School Plant Management and Students’ Academic Performance in Public Senior Secondary Schools in North - Central, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated school plant management and students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in North Central, Nigeria. The study adopted the  correlational survey and ex-post facto research designs. The population  comprise  teachers,  principals from the 586 public senior secondary schools in North -  Central, Nigeria. The sample size for the study consisted of 370 teachers and 226 principals drawn from the 226 public senior secondary schools in Nasarawa, Kwara and Kogi States. Krejcie and Morgan (1917) table was used to determine the sample from a finite  population. The multistage sampling technique and simple random techniques were  adopted for the study. Three sets of research instruments were structured for the study. These instruments were checklist, structured questionnaire and proforma. Instrument 1 consists of the checklist and questionnaire. The reliability of the research instrument was determined through a pilot test conducted using. 24 teachers and 4 principals from 4 public senior secondary schools in FCT, Abuja.  Split half method and Pearson product moment correlation (PPMC) were adopted to determine the reliability indexes of the research instruments which yeldedThus, the reliability indexes of   0.68 and 0.73. Descriptive and inferential statistical tools were adopted for data analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SSPS Version 23).  Percentage, mean scores and were used to answer the research questions while linear regression analysis was used to test the null  hypothesis at 0.05 level of significant.  The study revealed that school plant management supported effective students’ academic performance.  School plant management variables such as availability, utilization and maintenance showed positive relationship with students’ academic performance in public senior secondary schools in North – Central, Nigeria. Based on the  findings of the study , the following recommendations were made: school principals should collaborate with local communities, PTA, NGO, alumni, to solicit funds to purchase those school plant that were not available in order to improve teaching and learning in public senior secondary schools in North – Central, Nigeria. School principals should create a utilization long- term plan for school plant that sustains the high extent of school plant utilization in order to promote quality of teaching instruction.