Parents’ Involvement in Secondary School Administration as a Correlate of School Effectiveness in the South-East Zone of Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the relationship between parents’ involvement in secondary school administration and school effectiveness in Nigeria adopting a descriptive survey research. The population was all the teachers, principals and parents of students in all public and private secondary schools in the South-East Zone of Nigeria. The sample size of 3,198 comprised 2,460 teachers, 615 parents and 123 principals from 123 secondary schools selected through multi-stage, stratified, and simple random sampling techniques. Two sets of questionnaire were used for data collection, which were analyzed along with students’ performance records using percentage, mean, t-test, and Pearson’s r. Two research questions and three hypotheses were formulated. Results revealed that parents were moderately involved in school administration, with private schools indicating greater involvement than public schools and there was a significant relationship between involvement in school administration and school effectiveness. Also revealed was that secondary schools in the South-East Zone were moderately effective with the private schools being more effective, but not significantly, than the public schools. Recommendations required school administrators to endeavour to sustain parents’ involvement in school administration in order to enhance school effectiveness and maintain the necessary cordial relationship between the home and the school tapping the accrued benefits.

LWATI: A Journal of Contemporary Research, 8(4), 16-29, 2011