PRINCIPALS APPLICATION OF TECHNOLOGICAL SECURITY MANAGEMENT PRACTICES FOR CURBING SECURITY THREATS IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study determined principals’ application of technological security management practices for curbing security threats in secondary schools in Anambra State. One research question guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study was a descriptive survey. The population of the study comprised 258 principals in public secondary schools in Anambra State. A validated structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was tested Cronbach Alpha reliability method which yielded a score of 0.72 for internal consistency and was deemed high for the study. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using descriptive mean, standard deviation and t-test. The mean value was used to answer the research question while the standard deviation was used to ascertain the homogeneity or otherwise of the respondents’ ratings. The null hypothesis was tested with t-test at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that principals utilized technological security management practices for curbing security threats in secondary schools in Anambra State at a very low extent. It was also revealed that male and female principals in rural and urban public secondary schools did not differ in their opinion on the extent they apply technological security management practices in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made among others, that principals of public secondary schools should improve their knowledge on technological security management tools and gadgets by purchasing books, school security manuals and security journals among others. It was also recommended that the Federal and the State Government through the federal and state ministries of education and the Post Primary School Service Commission (PPSSC) should make available funding for the purchase and installation of technological security gadgets in the federal and state government owned schools.