COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TIME SCHEDULING AND DELEGATING PRACTICES ADOPTED BY PRINCIPALS FOR IMPROVING STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTH-SOUTH, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study comparatively analysed the time scheduling and delegating practices adopted by principals for improving students’ academic achievement in public and private secondary schools in South-South, Nigeria. The study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 48,794 teachers of which 38,977 were from public and 9,817 from private secondary schools in south-south, Nigeria. The sample for the study comprised 1,462 teachers of which 1,170 were from public and 292 from private secondary schools selected using multistage sampling procedure. A researcher-developed questionnaire titled ‘‘Time Scheduling and Delegating practices for Improving Students’ Academic Achievement Scale (TSDPISAAS)’’ was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts of which two of them were from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and one in Measurement and Evaluation in the Department of Educational Foundations, all in the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Cronbach alpha was used for a test of internal consistency of the instrument and it yielded reliability coefficients of 0.80 and 0.76 for Cluster 1-2 respectively with overall coefficient of 0.78 for the entire instrument. The researcher and five research assistants collected data for the study using direct administration method and 98% return rate was recorded. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed among others that similar time scheduling and time delegating are adopted by principals for improving students’ academic achievement in public and private secondary schools in South-South, Nigeria. It was also found out that there is no significant difference in the time scheduling and time delegating practices adopted by principals for improving students’ academic achievement in public and private secondary schools in South-South, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that principals should schedule time to every educational activity at the beginning of the session and ensure strict compliance for improving teaching and learning that can increase students’ academic achievement