UTILIZATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF SCHOOL-COMMUNITY RELATIONS AND FINANCES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DELTA STATE OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the utilization of the social media in the administration of school-community relations and finances in secondary schools in Delta State. Two research questions and two hypotheses were used in the study. The design used was the analytic descriptive survey, with a population of 447 public secondary schools and a corresponding 447 principals in Delta State. 358 respondents were selected as sample, using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. A 22-item instrument titled ‘Social Media Utilization in School-Community Relations and Finances Administration Scale (SMUS-CRFAS) on a modified 4-point Likert Scale was designed by the researchers and validated by experts, with a reliability index of 0.72. Mean and standard deviation were used in testing the hypotheses while z-test statistics was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study show that to a very high extent, the social media are utilized in the administration of school-community relations and finances in secondary schools in Delta State. The study also established no significant differences between the mean ratings of male and female principals and less experienced and experienced principals on the extent the social media are utilized in the administration of school-community relations and school finances in secondary schools in Rivers State. It was therefore concluded that the social media enjoy wider usage in the administration of school-community relations and finances, but with variations bothering on gender and administrative experience gap. Consequently, it is recommended that stakeholders in school-community relations and finance administration showed to continue to utilize the social media in performing these functions, apart from using other measures to support in areas where social media services may not be available and also ensuring that appropriate security are planted in the applications, to avoid hacking in to them and ensuring that such services get to all schools, as some principals have administrative experience differences.