Appraisal Of Community Participation In The Administration Of Public Secondary Schools

Appraisal Of Community Participation In The Administration Of Public Secondary Schools
Abstract
This study was carried out to examine community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State. The study was specifically carried out to assess the areas in which the community participates the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State; assess the factors affecting community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State; and assess the strategies for enhancing community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State. The survey design was adopted and the simple random sampling techniques were employed in this study. The population size comprise of principals and head teachers of some selected public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State. In determining the sample size, the researcher conveniently selected 57 respondents and 50 were validated. Self-constructed and validated questionnaire was used for data collection. The collected and validated questionnaires were analyzed using frequency tables, and mean scores. While the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square statistical tool. The result of the findings reveals that communities do not effectively participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State. The study also revealed that the factors affecting community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State includes; inability to mobilize interests for participation, poor financial background, non-participative leadership style, the belief that education is essentially the responsibility of the government, and ignorance of the structure, functions and constrains of the school. Therefore, it is recommended that in order to have a maximum realization of the goal of secondary education in Nigeria, there is the need for greater cooperation between the school and the community. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that each school should have a committee on School-Community Cooperation for Improved Education Output (S-CCIEO). The SCCIEO if nurtured shall be a management team made up the community members, the principal, and other relevant staff of the school. Such committee can take a semblance of the Parent-Teachers Association; hence the relevant laws or rules establishing the PTA may be amended to pave way for the S-CCIEO. To mention but a few.
Table of Content
- Title Page
- Certification
- Dedication
- Acknowledgement
- Table of Content
- List of Tables
- Abstract
Chapter One:
Introduction
- 1.1 Background of the Study
- 1.2 Statement of the Problem
- 1.3 Objective of the Study
- 1.4 Research Questions
- 1.5 Research Hypothesis
- 1.6 Significance of the Study
- 1.7 Scope of the Study
- 1.8 Limitation of the Study
- 1.9 Definition of Terms
- 1.10 Organisations of the Study
Chapter Two:
Review of Literature
- 2.1 Conceptual Framework
- 2.2 Theoretical Framework
- 2.3 Empirical Review
Chapter Three:
Research Methodology
- 3.1 Research Design
- 3.2 Population of the Study
- 3.3 Sample Size Determination
- 3.4 Sample Size Selection Technique and Procedure
- 3.5 Research Instrument and Administration
- 3.6 Method of Data Collection
- 3.7 Method of Data Analysis
- 3.8 Validity of the Study
- 3.9 Reliability of the Study
- 3.10 Ethical Consideration
Chapter Four:
Data Presentation and Analysis
- 4.1 Data Presentation
- 4.2 Analysis of Data
- 4.3 Answering Research Questions
- 4.4 Test of Hypotheses
Chapter Five:
Summary, Conclusion and Recommendation
- 5.1 Summary
- 5.2 Conclusion
- 5.3 Recommendation
- REFERENCES
- APPENDIX
- QUESTIONNAIRE
Chapter One
Introduction
1.1 Background of the Study
Education is recognized as the cornerstone for sustainable development. Education is a veritable instrument for achieving economic development and social transformation of every society. Fertig (2000)regards education as a social responsibility that every citizen should enjoy as a member of a country and that everyone has a right to education. Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004) also accepted education as an instrument that brings about even and orderly development for a country. Senge (2006) opined that socio-economic development of any nation hinges on its level of educational development. The author further stressed that any country that fails to educate her citizens is trying with the level of her development; hence education is regarded as an investment which must yield high dividend.
Consequently, Ogundele (2008) noted that Nigeria as a country is faced with a lot of crises in her educational industry. These crises had been attributed to inadequate funding, poor and irregular payment of salaries, students’ population explosion, poor teachers’ job satisfaction, and inadequate supply of educational facilities and needed equipment for effective teaching learning process. The result of this brings about low quality and fallen standard of education in our secondary school system. The filmsy excuse of the government is that government alone cannot take up total responsibilities of education that it has to be paid for by all and sundry.
Because the government is unable to address these problems, community engagement in the management of public secondary schools becomes unavoidable. Influence, according to Bondesio (2000), is the capacity to elicit desired and quantifiable behaviors and results. In Nigeria, it seems that community members may engage in secondary school administration. In this research, community influence refers to community activities that result in positive transformation and efficient and effective secondary school administration. The research is being utilized in this context to evaluate the impact of community involvement in the management of public secondary schools. Effective and efficient management determines the secondary school system’s ability to achieve its goals. As a result, the school exists for the community, and the community exists for the school and serves as its customers. Administration is the capacity to put people in functioning order by instructing them what to do and how to do it in order to achieve a certain goal. Administration is described as the practice of working with and through people to achieve organizational objectives effectively (Aguba, 2009). Administration, according to Veig (2001) in Olowe (2007), is “decided activity done in pursuit of a deliberate goal.” It is the matching of available labor and resources in order to get the desired outcome at the lowest possible cost in terms of energy, time, and money (Famade, 2004).
The primary aim of administration is to coordinate people and material resources in order to achieve specified goals. In this research, secondary school administration refers to the degree to which secondary schools accomplish their objectives by creating students who have acquired information, are disciplined, and have developed suitable skills and a moral value system that allows them to participate in society. To get things done successfully, it involves collaborating with and via instructors, non-teaching personnel, and students.
Every school is part of a neighborhood (Abraham, 2003). This is because the school’s catchment area is determined by the community. A community, according to Ngoka (2003), is a group of individuals who live in the same area and have a similar religious, racial, cultural, and historical history, as well as a desire to collaborate.
Community participation in school administration is the process by which communities take responsibility for their own well-being and develop the ability to contribute to the development of their schools by participating in decision-making processes related to setting goals and pursuing issues that matter to them (Greenwood, 2009). Community involvement, according to the author, is the process of enhancing and achieving community members’ commitment to common goals via consultation in decision-making, goal-setting, collaboration, and other similar methods. The Parent Teachers Association (PTA), the Board of Governors (BOG), the School Based Management Committee (SBMC), the Old-Student Association, social groups, and the Women’s Association are among the community participants in the research. This research, however, is limited to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Board of Governors (BOG), and school administrators.
Community involvement in schools takes the form of managing schools through the Parent Teachers Association (PTA), Board of Governors (BOG), and School Based Management Committee (SBMC), as well as designing curriculum, serving as resource persons to teach about some culture-oriented themes, protecting and maintaining school property, and supervising and monitoring pupils’ attendance at school. The school board’s goal is to see whether implementing the community participation approach for lifelong learning is feasible. The PTA, BOG, and Principal are examples of formal governance systems that allow parents and the community to engage in their children’s education.
Communities assist in the provision of necessary educational resources and infrastructures for proper school administration, such as classrooms, libraries, and hostel accommodation, as well as maintaining facilities through a variety of activities such as educational endowment funds, construction of new buildings, provision of reading materials, repairs and maintenance of existing structures, and provision of educational endowment funds (Ofougwuka, 2005). Communities also fence the school property and provide public amenities like as a toilet at the school, according to Ofougwuka. Communities under the umbrella of the Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A) offer sufficient classroom, laboratory, and office buildings, according to Harb and El-shaarawi (2006). In addition, the community, via the Parent Teachers Association and the Board of Governors, performs many responsibilities, including maintaining school discipline (Ugwu, 2000). Udensi (2003) found that community involvement in secondary school administration in Lagos State aided in maintaining school discipline. Discipline is essential for maintaining an efficient learning environment in the classroom, and it necessitates a high level of community participation. According to Shamrock (2002), schools must keep constant touch with parents in the community in order to detect the child’s overall issues at home and at school. This shows that school-community interactions are critical for preserving school discipline and improving secondary school administration. However, does the community in which the school is located participate in the management of public secondary schools in Delta state? One of the things the researcher needs to know is the answer to this question.
The neighborhood in which the school is located is a focal point for community participation in the school’s decision-making process. The process of identifying issues, developing potential solutions, selecting one, and putting it into action is known as decision making (Holt, 2004). The whole instructional curriculum for their schools is decided by the school administration, PTAs, BOGs, and elected community leaders working together. These stakeholders collaborated on a decision-making process and were in charge of their own finances, allowing them to concentrate on curriculum and program development, collegial decision-making, and strategic planning (Donald, 2005).
Communities must be included in the decision-making process at public secondary schools in Delta state, according to secondary school principals. This will improve and deepen the school-community relationship, allowing communities to feel more connected and aiding efficient school management. In order to assess the degree of community engagement in decision-making processes in public secondary school administration in Delta state, the researcher wishes to learn more about it. Security is also provided by the community to protect the school plant in order for government secondary schools in Nigeria to function effectively. Typically, communities contribute to the development of the school by supplying people who provide security, act as messengers, and assist in the upkeep of the school plant in order for facilities to maintain their beauty (Grander, 2006). Ugwuanyi (2013) conducted a research on community involvement in secondary school administration in Enugu State, and found that communities are actively involved in the supply of people. According to Whawo (2002), schools cannot accomplish the job alone, and parents cannot outsource responsibility for their children’s education. All existing connections, such as the Parent-Teacher Association, the Old Students Association, and the Community Association, are beneficial. Providing people such as auxiliary staff for public secondary schools within a community is, without a doubt, one of the community’s most important responsibilities to the schools in their area. Because the community exists for the school, and the school exists for the community.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In relation to the background of the study, there is no clear policy on legal community involvement in public secondary school management. The only legal participation of parents and community in school affairs is under Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A.) and Board of Management (B.O.M). It is also not clear who is responsible for ensuring parent and community involvement in the management of public secondary schools. The role of parents for a long time, has remained to be that of provision of finances for infrastructure developments, attending annual meetings and provision of security and healthcare to their children. In order to achieve the educational goals of the schools the community needs to be fully involved and an active participant in the implementation, monitoring and actualization of school programmes. The community ought to be treated as an integral part of the school and their roles seen more as complementary rather than supplementary. There is a need to build strong communication and successful working relations between schools and the many communities that they serve. Accounting issues, funding pressures, increasing competition and expanding expectations are just a few items in the growing list of communication pressures facing secondary schools today.
Community involvement has the potential of developing education in relation to access, retention, quality education, transparency and accountability if well established. In Nigeria this relationship is left to individual schools and administration to come up with their own initiatives and models which work by experimentation. There is no unified approach by the government even when so much has been written about its benefits. It is, therefore, not clear how such community involvement should be established. Therefore, this study appraisal of community participation in the administration of public secondary schools.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of the study is to appraisal of community participation in the administration of public secondary schools. Other specific objectives of the study are:
- Assess the areas in which the community participates the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
- Assess the factors affecting community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
- Assess the strategies for enhancing community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
1.4 Research Questions
This study shall attempt to provide answers to the following questions;
- What are the areas in which the community participates the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State?
- What are the factors affecting community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State?
- What are the strategies for enhancing community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State?
1.5 Research Hypothesis
- Ho: Communities do not significant participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
- Ha: Communities do significant participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
1.6 Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will be of great importance to the following education stakeholders, the Principals, teachers, parents and guardians, students, Ministry of Education, Parent Teachers Association, Board of Governors (BOG), School Base Management Committee (SBMC), Government and the community in general.
The study will help to draw the attention of the principals to realize the importance of mutual understanding between the school and the community in the administration of schools. It will help them to solicit assistance and active role of the community in various school programmes. The teachers will also benefit from the study as they enjoy good working relationship from their host community.
The community which is made up of the parents and guardians of the students will also find this study significant because it will aid them to understand and appreciate their responsibilities towards the provision and maintenance of school plant in order to facilitate learning by the appreciation and rewards received from the school. The students will benefit from the information generated by this study as it will expose them to the roles community has to play in fostering their education in the society such as provision of well-equipped school library, provision of instructional materials like chalk board, chalk, textbooks, etc. which will aid them to learn effectively.
The Ministry of Education will utilize the result for effective planning and implementation of various educational policies and programmes. The study will also facilitate or promote effective school community relationship and be useful to the Board of Governors and SBMC. The findings of this study will also provide information to the state government on the extent to which communities are involved in the development of the state through their effective participation in the administration of secondary schools. Finally, the findings of this study may also serve as a source of information for future researchers in the area. This work can be accessed through publications and seminars.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of the study borders on appraisal of community participation in the administration of public secondary schools. Hence, this study will be delimited to Etche Local Government Area, Rivers state.
1.8 Limitation of the Study
Like in every human endeavour, the researcher encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. Insufficient funds tend to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the researcher resorted to a limited choice of sample size. More so, the researcher simultaneously engaged in this study with other academic work. As a result, the amount of time spent on research will be reduced.
Moreover, the case study method utilized in the study posed some challenges to the investigator including the possibility of biases and poor judgment of issues. However, the investigator relied on respect for the general principles of procedures, justice, fairness, objectivity in observation and recording, and weighing of evidence to overcome the challenges.
1.9 Definition of Terms
Community:
Community is a body of people living in the same locality and having a common cultural and historical heritage and the willingness to live together.
Community Participation:
In this context community participation in school administration is the involvement of the community to achieve educational goals and objectives.
Administration:
Administration in this context means planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating controlling, directing and uniting people’s effort to achieve educational goals and objectives.
Public Secondary Schools:
Public secondary schools in this context include secondary schools that are owned, finance and sponsored by the Benue state government.
1.10 Organization of the Study
This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows.
- Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study.
- Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature.
- Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study.
- Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.
- Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.
Chapter Five
Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations:
5.1 Introduction
This chapter summarizes the findings on the appraisal of community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State. The chapter consists of summary of the study, conclusions, and recommendations.
5.2 Summary of the Study
This study focused on the appraisal of community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State. The study was specifically carried out to assess the areas in which the community participates the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State; assess the factors affecting community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State; and assess the strategies for enhancing community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
The study adopted the survey research design and randomly enrolled participants in the study. A total of 50 responses were validated from the enrolled participants where all respondent were principals and head teachers of some selected public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State.
5.3 Conclusions
Based on the findings of this study, the researcher concluded that;
- Communities do not effectively participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State
- The factors affecting community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State includes; inability to mobilize interests for participation, poor financial background, non-participative leadership style, the belief that education is essentially the responsibility of the government, and ignorance of the structure, functions and constrains of the school.
- The strategies for enhancing community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Onicha Local Government of Ebonyi State includes; inclusive decision making process, community mentoring programmes, combined supervision of school, utilizing the parent-teacher-association structure, and establishing community sponsorship programmes.
5.4 Recommendation
Based on the findings the researcher recommends;
- In order to have a maximum realization of the goal of secondary education in Nigeria, there is the need for greater cooperation between the school and the community. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that each school should have a committee on School-Community Cooperation for Improved Education Output (S-CCIEO). The SCCIEO if nurtured shall be a management team made up the community members, the principal, and other relevant staff of the school. Such committee can take a semblance of the Parent-Teachers Association; hence the relevant laws or rules establishing the PTA may be amended to pave way for the S-CCIEO.
- It is further recommended that the operations of the committee must take cognizance of the peculiarities of the community.


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