Abstract:
This study was carried out to appraise community participation in the administration of public secondary schools in Education Zone “C” of Benue State. Four research questions and two null hypotheses were posed and formulated respectively to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The related literature to the study was reviewed under four main headings namely: conceptual framework, theoretical framework, review of related empirical studies and summary of literature review. This study used descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 1427 while the sample was 284 respondents. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire titled “Appraisal of Community Participation Questionnaire (ACPQ)”. Three experts validated the instrument, two in Educational Administration and Planning, department of educational foundations and one expert in measurement and evaluation, department of science education, all from University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The instrument was trial tested and the overall reliability coefficient of 0.91 was obtained. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions that guided the study, while t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The Results of the study revealed that: the communities participate in funding public secondary schools in Education Zone “C” of Benue State to a less extent, the communities also participate in the provision of infrastructural facilities in Education Zone “C” of Benue State to a less extent. Communication gap between the community and the school was one of the problems militating against community participation in administration of public secondary schools. The respondents in rural and urban schools had the same views on the strategies for integrating community members for effective school administration in Education Zone “C” of Benue State. It was recommended among others that since the Principal, the teachers and the education administrators are also members of the community, they can help to disseminate information to other members of the community on the need to take active participation in the education of the young ones. The limitations of this study were highlighted and suggestions were made for further studies.
