PRINCIPALS’ FACILITATION AND COORDINATION OF SCHOOL PLANT PROVISION AND UTILIZATION FOR QUALITY SECONDARY EDUCATION DELIVERY IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ facilitation and coordination of school plant provision and utilization for quality secondary education delivery in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study which adopted descriptive survey research design was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The population of the study consisted of the 245 senior secondary school principals in the 245 public senior secondary schools in the state. A sample of 81 (51 male and 30 female) principals was drawn through stratified random sampling technique from the three senatorial zones in Rivers State. This represented 33% of the entire population. A questionnaire entitled, “Principals Facilitation and Coordination of School Plant Provision and Utilization for Quality Education Delivery Questionnaire (PFCSPUQEDQ) developed by the researchers was used for data collection. The instrument which contained 14 items was properly validated and tested for reliability which stood at 0.88 through Cronbach Alpha Statistics. Mean scores and standard, deviations were used to analyse the research questions while t-test or z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study showed that, the ways principals facilitate the provision of school plant in their schools among others include: itemizing the needs of the school and forwarding same to schools board or Ministry of Education; mobilizing the school P.T.A. to fill some of the facilities gap and incorporating the facilities need of the school into the annual budget that the principals submit to Schools’ Management Board. The ways principals coordinate the utilization of school plant among others include: ensuring that only qualified and experienced people operate school facilities; ensuring that both staff and students are committed to keeping school facilities in good conditions; and designating some staff to supervise the utilization of the various units of school plant. Based on the findings conclusion was drawn and the following recommendation among others were made: principals of public senior secondary schools in Rivers State should be creative, proactive and strategic in expanding their sources of funds for the provision of school plant.