Correlates of management practices of primary school head teachers in promoting child- friendly school environments in south-east, nigeria .

Abstract

The study sought to determine the demographic correlates of the management practices of head teachers in: (i) the provision of facilities and equipments in primary schools, (ii) the protection of the rights of children, (iii) the promotion of healthful environment for pupil, (iv) the promotion of gender equality, (v) fostering collaborative relationship between schools, parents and communities and (vi) encouraging pupils inter-personal relationships with staff Twelve research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. A corelational survey research design was adopted. The sample of 192 was selected from the population of 5,714 primary school head teachers in South East Nigeria using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. A 58 – item instrument titled Correlates of Management Practices of Primary School Head Teachers in South East Nigeria in Promoting Child-friendly School Environment Questionnaire (MAPOT) and an Observational Rating Scale (ORS) were used for data collection.

Data were analyzed using the statistical package for social sciences version 20. Percentages, means, standard deviations and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient were used to answer the research question, while t-test, ANOVA and multiple regressions were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that the state of facilities, equipment and materials for instruction are grossly inadequate.

Findings also revealed that head teachers in public primary schools in South East Nigeria promote child-friendly school environment to some extent. Results also indicated that significant relationships existed between some demographic variables of state, location, gender, experience, age and the management practices of head teachers in the promotion of childfriendly school environment.

It was recommended among others, that existing head teacher development programme should be intensified to improve the management skills of head teachers for effective adoption of child-friendly school environment. Capacity building workshops should be organized for retraining of head teachers by different states with a view to making the head teachers independent, proactive and creative school administrators.