Abstract

The study determined principals’ professional development needs for enhancing the administration of public secondary schools in Anambra State. Three research questions guided the study and three hypotheses were tested at the 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 269 principals in the 269 public secondary schools in Anambra State. A census sampling technique was used to ensure all 269 principals participated in the study due to the relatively small size. The instrument for data collection was researchers-developed questionnaire titled ‘‘Professional Development Needs for enhancing School Administration Questionnaire (PDNSAQ)’’. The instrument was validated by three experts comprising two lecturers from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and the other a specialist in Measurement and Evaluation, all from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Cronbach's alpha was used to determine the reliability of the instrument, which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.79, 0.83 and 0.81 for clusters I, II and III, respectively, with an overall coefficient of 0.81. The researchers, together with three research assistants, collected data for the study using the direct approach method and a 98% return was recorded. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the t-test was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed, among others, that principals require professional development needs regarding human resource, financial and record management for enhancing the administration of public secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also found that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of more-experienced and less-experienced principals on their professional development needs regarding human resource management for enhancing the administration of secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that the Ministry of Education should organize an annual seminar for principals to upgrade their skills and knowledge of human resource management for enhancing the administration of secondary schools.