ABSTRACT

 There is no gainsaying the fact that success of a school as an institution depends mainly on the type of management and the leadership provided by the Principal, teachers and the entire management team of the school. It is an obvious fact that many schools still do not meet the desirable standards in their vision and mission, which implies that something is wrong with the type of management in application. The purpose of this study was to appraise the return of schools to their missionary owners in Abia State. This study was guided by five research questions and two hypotheses. The population of the study comprises all 3,095 respondents in the 18 secondary schools returned to their missionary owners in Abia State, during the academic year 2014-2015. The sample size was 465 respondents in the six selected schools by balloting without replacement. Descriptive survey design was used for the study. Instruments used in this research were checklists and questionnaires that were rated on a 4-point scale for the parents, teachers, students and the management of the schools. The instruments were validated by three experts from the Department of Educational Measurement and Evaluation in the college of Education in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. The reliability ofthe instruments was estimated using test-retest method. The data collected were subjected to Pearson Product Moment Correlation Formula that yielded an index of 0.67 which was considered high enough for the study. Descriptive statistics, percentages, means and standard deviations were used to analyze the data. Through the data collected, summary offindings showed that schools were returned to their missionary owners and the final certificate of hand over issued to them by the government. The respondents disagreed that the government still funds or give grants to aid administration of their schools, as well disagreed that government renovated the dilapidated physical structures or facilities. Thus, it was recommended that government should grant financial support to aid smooth administration in the schools returned to their missionary owners. The missionaries should source for missionary fund to renovate the dilapidated structures. The findings ofthis research will be beneficial to the students, teachers, parents and the management of the schools returned to their missionary owners.