Students’ Indiscipline in Tertiary Educational Institutions of Sokoto State

Abstract

The study investigated the effects of students’ indiscipline and factors responsible for its ineffective management in tertiary educational institutions of Sokoto state, Nigeria. The study employed a mixed method approach involving 3270 academic staff and 4344 final year students of all the higher educational institutions of Sokoto State. A Survey which was validated by experts and whose reliability coefficient was established at 0.9, was distributed to a sample of 692 respondents. While interview was conducted with 12 participants bearing the saturation rule. Descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard Deviation) and Coding were used to analyze the quantitative and qualitative data of the study respectively. Findings revealed that the effects of indiscipline on students includes: promotion of academic corruption, sexual harassment, poor academic performance as well as examination malpractices. The schools’ strategies for managing the students’ indiscipline, include setting down strategic rules and regulations, communicating the rules to the school-wide communities, as well as apprehending and detaining the culprits. Moreover, it was found that the efforts of the institutions to manage the students’ indiscipline is being affected by factors such as lack of parental involvement, insignificant support of some staff, technology and media, and political interference. The study finally recommends among other things that the institutions should seek the support of the parents, community members, security operatives to ensure the apprehension, detention and suing of the erring students whenever they are found indulging in any of such indiscipline behaviours.