SCHOOL FACILITIES MANAGEMENT AND STUDENTS’ LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

The study assessed school facilities management and students’ learning effectiveness in secondary schools in Delta State. This was necessitated by the continuous decline in secondary school students’ academic performance and the rate of moral decadence among secondary school students. The study adopted the descriptive survey design and was guided by four research questions and two research hypotheses. The population of the study comprised the 479 principals, 14,269 teachers, and 225,991 students in the 479 public secondary schools in Delta State. The sample for the study comprised 612 respondents made up of 24 principals (12 principals and 24 vice principals), 180 teachers, and 408 students, selected from 12 schools from the three Senatorial Districts in the State. Four schools were selected from each Senatorial District. The multistage sampling technique of purposive, stratified, and simple random sampling techniques was used for the selection of the sample size. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire designed by the researchers titled; School Facilities Management and Secondary School Students Learning Effectiveness Questionnaire (SFMSSSLEQ). The instrument was a 34-item questionnaire validated by three experts and trial tested to establish the reliability with an internal consistency of 0.83 at o.05 alpha level of significance. 612 copies of the instrument were administered to the selected respondents while 584 (24=100%; for principals, 169=94%; teachers & 373=91%) were retrieved. Descriptive statistics of frequency, mean scores and standard deviation were used for the data analysis while t-test statistical analysis was used for the test of hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Findings from the study revealed among others that principals, teachers, and students showed a common view with grand mean scores of 2.20, 2.26, and 2.24 respectively that school facilities in secondary schools in Delta State are largely inadequate and poorly maintained and that only limited strategies are adopted in the management of school facilities in secondary schools. The study recommended among other points that the Delta State government and relevant educational agencies should provide adequate and functional school facilities and allocate sufficient funds specifically for the management and maintenance of school facilities and ensure sustainability of available resources in secondary schools.