EXTENDING E-ADMINISTRATION CAPABILITIES FOR SAFE SCHOOL MANAGEMENT USING ICT PERIPHERAL DEVICES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This work investigated extending e-administration capabilities for safe school management using ICT peripheral devices in Ebonyi State. Specifically, it investigated the ICT peripheral devices available to principals of public and private secondary schools in Ebonyi State and the extent they use these peripheral devices in extending the functionality of e-administration platforms for managing safe school in the face of growing insecurity in secondary schools in Ebonyi State. Two research questions guided the study and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population was 350 principals, while multistage sampling procedure was adopted to sample 120 principals (60 public and 60 private secondary school principals). A 10-item questionnaire which was divided into two parts was used to collect data for the study. Kuder-Richardson 21 and Cronbach’s Alpha method were used to establish the reliability for the two parts of the questionnaire and the reliability coefficients obtained were 0.98 and 0.87 respectively. Data analysis was done using frequencies and percentages for research question one, while mean was used for research question two. X 2 and t-test were used to test Ho1 and Ho2 respectively at 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicated that all the five ICT peripheral devices were not available in public secondary schools, but one of the five ICT peripheral devices was available in private secondary schools. Finding from Ho2 indicated that there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of public and private school principals on the extent to which they apply ICT peripheral devices to extend the scope of their e-administration platforms in secondary schools in Ebonyi State. Based on these findings conclusion was drawn and it was recommended among others that the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) should help by donating some ICT peripheral devices that can be used to enhance school management and safety of their children. Article visualizations: