PRINCIPALS’ SCHOOL PLANT MANAGEMENT PRACTICES AS PREDICTORS OF TEACHERS’ JOB COMMITMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ school plant management practices as predictors of teachers’
job commitment in public secondary schools in Anambra State, Nigeria. Three research
questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.
Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised
8,187 teachers in the 269 public secondary schools in Anambra State. The sample for this study
was 819 teachers drawn using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. Two sets of
instruments developed by the researcher and titled "Principals' School Plant Management
Practices Questionnaire (PSPMPQ) and "Teachers' Job Commitment Questionnaire (TJCQ)
were used for data collection. The face validation of the instruments was determined by three
experts of which two were from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and one
in Measurement and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Educational Foundations, all from
Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Cronbach alpha method was used to
determine the internal consistencies of the instruments which yielded reliability indices of 0.81,
0.78, 0.80 and 0.82 for the clusters A,D of PSPMPQ, with an overall coefficient of 0.80, whereas
the coefficient value obtained for TJCQ was 0.86. The researcher together with five research
assistants collected data for the study using the direct approach method and 97% return was
recorded. Simple regression was used to answer the research questions 1,2 and test hypotheses 1,
2, while multiple regression was used to answer research question 3 and test hypothesis 3. The
findings of the study revealed among others that principals’ school plant planning and
procurement practices are strong and significant predictors of teachers’ job commitment in
public secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also found that principals’ school plant
management practices (planning and procurement practices) jointly and significantly predicted
teachers’ job commitment in public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings,
it was recommended among others that principals should constitute a committee involving vice
principals, teachers, parents, and community members to strengthen school plant management
practices for fostering teachers’ job commitment in secondary schools.