Principals Administrative Skills And School Community Relations In Public Senior Secondary Schools In Rivers State, Nigeria
Ndalu Uchechi Joy
Department of Educational Management and Planning, Faculty of Education Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Osuji Catherine U Ph.D
Department of Educational Management and Planning, Faculty of Education Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Wey – Amaewhule Blessing Ph.D.
Department of Educational Management and Planning, Faculty of Education Rivers State University, Port Harcourt, Nigeria
Keywords: Principals Administrative Skills, Decision Making Skills, Public Relation Skills, School–Community Relations
Abstract
The study examined principals’ administrative skills and school – community relations in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. Correlation survey design was adopted for this study and the population consisted of one hundred and forty two (142) respondents cutting across principals, vice principals and Community Development Committee Chairmen of the thirty eight (38) public senior secondary schools and twenty eight (28) communities in Emohua and Ikwerre Local Government Areas of Rivers State respectively. Census sampling was adopted for this study because the entire population was used. Two (2) objectives were stated for the study, two (2) research questions were answered and two (2) null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Two (2) sets of instrument titled ’Principals’ Administrative Skills’ Questionnaire (PrAdSkQ)’’ and ‘’School – Community Relations’ Questionnaire (ScCoReQ)’’were used for data collection, which were validated by two experts in the Department of Educational Management and Measurement and Evaluation and a reliability index of 0.77 and 0.84 were obtained respectively using test-retest method. Research questions were analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. The hypotheses were tested with the same statistical tool, and also a t- transformation test was conducted to ascertain if the null hypotheses were significant or not. One of the findings reveals that, there is a strong, positive and significant relationship between principals’ decision making skills and school – community relations of public senior secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. It was therefore recommended that the principal should be objective in his decision making to maintain effective school – community relations. Finally, the principal should create a conducive environment for Parents Teachers Associations (PTA) to effectively operate in their schools and where they are not in existence, they should find ways of bringing them together for the benefit of the school and the community in general.