due to economic and rapid turn-around in data collection.
The data analysis was carried out through descriptive statistics whereby percentages, frequency distribution, mean scores and Standard deviation were calculated using the Statistical Package for Social sciences (SPSS) 22 version.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
The first objective for this study was set to establish the managerial skills possessed by the heads of secondary schools and have the impact on academic performance in secondary schools. In this objective, the researcher constructed set of questions with closed ended statement to examine the managerial skills possessed by heads of schools. The managerial skills addressed included orientation of new staff for their new roles, financial management skills, communication skill, work ethics, staff supervision and evaluation, participatory decision making, ICT and its application skills, students' management, Information dissemination on new changes on time. Determination of appropriate staff for academic performance and staff welfare service. The respondents were asked to put a tick on the most appropriate items as to whether they agreed, neutral, or disagreed. Table 1 presents the summary of the distribution of respondents on the managerial skills of the heads of secondary schools.  (2022) The Table 1 above shows the first objective which was set to find out the management skills possessed by heads of schools to enhance academic performance in Morogoro Municipality. The findings revealed that most heads of schools possessed enough competences such as orientation of heads of schools to their new roles, public relations skills, students management skills, staff welfare services, risk taking skills, participatory decision making skills, information and dissemination on changes on time, delegation skills, financial management skills, determination of appropriate staff, work ethics, communication skills, and work ethics which enhanced students' academic performance.
The second objective for this study was set to establish the influence of heads of secondary schools' managerial skills on academic performance. The respondents were asked to put a tick on the most appropriate items as to whether they agreed or disagreed. Table 2 presents the summary of the distribution of respondents on the influence of heads of secondary schools' managerial skills on academic performance.  (2022) The Table 2 above shows the second objective which was the influence of heads of schools' managerial skills on students' academic performance in Morogoro Municipality. The results revealed that Remedial intervention for slow learners, examination management, motivation for teachers, creation for conducive learning environment, time management, management of available educational resources, problem solving, and team building skill, maintain staff and students' discipline, and staff appraisal were most strategies used to influence students' academic performance in Morogoro Municipality.
Third objective for this study was set to establish the influence of heads of secondary schools' managerial skills on academic performance. The respondents were asked to put a tick on the most appropriate items as to whether they agreed or disagreed. Table  3 presents the summary of the distribution of respondents on the managerial skills of the heads of secondary schools.  (2022) The Table 3 above shows the third objective which was measures of improving heads of schools' management skill to enhance academic performance in Morogoro Municipality. The findings showed the following measures such as attending meetings, Seminars, leadership capacity building, in service training, mentoring, induction courses, leadership coaching and provision of professional development, electronic training and attending workshops were necessary for improving heads of schools' managerial skills which are vital in enhancing students' academic performance.

CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that heads of schools had enough managerial competences which influenced students' academic performance. However, there were some challenges encountered by heads of schools due to fact that some heads of schools were new in position hence were faced with some challenges in their new roles. Furthermore, poor ICT knowledge and complex environment with confronting social issues made the heads of schools to be in a dilemma on the competencies that would make impact on academic performance in secondary schools. It thus means that there is the need for heads schools to be given orientation on the competencies they would require in order to fit into their jobs and impact positive on student's academic performance.