ASSESSMENT OF QUALITY ASSURANCE PRACTICES IN THE MAINTENANCE OF INFRASTRUCTURE IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study is an assessment of quality assurance practices in the maintenance of infrastructure in secondary schools in Ebonyi state, Nigeria. The study arose because of poor quality products of secondary schools in Ebonyi state which negate the fundamental objectives of secondary education. One research question and one hypothesis were posed and formulated respectively to guide the study. The design for the study was descriptive survey. The population for the study comprised all the 273 principals in public secondary schools in Ebonyi state and 71 quality assurance evaluators. The sample for the study was 344 respondents representing 100% of the population for the study. The instrument for data collection was the researcher developed “Assessment of Quality Assurance Practices Questionnaire (AQAPQ)”. It was validated by three experts; two in Educational Management and one in Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability indices of the instrument were determined using Cronbach alpha. The data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics. While mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research question using a mean score of 2.50 as benchmark for items, t-test statistics was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that the principals of secondary schools have significant roles to play to ensure that quality assurance practices are adhered to in the maintenance of school infrastructure. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that the state government should support principals to maintain infrastructure in the school to avoid decay and insufficiency of facilities.