ASSESSMENT OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN APPOINTMENT OF PRINCIPALS IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN OREDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF EDO STATE

 ABSTRACT

The study examined the gender difference on the appointment of principals into public secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area. In order to achieve the objectives of the study, five research questions were raised to guide the study. This study utilized a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consist of fifteen 15 (fifteen) Public secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State with a total number of one thousand and seventy five (1075) teachers (Edo State Ministry of Education, 2024).The study sample comprised of 175 principals and vice-principals in the fifteen (15) public secondary schools located in the Oredo Local Government Area. The simple random sampling technique was adopted by the study to sample which represented 10% for the population of the study. Thirty (30) teachers each from seven (7) randomly selected  schools to make up the sample for the study.

The research instrument is a questionnaire designed by the researcher titled: Gender Differences in the Appointment of Principals Questionnaire (GAPDQ) will be used for data collection. It was divided into two sections: section A&B. The instrument was validated by the researcher’s supervisor and two other experts from the Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, necessary corrections was made on the questionnaire before it will be administered to teachers that were selected for the study. In order to determine the reliability of the instrument, the questionnaire will be administered to 20 respondents who were not part of the study and retrieved, and the data collected from the respondents were subjected to Cronbach Alpha statistics and a reliability coefficient was obtained. Data was analyzed item by item mean and standard deviation (SD).

The study found that appointment of principal into administrative positions in public secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area is favorable to male principals and there was negative perception of society about women heading administrative position influenced to a large extent the appointment of female as principals in public secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area. Based on the findings of the study, the study recommended amongst others:  Government and other stakeholders in education industry should be encouraged to promote policies and practices that will lead to the appointment of women as school principals in Nigerian secondary schools, teachers of either sexes who are qualified for principal ship should not allow any form of prejudice on the basis of their gender whenever they have such opportunities. The female gender specially needs to be more assertive amongst others.