Asset Management Practices for Financial Stability of Private Secondary Schools in Rivers State

Abstract

The paper investigated asset management practices for financial stability of private secondary schools in Rivers State. The study was guided by three research questions and three hypotheses. The study employed descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised all the 672 private secondary school principals in Rivers State out of which 251 principals (142 males and 109 females) were sampled using simple random sampling technique. The instrument adopted for data collection was a 15-item questionnaire titled “Asset Management Practices for Financial Stability Questionnaire” (AMPFSQ). The questionnaire was face and content validated by two experts (one in Educational Management and one in Measurement and Evaluation), University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State with a Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of 0.79 which indicated that the instrument was reliable. The research questions raised were answered using mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested using z-test at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that routine maintenance and engagement of experts were part of the asset management practices adopted by the administrators. The respondents agreed that asset management was capital intensive as a challenge but getting an asset manager was not a challenge. It was also indicated that strategies adopted for asset management by the administrators included the purchase of assets from registered manufacturers. The study recommended the need for asset management training for school administrators to keep their schools financially stable.