Leadership Skills, Principals, Secondary Schools, Government Schools, Private Schools, Gender.

Leadership is one of the important factors that influence the operations, growth and educational climate of educational institutions. The principal, the head of the school in terms of its educational and administrative work, is required to offer guidance, to encourage teachers and students, to organize the action of the school and to foster the climate of learning. The present study is focused on leadership ability of the principals in government and private secondary school in Ghaziabad city. Leadership is studied as a multi-dimensional phenomenon which includes communication, honesty and integrity, decision making, vision and innovation, motivation, administration, cooperation and empathy, and stress management. It also explores the leadership competencies in relation to two variables, type of school and gender. From the review of the literature, it is observed that there are some dimensions of school functioning that are related to leadership effectiveness such as school effectiveness, teacher effectiveness, academic achievement, school climate and school professional development. From the literature reviewed, however, it is discovered that there is a need for systematic comparative study of leadership skills at both the government and private secondary schools as well as between male principals and female principals. The present study aims to do that by investigating the above mentioned elements of leadership in the case of secondary school principals of Ghaziabad.