ANALYSIS OF PRINCIPALS’ MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES FOR SUSTAINABLE QUALITY ASSURANCE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

The persistent decline in the quality of education in Nigeria in general and in Anambra state in particular gives serious cause for concern. Something has to be done about it and urgently too. This prompted the study to analyze principals' management activities for sustainable quality assurance in secondary schools in Anambra state. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all the 257 public secondary school principals in Anambra State. No sampling was done due to the relatively small size of the population of the study. A 21-item questionnaire titled ‘‘Analysis of Principals' Management Activities for Sustainable Quality Assurance Questionnaire (APMASQAQ)'' was the instrument for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts from Faculty of Education, NnamdiAzikiwe University. Cronbach alpha method was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument. The overall coefficient of 0.84 was obtained. Mean was used to answer the research questions, while Z-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study, among others revealed that principals' students' academic performance monitoring activities for sustainable quality assurance in secondary schools in Anambra state was low. It also revealed that there was no significant difference in the mean ratings of male and female principals on the extent of their engagement in management activities for sustainable quality assurance in secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings it was recommended among others that principals should encourage the teachers to take the continuous assessment exercise very serious and also make provisions for learners with special learning needs to bring about all inclusive learning.