AN APPRAISAL OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

This study was carried out to appraise community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Education Zone “C” of Benue State.

Four research questions and two null hypotheses were posed and formulated respectively to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The related literature to the study was reviewed under four main headings namely: conceptual framework, theoretical framework, review of related empirical studies and summary of literature review. This study used descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 1427 while the sample was 284 respondents. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled“Appraisal of Community Participation Questionnaire (ACPQ)”. Three experts validated the instrument, two in Educational Administration and Planning, department of educational foundations and one expert in measurement and evaluation, department of science education, all from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The instrument was trial tested and the overall reliability coefficient of 0.91 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions that guided the study, while t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The Results of the study revealed that: the communities participate in funding public secondary schools in Education Zone “C” of Benue State to a less extent, the communities also participate in the provision of infrastructural facilities in Education Zone “C” of Benue State to a less extent. Communication gap between the community and the school was one of the problems militating against community participation in administration of public secondary schools. The respondents in rural and urban schools had the same views on the strategies for integrating community members for effective school administration in Education Zone “C” of Benue State. It was recommended among others that since the Principal, the teachers and the education administrators are also members of the community, they can help to disseminate information to other members of the community on the need to take active participation in the education of the young ones. The limitations of this study were highlighted and suggestions were made for further studies.

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.