International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue VI, June 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Safety and Security Measures Adopted by Principals in Management of Public Secondary Schools in Imo State, Nigeria

Assoc. Prof. Ruth O. Anyaogu & Dr. Jerry Alagbaoso, K.S.
Imo State University, Owerri, Nigeria

Abstract: The study investigated the safety and security measures adopted by principals in management of public secondary schools in Imo State, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses, tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 10,054 respondents (296 principals and 9,758 teachers) in public secondary schools in Imo State. The sample size of 481 respondents (30 principals and 451 teachers) was drawn for the study using proportionate sampling technique. Researcher-developed instrument titled “Safety and Security Measures of Principals for School Management Questionnaire (SSMPSMQ)” was used for data collection. The instrument has 20 items in two clusters, prepared along four points likert rating scales of Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree and Strongly Disagree with their corresponding points of 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The instrument was duly validated by three specialists and using Cronback alpha method for test of internal consistency, reliability indices of 0.80 and 0.76 were obtained for cluster I and II respectively with an overall coefficient index of 0.78. Data obtained were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and t-test to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others that safety and security measures were adopted by principals for staff and student management of public secondary schools in Imo State. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among others that Secondary Education Management Board (SEMB) should be contracting private security organization to promote safety and security of staff, students and facilities in secondary schools.

Keywords: Safety, Security, Principals, Management, School Facilities, Secondary Schools.

I.INTRODUCTION

Management can be defined as the field of human behaviour in which managers plan, organize, direct, staff and control human, material and financial resources of an organized group. Aptly put, Anyaogu (2021) defines management as the art of getting things done through people. In the same vein, Uwazuruike (2019) sees management in its classical sense as being in charge or being in control.
School management is a goal-oriented activity that involves utilization of the available resources in educational institutions. Onwuchekwa and Onwuchekwa (2018) defined school management as the process of planning, organizing, leading, reporting, budgeting and controlling the effort or organization members and using all other available resources to achieve stated objectives. School management is a systematic planning, organizing and combining human,