New and Unexpected Demographic Challenges to Educational Leadership in Nigeria

The result of our study shows that educational leadership and management, from time to time, experiences new and unexpected demographic challenges which include wanton violence, migration, and disproportionate rise in student population, regional wars and kidnapping. Such situations affect leadership and the management of education with regard to enrolment of students, their attendance and retention. The study was a survey and used as cohort all the 90 post primary schools in the seven Local Government Councils in Plateau State. Two instruments; a questionnaire and the attendance registers were used for the study. Against the background provided by the findings a number of recommendations were made to achieve equitable management in such situations. The result strongly recommends for leadership a democratic, visionary leader actively involved and committed to change based on collective agreement, belief and values of everyone concerned with quality education. DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2015.v5n1p3