Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to assess the influence of secondary school principals’ leadership roles in development of students’ non-academic talents in Nyandarua County Kenya. Specifically, this study sought to establish the influence of secondary school principals’ roles of supervision and motivation of students and teachers, utilizing allocated resources, preparing schools’ calendar of events, guiding and counseling as well as identifying ways of strengthening their capacities in promoting development of learners’ non-academic talents namely; creative arts, athletics, ball games and leadership among students in Nyandarua County, Kenya. The study was guided by Experiential Learning Theory by Carl Rodgers which distinguishes two types of learning: cognitive ‘less significant’ and experiential ‘significant’. Survey research design was used for this study to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. The target population comprised of 185 secondary schools, 1,170 principals, 49,750 students and 185 parents representatives. By means of questionnaires, Quantitative data was obtained from the survey of 35 principals, 135 teachers and 688 students from 40 secondary schools in the county selected using stratified random sampling technique. Qualitative data on the other hand, was gathered from in-depth interview of 25 parents’ representatives using an interview schedule. The data was then transcribed and categorized into emerging themes before being coded and analyzed using methods with the help of the SPSS V 20 statistical package to produce descriptive statistics. The study revealed that development of learners’ non-academic talents was being affected by inadequate training for the principals and teachers, inadequate supply of resources by the MOE and lack of recognition of students who excel in non-academic talents. The study recommended that secondary school education policy makers, MOE officials, principals and teachers give development of learners’ non-academic talents as much emphasis as the academic talents development.
