Ihc purpose o c is ~tudy b 10 investigate the practice and challenges thar principals face while practicing rhei iqstructional leadership role adopted by Gubalafitc woreda primary schools. The study revicwu: the related literature on leadership aspects, dimensions of instructional leadership, the 1ciles of instructional leadership, and uuempts were also made to ideruify factors that affect the cl cctivcncss of instructional leadership. In order IO meet the objectives of the study dcscripnvejsurvey research method was employed usini; u combination of comprehensive (teachers and 11i11cip11l) and simple random (for supervisors and school) sampling technique. The study was can "'' out on a population of 92-1 teachers with a sample consisted of 144 teacher> taken from 8 Hri pie schoolv, for data collection Hallinger and Murphy's principal insl.CUCtional management rt i g scale and self-prepared questionnaire for rhc challenges were administered. Moreover inte rv ew and do1;11111t:nl consultation conducted in order tc triangulate the data obtained from 4~ .stionnairc. For data analysis and iutcrprcunion mean and non-parametric test chi-square wer]; ~ sed. Despite this, the level of instructional leadership was practiced sometimes. Specifically, drn unicating sc.hool goals, providing prolessional development and proper use of incentives for te, chers are some of the problematic. areas that need improvements. Similarly. leadership pra 111 cs have strong relation with teachers' level of education and years of service. On the other hmI problems created by organizational and environmental factors such as, lack of budget, lack o· .t ection and recruitment, lack uf'community participation, lack of incentives and motivation. an J I ocl.. of well-articulated common vision were a serlous problem~ that hamper the instructional I ,1c~r!;hip. tsased on this finding, the researcher recommends teacher>, leaders, woreda educa 1·.>· office and the community must stand beside si.:hool~ in the area providing incentives anc p ofessional development with evaluating its impacr on student achievement ..