PRINCIPALS' POLITICS OF SCHOOL LEADERSHIP AND ITS IMPACT ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE FOR NATIONAL COHESION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NASARAWA STATE

his study examined the principals’ politics of school leadership and its impact on students’ academic performance for national cohesion of secondary school in Nasarawa State. Two (2) research questions and two (2) hypotheses were formulated and tested for the study Descriptive survey design was adopted for study The population of the study was 600 students and 258 teachers and principals representing 20% of the total Population were sampled from three southerndistricts using stratified random sampling. The structured questionnaire developed by the researcher was used to collect data for the study. The instrument used for the data collection of the study was a modified four point- Likert type questionnaire of Strongly Agreed (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD). Frequencypercentageand mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the two research questions, while chi-square was used to test the two hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that principals' politics of school leadership on classroom management has significance on students' performance in secondary schools in Nasarawa state and principals' politics of school leadership on school environment has impact on students' performance. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that Principals' politics of school leadership and classroom management should be a collaborative team work with teachers and principals for daily practices to improve teachers and students performance in schools. Also that capacity building should be organized by government to enrich the principals with the adequate leadership on school environment require for teachers effectiveness in secondary school for effective and productive student's performance.