Quality Assurance and Principal-Teacher Effectiveness in Public Secondary Schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.

ABSTRACT

This research examined influence of quality assurance on principal-teacher effectiveness in public secondary schools in Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The study covers all the public senior secondary schools. Three research questions were raised and three null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey research design was used. The population of the study was 4014 consisting of 57 principals and3957 teachers from 57 public secondary schools in FCT. A multistage sampling technique was used. The sample size was 345. One instrument was used for data collection. The instrument was a 30-item research questionnaire titled “Assessment of Influence of Quality Assurance on Principal –Teacher Effectiveness in Public Secondary Schools Questionnaire (AIQAPTEPSSQ)”. Validation of the instrument was done by two experts in the Department of Education Foundations (Measurement and Evaluation Unit and Educational Management Unit) of Nasarawa State University, Keffi with validity index of 0.82. The reliability was carried out where the instrument was pilot tested using a test retest method and administered to 2 principals and 28 teachers from 2 schools in Nasarawa State. The result was calculated and a reliability coefficient of 0.72 was obtained, indicating that the instrument was reliable. On the administration of instrument, a letter of introduction was obtained from the Department of Educational Management, introducing the researcher to the director, FCT Secondary Education Board and the respondents. The researcher personally administered the approved questionnaire but used research assistants in some areas. The technique used for data analysis was the mean and standard deviation to answer research questions 1-3 with the help of Statistical Packages for Social Sciences Software (SPSS) while Chi-square was used to test the three null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the analysis reveal that quality assurance has significant influence on the effectiveness of school leadership, teachers’ input and school learning environment in public secondary schools in FCT. In consonance with the findings of the study, it was recommended that, quality assurers should ensure that secondary school leaderships headed by principals strictly adhere to quality assurance process recommendations and regularly give feedback to relevant quarters on the need to improve critical factors of school learning environments in all the public secondary schools in FCT.