The study investigated the influence of leadership strategies on quality education service delivery in the Bayelsa Education Development Trust Fund. Five specific objectives were formulated, five research questions were raised, and five null hypotheses were stated to guide the study. The study was anchored on contingency theory of leadership. A descriptive design was used to carry out the study. The population of the study consisted of 3,797 respondents, comprised 2,893 teachers and 904 lecturers from Bayelsa State. A stratified simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Leadership Strategies and Quality Education Service Delivery Questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated and tested for reliability, with a reliability index of 0.863 derived through Cronbach Alpha reliability statistic. Out of the total copies of 346 questionnaires distributed, 335 copies of the questionnaire retrieved were used for further analysis to achieve the specific objectives of the study. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions, while the null hypotheses were tested using independent t-test at the 0.05 significance level. The findings of the study revealed, among other things, that democratic and charismatic leadership strategy will influence the quality of education service delivery by the Bayelsa EDTF to a very high extent. The study concluded that there is a need for the Bayelsa EDTF to adopt a more participatory leadership style that involves staff in decision-making processes and encourages their input in the implementation of education service delivery policies to improve the quality of education in public secondary and tertiary institutions. The study, therefore, recommended, among others, that the Bayelsa education development trust fund should adopt a democratic leadership style to improve the quality of education service delivery and ensure that all stakeholders are involved in decision-making processes.
Keywords: autocratic leadership, charismatic leadership., democratic leadership, laissez-faire leadership, transactional leadership.
