INFLUENCE OF COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

Secondary school education has a special place in Nigeria's educational system since it is at this level that students' academic and professional careers are determined. The Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN, 2004) defines secondary school education as the kind of education students get following elementary school but before higher education. Secondary education's goal is to educate students for productive lives in society as well as for further education. Nigeria has a number of educational problems, according to Ogundele (2008) in Ijamu (2015). Inadequate financing, poor and irregular salary payment, student population growth, low teacher work satisfaction, and a lack of educational facilities and required equipment for efficient teaching-learning processes have all been blamed for these problems. As a consequence, our secondary school system has a poor quality and low level of education.

Because the government is unable to address these problems, community engagement in the management of public secondary schools becomes unavoidable. Influence, according to Bondesio (2000), is the capacity to elicit desired and quantifiable behaviors and results. In Nigeria, it seems that community members may engage in secondary school management. In this research, community influence refers to community activities that result in positive transformation and efficient and effective secondary school administration in Delta state. The research is being utilized in this context to evaluate the impact of community involvement in the management of public secondary schools in Delta state. Effective and efficient management determines the secondary school system's ability to achieve its goals. In this research, secondary schools refer to all secondary schools owned, funded, and administered by the Delta State government. After the family, the school is the primary source of socialization. As a result, the school exists for the community, and the community exists for the school and serves as its customers. Administration is the capacity to put people in functioning order by instructing them what to do and how to do it in order to achieve a certain goal. Administration is described as the practice of working with and through people to achieve organizational objectives effectively (Aguba, 2009). Administration, according to Veig (2001) in Olowe (2007), is "decided activity done in pursuit of a deliberate goal." It is the matching of available labor and resources in order to get the desired outcome at the lowest possible cost in terms of energy, time, and money (Famade, 2004).

The primary aim of administration is to coordinate people and material resources in order to achieve specified goals. In this research, secondary school administration refers to the degree to which secondary schools accomplish their objectives by creating students who have acquired information, are disciplined, and have developed suitable skills and a moral value system that allows them to participate in society. To get things done successfully, it involves collaborating with and via instructors, non-teaching personnel, and students.

The usual picture of a community in Nigeria, and indeed in many other African nations, is of a medium-sized rural hamlet with a close-knit group of people, mostly self-contained with everyone knowing and standing in recognized connection with one another (Amujiri, 2000). Every school is part of a neighborhood (Abraham, 2003). This is because the school's catchment area is determined by the community. A community, according to Ngoka (2003), is a group of individuals who live in the same area and have a similar religious, racial, cultural, and historical history, as well as a desire to collaborate.

Community participation in school administration is the process by which communities take responsibility for their own well-being and develop the ability to contribute to the development of their schools by participating in decision-making processes related to setting goals and pursuing issues that matter to them (Greenwood, 2009). Community involvement, according to the author, is the process of enhancing and achieving community members' commitment to common goals via consultation in decision-making, goal-setting, collaboration, and other similar methods. The Parent Teachers Association (PTA), the Board of Governors (BOG), the School Based Management Committee (SBMC), the Old-Student Association, social groups, and the Women's Association are among the community participants in the research. This research, however, is limited to the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Board of Governors (BOG), and school administrators.

Community involvement in schools takes the form of managing schools through the Parent Teachers Association (PTA), Board of Governors (BOG), and School Based Management Committee (SBMC), as well as designing curriculum, serving as resource persons to teach about some culture-oriented themes, protecting and maintaining school property, and supervising and monitoring pupils' attendance at school. The school board's goal is to see whether implementing the community participation approach for lifelong learning is feasible. The PTA, BOG, and Principal are examples of formal governance systems that allow parents and the community to engage in their children's education. Communities assist in the provision of necessary educational resources and infrastructures for proper school administration, such as classrooms, libraries, and hostel accommodation, as well as maintaining facilities through a variety of activities such as educational endowment funds, construction of new buildings, provision of reading materials, repairs and maintenance of existing structures, and provision of educational endowment funds (Ofougwuka, 2005). Communities also fence the school property and provide public amenities like as a toilet at the school, according to Ofougwuka. Communities under the umbrella of the Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A) offer sufficient classroom, laboratory, and office buildings, according to Harb and El-shaarawi (2006). In addition, the community, via the Parent Teachers Association and the Board of Governors, performs many responsibilities, including maintaining school discipline (Ugwu, 2000). Udensi (2003) found that community involvement in secondary school administration in Lagos State aided in maintaining school discipline. Discipline is essential for maintaining an efficient learning environment in the classroom, and it necessitates a high level of community participation. According to Shamrock (2002), schools must keep constant touch with parents in the community in order to detect the child's overall issues at home and at school. This shows that school-community interactions are critical for preserving school discipline and improving secondary school administration. However, does the community in which the school is located participate in the management of public secondary schools in Delta state? One of the things the researcher needs to know is the answer to this question.

The neighborhood in which the school is located is a focal point for community participation in the school's decision-making process. The process of identifying issues, developing potential solutions, selecting one, and putting it into action is known as decision making (Holt, 2004). The whole instructional curriculum for their schools is decided by the school administration, PTAs, BOGs, and elected community leaders working together. These stakeholders collaborated on a decision-making process and were in charge of their own finances, allowing them to concentrate on curriculum and program development, collegial decision-making, and strategic planning (Donald, 2005). Communities must be included in the decision-making process at public secondary schools in Delta state, according to secondary school principals. This will improve and deepen the school-community relationship, allowing communities to feel more connected and aiding efficient school management. In order to assess the degree of community engagement in decision-making processes in public secondary school administration in Delta state, the researcher wishes to learn more about it. Security is also provided by the community to protect the school plant in order for government secondary schools in Nigeria to function effectively. Typically, communities contribute to the development of the school by supplying people who provide security, act as messengers, and assist in the upkeep of the school plant in order for facilities to maintain their beauty (Grander, 2006). Ugwuanyi (2013) conducted a research on community involvement in secondary school administration in Enugu State's Nsukka Education Zone, and found that communities are actively involved in the supply of people. According to Whawo (2002), schools cannot accomplish the job alone, and parents cannot outsource responsibility for their children's education. All existing connections, such as the Parent-Teacher Association, the Old Students Association, and the Community Association, are beneficial. Providing people such as auxiliary staff for public secondary schools within a community is, without a doubt, one of the community's most important responsibilities to the schools in their area. Because the community exists for the school, and the school exists for the community.

1.2 Statement of research problem

Due to a lack of materials, non-payment of teachers' salaries on time, overcrowding in classrooms, an increase in student enrolment, truancy and lack of discipline on the part of students, non-provision of teaching equipment for science and technical subjects in schools, and motivational issues, among other things, secondary school administration in Nigeria is becoming increasingly difficult for principals. These issues may lead to a lack of challenge on the part of instructors in carrying out their main responsibility in the school, which is teaching. As a consequence, quality education suffers and standards plummet. According to Ijamu, these issues have become a repeating decimal in the history of Nigerian education (2015).

The government occasionally meets these requirements, but the supply is woefully insufficient. (Ugwuanyi, 2013) points out that the government cannot address all of the issues with school management on its own. Could community involvement in the management of public secondary schools relieve the aforementioned issues, given that the government has been unable to address them? The study's goal is to look at the impact of community involvement on the management of public secondary schools in Delta state.

1.3 Objectives of the study

The primary objective of the study is as follows

1.     To find out the influence of community participation in the provision of infrastructural facilities on the administration of public secondary schools in Delta state.

2.     To find out the influence of community participation in the maintenance of discipline on the administration of public secondary schools in Delta state.

3.     To find out the influence of community participation in the provision of funds on the administration of public secondary schools in Benue state.

1.4 Research hypothesis

H01: Community participation does not have influence in the maintenance of discipline on the administration of public secondary schools in Delta state.

H02: Community participation does not have influence on the provision of infrastructural facilities on the administration of public secondary schools in Delta state.

1.5 Significance of the study

The significance of this study cannot be underestimated as:

This study will examine Influence Of Community Participation On The Administration Of Public Secondary Schools

The findings of this research work will undoubtedly provide the much needed information to government organizations, ministry of education and academia.

1.6 Scope of the study

This study examines Influence Of Community Participation On The Administration Of Public Secondary Schools. Hence secondary schools in Delta state will be used as case study

1.7 Limitations of the study

This study was constrained by a number of factors which are as follows:

 just like any other research, ranging from unavailability of needed accurate materials on the topic under study, inability to get data

Financial constraint , was faced by  the researcher ,in getting relevant materials  and  in printing and collation of questionnaires

Time factor: time factor pose another constraint since having to shuttle between writing of the research and also engaging in other academic work making it uneasy for the researcher

1.8 Operational definition of terms

Community participation:  can be loosely defined as the involvement of people in a community in projects to solve their own problems

Administration:  the process or activity of running a business, organization, etc.

Secondary school: an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place