Head teachers’ Instructional Leadership Practices and Students’ Academic Achievement in Selected Public Lower Secondary Schools in Nyagatare District, Rwanda

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of head teachers’ instructional leadership practices on students’ academic achievements in selected public lower secondary schools in Nyagatare District. The study’sobjective were to find out the instructional leadership practices of head teachers, and the challenges head teachers face while applying instructional leadership practices in the selected public lower secondary schools in Nyagatare District. A simple randomly sampling was employed to select 57 teachers from lower secondary schools, while 21 head teachers were purposively selected. The data were collected via questionnaires from the teachers and interviews from head teachers. The Statistics Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to analyze quantitative data whereas qualitative data were analyzed thematically. The findings indicated that instructional leadership was rarely practiced by most head teachers in the public lower secondary schools of Nyagatare district. Based on the finding of the study, it was recommended that lower secondary school head teachers apply instructional leadership practices daily to enhance students' academic performance. Training head teachers on the importance of these practices is crucial for effective teaching and learning, improving teachers' careers, and boosting student success.