ABSTRACT
This study appraised the quality assurance measures in the management of public secondary schools in South East Nigeria. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study. The study was guided by seven research questions and seven null hypotheses. South East States of Nigeria served as the area of the study using a total population of 32, 450 principals and teachers in all the public secondary schools in the zone. A sample of 1, 456 respondents which comprised 343 principals and 1,113 teachers was used for the study. A researcher developed instrument known as Appraisal of quality assurance measures in the management of secondary schools questionnaire (AQAMQ) was used for data collection The instrument was face validated by five experts comprising two validates from Measurement and Evaluation Unit of the Department of Science Education and three validates from the Department of Educational Foundations all from Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. In order to determine the reliability of the instrument, the researcher administered twenty copies to principals and teachers in secondary schools in Delta State which was outside the study area. The reliability estimates for the various clusters of the instrument were estimated using Cronbach Alpha. Clusters A, B, C, D, E, F and G had reliability indices of 0.72, 0.75, 0.76, 0.79, 0.77, 0.75 and 0.74 with an overall reliability index of 0.75. Data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions and independent samples t-test to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study showed that; all the quality assurance measures ranging from funding of secondary education, provision of physical facilities, motivation of teachers, relevance of secondary school curriculum, school-community relation, professional development of teachers to whole school evaluation are carried out to a low extent in secondary schools in South East Nigeria. There were significant (p ≤ 0.05) differences in the mean ratings of principals and teachers with respect to how those quality assurance measures are being carried out in secondary schools. However, their respective overall mean ratings in all the quality assurance measures showed that those measures are being carried out to a low extent. It was recommended, among others, that State Governments should make adequate provision of funds for the implementation of secondary school education programmes. Adequate physical facilities should be provided by government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) as well as the host communities, while motivation of teachers should be considered very important by the state governments in order to realize goals of secondary school education in South East Nigeria.
