Abstract
This study investigated principals’ administrative behaviour on students’ academic performance in senior secondary schools in North-Central, Nigeria. The research design was descriptive. Five hypotheses were tested at 0.05 levels of significance. Structured questionnaire used for the study was titled “Principals’’ Administrative Behaviour Questionnaire” (PLBQ) while the qualitative data on student academic performance was collected using students’ proforma titled ” Students’ Academic Performance Profoma” used to harness students’ scores in WASSCE from 2015 to 2024. This was pilot tested. The target population of this study is made up of 12,364 teachers and 510 principals in the public senior secondary schools in the Education Zones of Niger, Nasarawa and Kogi, North-Central, Nigeria. The sample size for this study were 370 teachers and 51 principals drawn from the 51 sampled senior secondary schools in Niger State, Nasarawa State and Kogi State. Additionally, the sample size of principals was derived based on the number of schools and principals taken. The SAPP was designed to collect students’ academic scores in WASSCE from 2015 to 2024 from the 51 sampled public senior secondary schools covering Niger, Nasarawa, and Kogi States. The hypotheses tests revealed that principals’ administrative behavior such as: leadership, communication, decision-making, conflict management and supervision have a great influence on students’ academic performance. It was therefore recommended that senior secondary school principals in North-central, Nigeria should continually use the administrative behavior that will enhance and improve students’ academic performance in their schools.