The School Head as an Instructional Leader in Zimbabwe Secondary Schools

Abstract

This paper presents evidence obtained from a survey of secondary school heads in government schools, church schools, and rural day schools about functions performed by those heads, characteristics of secondary school heads and problems constraining heads from discharging their duties effectively and efficiently. The evidence shows that: 1. The majority of rural secondary schools are administered by inexperienced and lowly qualified and untrained heads who also' have heavy teaching loads. 2. The majority of school heads possess minimal or no knowledge in technical subjects, a situation which appears not supportive of the implementation of the policy of vocationalization of secondary school education. 3. While the thrust in secondary school education is on technical education, school heads do not consider the training of students in technical fields as a top priority for secondary schools. To the contrary, heads consider character building and preparation for post-secondary programmes as top priorities for secondary schools. 4. Secondary school heads devote most of their time on administrative duties thereby neglecting the critical activities in the curriculum and instructional domains.