THE CORRELATES OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF PRIMARY SCHOOL HEAD TEACHERS IN PROMOTING CHILD- FRIENDLY SCHOOL ENVIRONMENTS

The study examined the Correlates of Management Practices of Primary School Head Teachers in South East Nigeria in Promoting Child friendly School Environment and the factors that have relationship with these practices. The study sought to determine the demographic correlates of the management practices of head teachers in: (i) the provision of facilities and equipments in primary schools, (ii) the protection of the rights of children, (iii) the promotion of healthful environment for pupil, (iv) the promotion of gender equality, (v) fostering collaborative relationship between schools, parents and communities and (vi) encouraging pupils inter-personal relationships with staff Twelve research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. A corelational survey research design was adopted. The sample of 192 was selected from the population of 5,714 primary school head teachers in South East Nigeria using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. A 58 – item instrument t itled Correlates of Management Practices of Primary School Head Teachers in South East Nigeria in Promoting Child-friendly School Environment Questionnaire (MAPOT) and an Observational Rating Scale (ORS) were used for data collection. Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences version 20. Percentages, means, standard deviations and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were used to answer the research question, while t-test, ANOVA and multiple regressions were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the state of facilities, equipment and materials for instruction are grossly inadequate. Findings also revealed that head teachers in public primary schools in South East Nigeria promote child-friendly school environment to some extent. Results also indicated that significant relationships existed between some demographic variables of state, location, gender, experience, age and the management practices of head teachers in the promotion of child-friendly school environment. It was recommended among others, that existing head teacher development programme should be intensified to improve the management skills of head teachers for effective adoption of child-friendly school environment. Capacity building workshops should be organized for retraining of head teachers by different states with a view to making the head teachers independent, proactive and creative school administrators.

Primary education is a six-year form of education in Nigeria, which children receive before proceeding to secondary level of education. According to the National Policy on Education (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2013), primary education is the form of education attended by children before secondary education. Primary education exists within the ambits of the law and is empowered by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) that oversees the management and supervision of primary education.

From the foregoing, it is safe to say that primary education is very important in Nigerian education system. Quadiri (2001) presents the following intentions of primary education in Nigeria: to help the child to develop intellectually, physically, morally, socially and emotionally to provide well-qualified citizens that are capable of going to secondary and tertiary institutions to be trained as professionals in various services that are essential for the development of the country; and to assist primary school learners who cannot further their education to become useful citizens and the community at large. Primary education is the foundation upon which other strata of educational edifice are built. Adesina (2011) adds that primary education serves as foundational levels of all other education by providing children with a good preparatory ground for further education.