CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This chapter comprises the background of the study, statement of the problem, research hypotheses, objective, purpose and significance of the study and definition of related terms.
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
A school is an institution of learning and in it there is a head teacher. The head teacher is considered to be the most knowledgeable and leader of the school in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In Scotland, such officials are sometimes known as rectors. In America, public schools such as Boston Latin School and Miltipas High School also use the term head teacher either because of its history.
Ideally, the head teacher’s position is one of the oldest administrative positions in the Cameroonian school system. It differs today and it is much more difficult than it was many years ago. In the early years of educational development in Cameroon, the need for a head teacher was not emphatically necessary simply because the schools were small usually with one teacher in charge of the entire school programme. Supervision at the time was little and was often provided for by a board of laymen serving as coordinators.
But with the increased demand for education and large pupils’ enrolment in big cities, primary schools grew to have many teachers and many classrooms. The need then arose for someone to coordinate the activities of the school by supervising the other teachers in an effort to improve the educational institution. This person, often the oldest but usually the most experienced teacher in the staff, was often appointed the head teacher. Because of his wealth of knowledge and experience, he is regarded as a person of wisdom within the school system, and leader to whom those under him could look up to. He is an administrative head, a manager, a community relation man, a supervisor as well as an institutional leader, a curriculum innovator and a catalyst towards planned educational revolution.
As a supervisor, head...