Principals’ Security Management Practices and Marketability of Private Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State

Abstract

The study examined the extent to which Principals’ Security Management Practices predict Marketability of Private Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of this study consisted of four hundred and ninety-nine (499) principals spread across all the four hundred and ninety-nine (499) Private Secondary Schools in the thirty-one (31) Local Government Areas in Akwa Ibom State. Two hundred and twenty-two (222) respondents were drawn from the population to participate in the study using multi stage sampling procedure. Two instruments, entitled “Principals’ Security Management Practices Questionnaire (PSMPQ) and Secondary School Marketability Questionnaire (SSMQ)” were used to gather data for the study. The instruments were validated by three experts. The reliability of the instruments was determined using Cronbach Alpha Analysis which yielded reliability coefficients of .784 for PSMQ and .770 for SSMQ. Simple Linear Regression Analysis was used to answer the research questions and to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that, physical security management is a significant predictor of marketability of private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. The study also revealed that cyber security management is not a significant predictor of marketability of private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. From the findings of this study, it was concluded that effective security management can indeed play a significant role in marketability of private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. Therefore, management of private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State should adopt various security management practices to ensure that their schools remain safe and secured since principal security management practices especially physical security management to a great extent significantly predict marketability of private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. It was recommended, amongst others that, Ministry of Education should organize in-service-training for principals in order to improve their management skills. The training perhaps should focus on security management in order to create a healthy and attractive school environment that can attract more enrolments.