PARENTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION AND SECONDARY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATION (A CASE STUDY OF KWARA STATE, NIGERIA).
ABSTRACT
The study investigates the Parents Teachers Association and Secondary School Administration in Kwara State, Nigeria. Many factors give rise to the formation of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in Public Secondary Schools in Kwara State. Lacks of school facilities; shortage of manpower, as a result of increase in population of students and inadequate provision of school materials for students necessitate the formation of Parents Teachers Association.
Self –designed questionnaires tagged “Parents Teachers Association in School Administration Questionnaire” (PTASAQ) was used to obtain relevant data. Research questions were analyzed using frequency counts and percentage while the main and operational hypotheses were tested using Pearson product moment correlation statistics at 0.5 level of significance.
The methodology of the work is a descriptive correlation survey type. The population for the study comprises of 21 Public Secondary Schools in Oyun Local Government Area, Kwara State as at the time of the study, out of which ten secondary schools were purposively and proportionally selected as sample schools. Also, a stratified random sampling technique was used to select 10 principals and 40 students making a total numbers of 50 who responded to the questionnaires.
The findings of the study were that:
i. Appointments of PTA should be from among people of integrity and
Competence with a minimum requirement of secondary education.
ii. The PTA should moderate administrative processes in order to facilitate effective teaching and learning.
iii. The Ministry of Education in Nigeria should formulate relevant policies to enable school PTA to be more useful in management.
iv. PTA and educational administrators make concerted efforts initiate and sustain new projects rehabilitate dilapidated infrastructures and initiate professional development through staff training. There is need to create awareness of public private partnership in financing education.
The study concludes that PTA is very important in the administrative of Public Secondary Schools in Kwara State of Nigeria. It recommends that government should encourage and support the Parents Teachers Association in Public Secondary Schools in Kwara State.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vii
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study 1
Statement of the Problem 6
Purpose of the Study 8
Research Questions 9
Significance of the Study 10
Scope of the Study 11
Definition of Terms 13
CHAPTER TWO:
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Review of Related Literature 16
Theoretical background of the Study 17
The Role of Parents at Home 19
The Roles of the Teachers 23
Definition of Parents’ Teachers Association 29
Origin of Parents’ Teachers Association 30
Aims of Parents’ Teachers Association 31
The Importance of PTA as a joint body in Secondary School 34
Student’s observance of school Rules and Regulations 36
Functions and Achievement of Parents’ Teachers Association 38
CHAPTER THREE:
RESEARCH METHOD
Research Design 43
Population of the Study 44
Sample and Sampling Techniques 44
Research Instrument(s) 45
Validity and Reliability of the Instrument(s) 46
Procedure for Data Collection 47
Method of Data Analysis 47
CHAPTER FOUR:
ANALYSIS OF DATA AND DISCUSSIONS
Analysis of Data and Discussions 48
Discussion of Results 55
CHAPTER FIVE:
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary of Findings 59
Conclusion 60
Recommendation 62
REFERENCES 65
APPENDICES67
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
For the school to achieve its goals, meets the needs of students and fulfill the expectation of parents, there should be good linkage between the teachers and parents. Parents are experienced people who are conversant with child psychology and development. They, therefore, know the needs of their children at difference stages of development. In view of this, the parents are in a better position to give useful advice to teachers when necessary. Individual parents could be invited to school for discussion on their children’s welfare. The principal with the assistance of the staff point at the children weakness, and give suggestions for improvement. The Parents Teachers Association (PTA) is a forum for teachers and parents to meet and discuss issues relating to the welfare of the parents and teachers. Through the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meeting. Parents could be educated or enlightened on the discipline and causes of student’s delinquency. Through this, the parents will have an insight into the causes of the students’ problems and know more effective ways of dealing with such problems. They will also know the danger associated with ineffective discipline. The organization of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in most schools raises a number of questions as to:
(1) Whether the PTA provide fund for school?
(2) Without the PTA, can the school not raise funds?
(3) How much has the PTA helped in the discipline of students in schools?
Really, the PTA provides funds for the school by way of levy or donation.
Secondly, the school cannot raise levy without the PTA. This is because PTA represents the community in which the school is built.
According to Cotton and Wikelund (2001), many benefits are accrued for the school and for parents themselves when parents become involved in their children’s school activities. They maintained that, school personnel benefit from the improved rapport that generally accompanies increased parents involvement.
This rapport is often expressed in parents’ increased willingness to support school with their labour and resources during fund-raising activities or special projects. Beside, Henderson (1987). Hicks and Sammons (1992) AND Hillman and Mortimore (1995) had showed in their various studies that parental presence in the school activities and participation in committees’ events and their activities all had positive effects on achievement.
Adewuyi (2002), also submitted that active parent involvement and positive home-school-community relations have been shown to positively influence effective schooling and students’ achievement .
Ajayi (1999) also posited that, effective administration of schools could be hampered where the PTA is not performing its roles as expected. Also, Ajayi (2007) posited that, the school and the community are interdependent and interrelated and for the relationship between them to be meaningful, worthwhile and productive, they must be willing to assist each other to achieve their respective goals in atmosphere of love, mutual trust and cooperation.
Abiola A.O. (1967), since a child’s welfare and all round developments are concerns of a parents that is why parents are giving a role in the administrative of secondary school. This means that the Parents Teachers Association is interested in the cooperation of the school system.
Parents responsibilities as stakeholders in secondary schools lies in motivation towards ensuring the students attend schools; is appropriately dressed, has a healthy lifestyle, so that he /she can learn, ensuring that the student does his/her home-work, supporting school’s sanctions against the student in case of misbehavior, ensuring that the student receives treatment where necessary.
Teachers are blamed for their inefficiency in classroom. Students are blamed for their care free attitude, non- compliance to school rules and regulations and poor reading culture. School principals are blamed for inadequate supervision, government on inadequate funding and parents on poor motivation of their children and also on their lukewarm attitude towards their children education. Most parents are too busy running after wealth at the expense of good up-bring of their children, and school’s are blamed for promoting unwanted and ungodly behavior like examination malpractices and several other inadequacies.
Parents Teachers Association and Secondary School Administration in Kwara State of Nigeria can only play their role properly within the framework of effective school management and administration. Effective administration of secondary school in Kwara State of Nigeria may only be attempted through a complete democratization of the administrative machinery that involves not only the education experts in the State Board of Education, Local Government Education Authority, principals of school but also teachers and parents who have a common view about the students welfare. In the past, effective school administration was conceptualized in terms of expert’s management at micro level and the principals of the schools. Parents and teachers were to help the school. Hence, many secondary schools have their signs of reading “Parents may go beyond the point”. As time went on, they will realized that for any secondary school to be able to meets her stated objectives that administration should not only be concentrated in the hands of experts but also those directly concerned about the students which are the parents and teachers.
Statement of the Problem
As educators struggle to identify and maximize the use of every resource to improve students’ performance, it is increasingly important that they establish and maintain high levels of parent involvement in their schools. Although, parent involvement at the elementary school level has been studied extensively, more research is needed “to determine why there is a decrease of involvement as the child advances to higher grades”(Smith, 2001, :149) The purpose of this study was to develop a better understanding of the factors that significantly affect the level of parent involvement during the middle- school years.
Many factors give rise to the formation” of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in Secondary Schools in Oyun Local Government Area, Kwara State. It is likely that there are lack of school facilities; it could be due to shortage of manpower, which may be as a result of student’s increase in population. Again, it may be as a result of inadequate provision of school materials for students. All these problems attract the intervention of the Parents- Teachers Association (PTA). It is probably whether Parents Teachers Association (PTA) actually acts to assist school in matters relating for day to day running of schools. Thus, a formal study of this nature on the influence of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in school administration.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to determine the influence of Parents Teachers Association and Secondary School Administration in Kwara State of Nigeria. The Parents Teacher Association (PTA) involvement in secondary school administration is a kind of rendering assistance to government who always emphasizeself help development and these associations help to promote discipline among students by policies formation. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to identify the influence of Parent Teacher Association in secondary school administration.
The purpose of this study can also be view in another way as:
1. To reveal parents and teachers’ perceptions in achieving school goals.
2. To examine the impact of parents involvement in the academic performance of students in the secondary school.
3. To explore factors that have been perceived to promote or inhibit the parent’s involvement in the academic process of students in secondary school.
4. To investigate the extent of parents’ involvement in school administration.
Research Questions
The following research questions have been drawn up to guide the study:
1. To what extent does parent involvement in the academic process affect their performance in secondary school?
2. Does Parents Teachers Association (PTA) help to recruit time teachers in case of insufficiency?
3. To what extent does parent’s involvement in school administration affect the development of secondary school students?
4. Does involvement of Parents Teachers Association in the administration of secondary schools influence discipline in schools?
5. Is indiscipline in secondary schools largely due to lack of cooperation between parents and school authorities.
Significance of the Study
The influence of Parents Teachers Association in the administration of secondary school is of great importance. Quite very often, people attribute the success of most secondary schools administration to the existence of strong Parents Teachers Association organization in schools.
This study is therefore significance in the sense that, it will throw more light on what the students, Teachers, Principals and the general public perceived to be the influence of Parents Teachers Association in the administration machinery of secondary schools. Again, as a result of its contributions the principals might see their shortcomings and involved in a more effective approached to school administration. The result of the study may provide reliable information on the nature of principals’ leadership in schools to school boards of education (State and Local). From this, they may redefine the policy on which subsequent school administration policies will be formulated. Therefore, this would enhance effective teaching, learning and administration in our secondary schools. Other researchers might find the influence of the study useful particularly researchers in the field of school administration and discipline.
It is hoped that this study will provide information for various factor that help Parents Teachers Association in achieving its school goals. In so doing, they can investigate the possibility of introducing those factors to their own PTAs, which may consequently lead to enhancing students’ educational outcomes in schools.
In addition, the fact that this study is conducted in public schools, it shares quite a lot of similarities with many other counterparts. In this connection, this study provides a valuable reference for other schools to reflect upon the rationale and goals set by their own PTAs.
Scope of the Study
This research work focuses on the roles of Parents Teachers Association in the administration of Secondary Schools in Kwara State. This research work covers all the 21 Public Secondary school inOyun Local Government Area, Kwara State as stated below:
1. Oyun Local Government Secondary School, Ilemona
2. Erin-Ile Secondary School, Erin-Ile
3. Ira Grammar School, Ira
4. Christ Comprehensive School, Erin-Ile
5. Oyun Baptist High School, Ijagbo
6. Emmanuel Junior Secondary School Erin-Ile
7. Government Day Secondary School, Ipee
8. Oyun Local Government Secondary School, Aho-Gbada
10. Muslim Junior Secondary School, Erin-Ile.
11. Ipee Baptist High School, Ipee
12. Government Technical College, Erin-Ile
13. Igosun High School, Igosun
14. Ansaru-Islam Secondary School, Ijagbo
15. Ojoku Grammar School, Ojoku
16. Ikotun High School, Ikotu
17. Government Day Secondary School, Igbonna
18. Moje High School, Erin-Ile
19. Surajudeen College, Erin-Ile
20. Government Secondary School, Igosun
21. Ansaru-deen College, Ijagbo.
However, for efficiency, the researcher uses 10 out of the 21 Public Secondary Schools in Oyun Local Government Area of Kwara State. The research work will find out the influence of Parents Teachers Association in the administration of Secondary Schools. It should be noted that the conclusion of this research cannot be generalized beyond the state, and it can serve as a base for further research works.
Definition of Terms
Some terms frequently used in this study need to be defined as they are used to avoid ambiguity. In view of this, the researcher will give brief definition and explanation of the concepts used.
1. Parents Teachers Association (PTA): Is an association or organization that comprises of parents, guidance, teachers and students includethose who foster their resources together. It could also mean an association made up of parents and teachers established for consultation and cooperation between the school and home for the academic progress of the students.
2. Administration: This is a social process concerned with indentifying, maintaining, motivating, controlling and unifying formally and informally organized human and materials resources with integrated system designed specifically to achieve an objectives. But in education context, educational administration is a service activity through which the fundamental objectives of the educational process may be more firmly and effectively realized.
3. PARENT’S PERCEPTION: It means views, opinion, and interest of parents in the academic pursuit of their children.
4. Academic Process: Is a series of actions or tasks performed in a school in order to do, make or achieve educational goals in the school.
5. Co-operation: This means, working together for a common purpose to achieve a common goal. It could also mean the willingness to be helpful and do as one is asked. It could also be seen as working with someone or group of people to achieve something for the good of all.
6. Part-time Teacher: Part-time teacher is an individual or a teacher who is not a full staff or member of a school but only employed by the school authority to be a supportive teacher to the school as a result of lack or insufficient of subject teachers in the school.
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