ABSTRACT
The study was designed to assess principals’ violation of students’ rights in secondary schools, in Kogi State Nigeria. It aims at finding out the extent to which the principals are aware of students rights, assess the extent to which students right to life, dignity of human person, right to personal liberty, right to fair hearing are being violated by principals. The design used for the study is descriptive survey. Six research questions and six hypotheses guided the study. The target population for the study was 47,388 students, teachers and principals from 345 schools in Kogi State. The sampled population was 6,191 comprising 138 principals, 1,794 teachers and 4,259 students from 138 sampled schools. The instrument used for the study was the (PASRVQ) Principals’ Awareness of Students’ Rights Violation Questionnaire. Means and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. The internal constituency and reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha method. The reliability coefficient of the instrument obtained from cluster A-F is 0.83, 0.69, 0.81, 0.75, 0.92, and 0.87 respectively. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Scheffe test were used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study among others revealed that to a great extent principals are not generally aware of students rights and therefore violate students right to life, dignity of human person, right to personal liberty and right to fair hearing. Accordingly the study recommended that: principals should be made properly aware of students rights, through the conferences, seminars, workshops and further studies. School rules should be made public, school plant facilities should be made safe for use, students are to be given opportunity to express opinions and be involved in decision making process. Teacher capacity building curriculum should incorporate element of education law and human rights education should be incorporated in secondary school curriculum.
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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
The school as a social institution has the social and constitutional responsibilities of educating the students and protecting them from the abuse of their rights and privileges. Effective students’ personnel administration demands that various administrative activities and services should be carried out by the school, within the established rules and regulations, in order to ensure total development of the students Bassey, Arop, Akpama & Ayang, (2012). This means that school administrators shall not only be knowledgeable about students’ rights, but should also be proficient in the protection and promotion of these rights (Nakpodia, 2011).
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The principal co-ordinates and ensures that the various process of administrative activities and services are carried out by the school within an established rules and regulations so as to ensure total development of the students in a given school. According to Nakpodia (2009) principals are also Teachers in Nigerian schools system, who in their position in-loco-parentis to the children in their charge act, reasonably in this capacity, provided their actions are in accordance with general and approved educational practice,,, The principal is the leader of secondary school or Chief Executive Officer of secondary school administration. Principals as leaders have the key for achieving sustainable enormous education reforms like accountability, standard, test, enhancing legal rights of students, site based management, school climate and turning schools into professional learning communities Fullan(2002). As leaders he manages the teachers, students and non-academic staff of the school. He develops and leads programmes. The principal sets high standards and knows how to motivate staff to achieve the desired goals. He works with people as a team and cherishes high decisional participation. The principal ensures teachers commitment to school task through an atmosphere of respect and trust.
Principals, according to Peretomode (1995) have a critical responsibility to direct and control the activities of the human and non human resources in order to achieve educational goals and objectives. He stated further that the present system of secondary education in Nigeria poses a lot of new challenges to the secondary school principal, and to meet these challenges, the school principal as an administrator will have to equip himself with the knowledge, skills and attitude which will make him proficient in his administrative and professional duties and help him achieve the goals of the institution.
Igwe (1990) also described the principal as that administrator who is supposed to have a proven quality and the knowledge to achieve his administrative roles as the chief custodian of their various schools. The Author stressed further that principals are the uncompromising leaders of their schools as well as administrators in whose hands lie the future of these institutions. Ogbonnaya (2003) in his related view sees the principal; as the chief executive charged with the day-to-day running of secondary schools in Nigeria. They implement the educational programmes in secondary schools, keep statutory records as well as create a conducive atmosphere for teaching and learning in schools.
In view of all the above it is expected that the principal must be competent enough in his administrative duties, so as to ensure successful operation of secondary schools. In so doing he maintains educational standards and goals established by the policy makers, supervise and support students, monitor students educational moral progress, manage career counseling and other student services. Unfortunately, it is obvious that many challenges facing secondary schools today are traceable to principals, who as chief executives are expected to be in total control of all aspects of school administration. These challenges include the ability of principals: – to keep students motivated and safe in an increasely apathetic and violent school environment; to administer quality education to all students including those with special needs; to keep abreast of and implement modern reforms while introducing new technologies. Peretomode (1992) noted that many principals have abdicated their administrative roles.
Violation is another term for an offence or an infringement. A violation is a breach, infringement, or transgression as of law, rule or promise. The term generally means an act of disobeying a law or a legal order. There are several categories of violations that exist at various levels of the legal system. These levels of violations include willful violation which is a violation in which the violator either knowingly failed to comply with a legal requirement or acted with plain indifference to safety of clients. Serious violation exists when the environment for learning is in hazard condition which could cause an accident or illness that would most likely result in death or serious physical harm. Committing violations can result in a variety of consequences depending on the type of disobedient behaviour. When a person acts illegally he violates the law and may be held accountable (Wisegeek, 2013). Longman (2009) also sees violation as an action that breaks a law agreement or principles. Nakopodia (2011) stated that there are practices in the school system that tends to violate the fundamental human rights of students. He stated further that in section 32-42 of chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is enshrined the fundamental human rights of the citizens. He therefore summarized that, it is of great importance that education administrators and teachers should have knowledge of the constitutional rights of the citizen and the knowledge of the students’ fundamental human rights. The trend of student right violation in public schools go to a large extent to reveal that violation of students rights are important variable that should be addressed.
Secondary school is an educational institution meant for children over eleven years and above. In Nigeria, Britain, France, India, Canada and United State of America they exist to provide opportunity for education to enable students live a more perceptive and fulfilling life. The aim of secondary school education is to prepare students for useful living within the society and for higher institutions, to raise a generation of people who can think for themselves, respect the views and fillings of others, respect dignity of labour and live as good citizens. According to Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN, 2004), secondary education is the education children receive after primary education and before the tertiary stage. It has six years duration, the junior secondary stage and senior secondary stage. Each is of three years duration. The secondary education level occupies an important and critical position in the set up of the educational system as a transitional stage between basic and tertiary education. Ideally the secondary schools are to cater for the needs of educating and training middle level technicians and skilled workers.
