Relationship between Principal's Technical Skills and Students' Academic Performance in Public Secondary Schools in Mt Elgon Sub-County.

Student academic performance in secondary level of education is essential as it is a determinant of their future pathway to tertiary education. The effective performance of students in academics is dependent on the technical leadership skills that their principal applies in leading their schools. Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations by public secondary schools in Mount Elgon Sub County has been below average in recent years. The aim of this paper was to investigate how technical skills of principals affected the academic performance of students in public secondary schools in Mount Elgon Sub County, Bungoma County, Kenya. The study is anchored on descriptive survey research design targeting 17 public secondary schools in Mount Elgon Sub County. A total of 256 teachers formed the study population. A sample size of 152 teachers was selected based on Kathuri and Pals table. The respondents were selected through use of stratified random sampling technique. The research instrument used was a questionnaire. To ensure validity and reliability the questionnaire was send to an expert in the pilot study and test- retest method was conducted respectively. Analysis of data was performed using descriptive and inferential statistics with the help of SPSS (Version 25.0) for quantitative data. It was established that there was significant weak positive relationship between principals' technical skills (r=0.248, p=0.006) and academic performance of students in public secondary schools in Mount Elgon Sub County. The study concludes that there was significant weak positive relationship between principal's technical leadership skills and performance by students in secondary schools (p<0.05). This meant that the technical leadership skills application by principals influenced academic performance of their schools. The study recommends that principals should undergo training on ICT use, principals to ensure that they provide instructional guidance to teachers and ensure that prudent financial management practices are implemented in their schools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]