Management of students’ engagement in social vices in Public Secondary Schools in Rivers State

Abstract

This study investigated management of students’ engagements in social vices in public secondary schools in Rivers State. Two research  questions were used for study. The population of study comprised of all 8452 teachers in the 278 public schools in Rivers State. The  sample size of this study comprised 845 teachers in these schools, representing 10% of the population. The multi stage sampling  technique was employed. In doing this, the state was stratified into urban and rural areas and in each of the schools located in the urban  and rural areas, 10% of the schools were selected. A valid 12-item instrument titled Management of Students’ Engagements in Social  Vices in Public Secondary Schools Scale (MSESVPSSS) was used for data collection. Cronbach Alpha was used to determine the reliability  estimate and a general reliability coefficient of 0.69 was obtained. The mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research  questions. The result amongst others revealed that, students’ engagements in social activities are managed through management  enactment of rules and regulations with strict penalties on offenders, and school management to embark on implementation of anti-cult  clubs that could help to curb student indulgence, making sure that collective responsibility of parents, teachers, religious leaders are  intact to curb cultism. It was recommended that, student who misbehaved in drugs motivated ways should not be expelled from school;  rather such student should be subjected to mental health screening to ascertain true condition. Meanwhile, students with chronic cases  of drug abuse should be expelled before they negatively influence other good students.