Security Awareness and Safety Management among Private School Principals in North-East Senatorial District in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the extent to which security awareness predicts safety management among private school Principals in North-East Senatorial District in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. One objective was stated, one research question was raised and one null hypothesis was formulated to guide the study. The Correlational research design was used for the study. The study population consisted 4179 teachers, 157 principals and 314 Vice principals in government approved private secondary schools in Akwa Ibom North-East senatorial. The sample for the study was 654; made up of 79 principals, 157 Vice principals and 418 teachers from 125 private secondary schools that were selected using the multi-stage sampling approach. Two sets of researcher developed instruments were used for data collection; these include “Security awareness Questionnaire (SAQ) which was designed for principals and Safety Management Questionnaire (SMQ) which was designed for the teachers. The reliability of the instruments was determined using using inter-item method. Cronbach Alpha Analysis was used to obtain the reliability indices of .86 and .97 for the SAQ and SMQ respectively. Simple Regression Statistics was used for answering research question and testing the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Finding of the study revealed that principals’ awareness of school safety significantly predicts safety management of campus security. It was concluded based on the findings that principals’ security awareness predicts safety management among private school principals in North-East Senatorial District in Akwa Ibom State. It is recommended amongst others that principals should intensify efforts at routine checking on school physical infrastructure in order to guarantee they are safe and in good condition for use.