Influence of Principals' Management Styles on Secondary School Facilities in Rivers State Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the influence of principals' management styles on secondary school facilities, classroom teacher's performance and PTA willingness to donate school facilities in Rivers State. A survey research design was employed for the study. The population of the study consists of 494 principals of both senior and junior secondary schools in the 23 Local Government Area of the State. A sample of 250 principals were drawn from the population through simple random sampling technique. Three research questions and three hypotheses were put forward to guide the study. A structured questionnaire containing 21 items termed influence of principals' management styles (PMS) was used for data collection. The questionnaire was validated by experts in measurement and evaluation as well as the research supervisor. Data collected for the study were analyzed using regression analyses for the hypotheses while mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions. The result reveals that in Rivers State, public secondary school principals are autocratic in managing school facilities and this had a negative impact on their teachers' participation, their relationship with the PTA /Host Community and on the overall, their efficiency in management of the school facilities. The study recommends that it is high time public secondary school principals consider a change of mind and attitude regarding their management styles by adopting those management styles that will foster and encourage cordial relationship between the principals, the classroom teachers and PTAs'. Furthermore, secondary school educational authorities were called upon to ensure that the school supervisory unit of the Ministry of Education, Rivers State Government in conjunction with the post primary schools board should ensure regular school facilities Audit in secondary schools. Their attention was also drawn to the fact that they should design and conduct frequent training / workshop programmes that will enhance the principals' management skills for a better leadership and relationship with subordinate and host communities.