Implementation of the national school-based management policy in public secondary schools in Ondo state, Nigeria

Abstract

National School-Based Management Policy (NSBMP) was adopted to address various challenges confronting the secondary school education in Nigeria. Yet, the challenges persists after adoption and implementation, this was reported by several scholars. There is paucity of studies that had examined the effectiveness of the NSBMP since adoption in 2006. The study, therefore, investigated the implementation of the NSBMP in the public secondary schools in Ondo State, Nigeria. The study adopted a qualitative case study design that enables in-depth involvement of the selected schools. The study adopted System Management theory and Management by Objective theory to guide the theory. The study’s population consisted of the government constituency (Ministries of Education & Teachers’ Service Commission); the school constituency (Principals, Vice- principals, Head of subject teachers and alumni associations); and the community constituency (parents’ association, religious leaders, community leaders & local philanthropists). Forty-two participants were purposively selected across the approved constituencies of School-Based Management (SBM) to participate in both the group discussions (FGD, n=24) and in-depth interviewing (IDI, n=18). Data retrieved from primary and secondary sources (minutes of meetings & NSBMP gazette) were subjected to thematic and document analyses respectively. Results revealed that NSBMP was effectively implemented in the Federal Government-owned secondary school and ineffectively implemented in the state government-owned secondary schools in Ondo State. Findings revealed that funding, lack of proper awareness, exclusive decision-making, ambiguity of roles, fund mismanagement, communication gap, lack of accountability, and politicisation of appointments into the SBM committee were the prevailing factors perpetuating ineffective NSBMP. The study therefore concluded that the implementation of the National School-Based Management Policy in public secondary schools was majorly ineffective, as the state-owned schools constituted more than 90% of the total government-owned secondary schools in Ondo State. Based on the findings, recommendations and guidelines for effective implementation of the NSBMP in public secondary schools were suggested. Limitation of the study were further discussed.