The main purpose of the study was to determine the principals’ application of students’ satisfaction and leadership principles of total quality management for secondary school improvement in Anambra State. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Anambra State. The population of the study comprised 6664 principals and teachers (258 principals and 6406 teachers) from the 258 public secondary schools in the six education zones of the State. The sample of this study was 1999 respondents made up of 77 principals and 1922 teachers in secondary schools in Anambra State. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The instrument was validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. The questionnaire reliability was ascertained through a pilot test. The data collected were analyzed with Cronbach Alpha and coefficient values of 0.75 and 0.77 for the two clusters with an overall reliability co-efficient value of 0.76 for the instrument. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as arithmetic mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics specifically the t-test. Findings revealed that principals applied students’ satisfaction and leadership principles to a moderate extent.

Keywords : Principals; Application; Students; Satisfaction; Leadership Principles; School Improvement; Secondary School; Total Quality Management.