ABSTRACT

The study investigated students’ enrolment and school resources adequacy as correlates of effective administrative practices of principals’ in South East, Nigeria. Seven research questions were answered and seven null hypotheses were tested. The study adopted a correlational survey design. A total of 786 principals in the786 public secondary schools in three states were proportionately sampled from public secondary schools in the five states of South East, Nigeria. The researcher developed two instruments for data collection titled “Students Enrolment and School Resources Adequacy as Questionnaire” (SESRAQ) and Effective Administrative Practices of Principals Questionnaire (EADPQ) which were used to elicit information from the respondents. The instruments were validated by three experts, one from Measurement and Evaluation; one from Educational Administration and Planning, and one from Psychology, all from Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike. Reliability indices of 0.71 and 0.83 respectively were obtained for the instruments and the index implied that the instruments were reliable for the study. To ensure high rate of return of the instrument, the researcher with five properly briefed research assistants administered the questionnaire to the respondents. Real limit of numbers were used to interpret the results while the data obtained for the study were analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient (PPMCC) for the research questions to establish the relationship between the variables. Finally Analysis of Variance and Multiple regressions were used to analyze the null hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The study found out among others that there was a significant relationship between teacher-student ratio and principals’ effective administrative practices. It found out too that class-size significantly predict effective administrative practices of principals. It went further to reveal that there is no significant relationship between gender of students and effective administrative practices of principals. The study revealed that there was a significant relationship between material resources adequacy and effective administrative practices of principals. Based on the findings and educational implications of the study, the researcher recommended among others that there is need for periodic exposure of duty principals to workshops and seminars on the importance of teacher-student ratio so as to enhance effective administrative practices in public secondary schools in South-East, Nigeria. There is also need to make human and material resources available and adequate for principals at all times so as to enhance their effective administrative practices. Since there are so many cases of inadequate financial resources in public secondary schools, government and school administrators should endeavour to device means of providing adequate financial resources in secondary schools to enhance instructional delivery as well as improve effective administrative practices of principals