ABSTRACT
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.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
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.
Due to the inability of Government to attend to these issues, appraisal of
community participation in the administration of public secondary schools becomes
necessary. Appraisal is an expert estimation of quality, quantity and other
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characteristics of someone or something.