IMPACT OF SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP ON SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION IN ZONE ‘A’ BENUE STATE NIGERIA

Description

Abstract

This study investigated impact of school community relationship on secondary school administration in Zone A, Senatorial district of Benue State. Five research questions and five hypotheses guided the study. The literature review was carried out under different sub-shadings namely; theoretical/conceptual framework, empirical studies and the summary. The review has clearly identified school community relationship variables as important ingredients for secondary school administration. The survey design was adapted to carryout the study. Out of 1713 teachers from 119 secondary schools, 342 teachers in 30 secondary schools were sampled for the study. A structured 30 item modified 4 point rating scale questionnaire was designed by the researcher to collect data for the study. The data obtained for study was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions, while Chi-square X2 test was used to test the hypotheses. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The findings showed that, school community relationship significantly impacts on funding of schools facilities, provision of instructional materials to schools, discipline in schools, decision making in schools, and that, the community socioeconomic character significantly affects the quality of school products. The researcher recommended that, able bodied community members should assist their community schools in funding facilities, that schools should form their Old Students association or activate their Parents Teachers Association to enhance their regular support to Teaching/Learning activities, and that schools should involve their communities in their administration to combat cases of indiscipline, and also to attract more support in times of needs, and finally that, the government should assist poor communities in funding facilities to arrest differences in academic performance. The researcher therefore suggested that, this research should be replicated on a larger scale in other zones of Benue State to enhance generalization of results.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1Background of the study:

Educational enterprise has become a costly venture, which the government alone can hardly shoulder, hence the need for the participation of other stakeholders. The National Policy on Education. FRN 2004:4 states that, the financing of education is a joint responsibility of the Federal, State Local Government, communities, individuals, private Organizations or Interest Groups. Henderson, 1999:35 also agreed that,

Schools and policy makers cannot do the job nor solve all educational problems alone. The help of others, therefore, must be enlisted. The help and advice of the members of the immediate community may be one way to find means to improve education.

The involvement of other stakeholders has been imperative because the government has other services to render apart from educational services to the masses. The amount of money allocated to education is therefore too small to meet the high demand for education. Akpa 2002:64 concords that, there are no ample demonstrations of that political will to commit adequate resources to education; and yet social demand for education is souring. The involvement of other stakeholders, particularly the community, is quite a welcome idea because schools are established for the community members, and naturally, it is pertinent that communities should have a say in the type of professionals needed for their consumption, and how schools are going about it….