Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess or examine the practices and problems of public secondary school
principals in their instructional leadership in west Wollega Zone. The study employed a descriptive survey
method. Six (6) of the twenty-three (23) public secondary schools of West Wollega Zone served as sample for
the study. Data were gathered from public secondary school principals & teachers. The schools were selected
on the basis of simple random sampling. All of the principals and 40% of the teachers of the sampled public
secondary schools were included as participants of the study and source of information. Questionnaire and
interview were the main instruments used to collect data. The data were collected and analyzed using frequency
and percentages. The major findings of the study revealed that the performance of public secondary schools'
principals was not as expected. The findings of the study also identified major problems (challenges) that
hinder public secondary schools principals to carryout their instructional leadership. Those problems include
heavy administrative work load, lack of sufficient budget and school infrastructure, lack of educational
leadership training of principals & lack of community and PTA 's involvement. Based on these, the researcher
recommended that woreda education offices should: focus on field of study during the assignment of secondary
school principals, give attention to secondary schools by allocating timely annual budget to upgrade school
infrastructures; facilitate awareness raising programmes in local communities on how they can work with
school principals, and facilitate planned and continuous awareness creation training for PTA 's about the
concept and importance of working with principals. The researcher also recommended that the school
principals should redistribute power and authority among Vice principals, department heads and senior
teachers to effectively carry out instructional leadership,design regular meeting program with parents about
the status of school and the performance of students on a continuous basis to increase parental involvement,
and establish close partnership with Governmental, Non-Governmental and Local organizations such as Idir
and students' parents to alleviate the scarcity of financial and material resources faced in the school.
