A survey of difficulties and coping strategies experienced by administrative of secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated the difficulties encountered and the coping strategies applied by administrators of private and public secondary schools in the governance of their schools in Kwara State. Population for the study included persons in the administrative cadre of public and private secondary schools in the State. The sample consisted of 60 principals and 146 Vice-principals selected using stratified random sampling technique. A researcher developed questionnaire titled “Difficulties and Coping Strategies Questionnaire (DCSQ)” was used for data collection. Content validity was used to validate the instrument while a reliability coefficient of 0.61 was obtained. The data were analyzed using percentages and t-test statistics at 0.5 alpha level of significance. Findings revealed that administrator and public secondary schools in the State encountered inadequate facilities and inapplicability of some of the school policies enacted by the State Government. The findings further revealed that the school  administrators delegated authority, utilized PTA and hosting community resources and used collaborative interpretation of school policies as coping strategies to handle the difficulties and these were found to significantly vary on the basis of the administrators' gender, school type and year of leadership experience. Based on these findings, it was recommended that government and owners of private schools should provide needed facilities for the governance of their schools. They should also make sure that the educational policies enacted for the secondary schools are  practicable.

Keywords: Difficulties, Copping strategies and Leadership