ABSTRACT 

The study was carried out to appraise community participation in the management of secondary schools in Abia State. It was guided by five objectives. Five research questions were posed and answered and five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted the Descriptive Survey Design. The population of the study was 86,122 respondents which comprised 250 principals, 2,764 secondary school teachers, and 83,108 community members who belong to the Parent Teachers Associations (P.T.A), Age Grade, School Based Management Committee (SBMC), Old student from a population of 250 public secondary schools in the 17 Local Government Areas across three Education Zones that made up Abia State. The sample of the study was 701 respondent which comprised 25 principals, 276 teachers and 400 parents and community members. The study adopted the multistage sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was the Community Participation Assessment Questionnaire. It was validated by three experts which comprises two from the department of adult education and one from Measurement and Evaluation in the department of Science Education. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was 0.78 and 0.73 using the Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) and Cronbach alpha respectively. The data for the study were collected through the administration of 701 Copies of the “Community Participation Assessment Questionnaire”. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the Analysis Of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test five null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that the various agencies in the community that participated and contributed towards the management of Secondary school in the community are the Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A), School Based Management Committee, Age Grade Association, Old Students Association and Non-Governmental Organization. Their participation to the funding of secondary schools are not adequate. The Agencies of community do not adequately make teaching and learning environment to be conducive, as Old Students Association donate computers and generators to the school to a low extent. Lastly, the factors that militate against community participation in the management of secondary schools are poor community relations, lack of transparency and accountability on the part of the school authorities, low involvement of the community members in development project in the school and poor socio-economic status of community members. The study recommended that governments at all levels  as well as the Secondary Education Management  Board (SEMB), should make provisions for constant seminars/workshops and conferences for principals, teachers  and community members on the need for effective community participation in the funding of secondary schools and the community should deeply be involved in the funding, procurement and maintenance of secondary schools to a large extent to create a productive and functional education for the achievement of educational goals in the school.