SCHOOL LEADERSHIP, HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERVENTIONS AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PUBLIC SENIOR HIGH SCHOOLS IN GHANA

Abstract

The enhancement of secondary education in Ghana has been a focus of significant reforms since independence. Despite these efforts, reforms to improve academic performance in second-cycle schools have not fully achieved their goals. According to the Ghana Education Service and the Ministry of Education, pass rates in core subjects have improved from 2006 to 2021. However, performance in these subjects still falls below 40%. This persistent underperformance has been attributed to school leadership and their capacity to effectively implement a vision for enhancing teachers' skills and knowledge. This study examines the moderating effect of human resource development interventions on the relationship between school leadership and academic performance in public senior high schools in Ghana. Anchored in distributed leadership and social learning theories, the study uses a positivist approach to analyze these relationships systematically. A cross-sectional design was employed, utilizing self-administered questionnaires to collect data from a target population of 928 public senior high schools listed by the Ghana Education Service as of December 2023. A cluster-stratified random sampling technique selected 2176 respondents from 16 strata. Data was processed and analyzed using SPSS version 27. The analysis included both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study found a positive significant correlation (R= 0.669) between school leadership and academic performance. The study further found that human resource development interventions significantly moderated (R= 0.289) the relationship and strengthened the effect of school leadership on academic performance. The study recommends that the Ministry and relevant agencies appoint competent school leaders to senior high schools. Stakeholders should also implement policies and practices that enhance teachers' pedagogical skills, as this is crucial for improving academic performance. Additionally, future research should examine the same variables in the entire secondary education scope of Ghana and other countries. Investigating other mediating and moderating variables could further illuminate the relationship between school leadership and academic performance.