ABSTRACT
The study investigated the relationship between Principal’s leadership styles and the security of public secondary schools in Ondo State. The rate of insecurity in the school system is an overdose of the high rate of insecurity in the society compounded by cultism, abduction, kidnapping, rape, and this is making our learning environment unsafe. To guide the study, eight research questions were raised and two of them were answered while six were hypothesized and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Relevant literature were reviewed to guide the study.
The study was a survey research that adopted the descriptive and correlation method. The population for the study was all the 305 principals of all the public secondary schools in Ondo State. The sample of the study consisted of 31 principals representing 10% of the public secondary school principals. Variables of school type, school form, school size, school location and administrative experience of the principals were taken into consideration in the selection of schools. Also, 165 (10%) of the respondents (teachers) from each of the sampled schools were randomly selected for the study. The instrument titled: Principals’ Leadership Style and School Security Scale (PLSASSS) was used for the study. The scale was divided into sections A, B and C. Section A dealt with the bio-data of the respondent, section B dealt with Principals’ leadership styles, and Section C dealt with the security of the schools. The instrument was validated by the researcher’s supervisor and three other experts in Educational Management and Measurement and Evaluation, Faculty of Education, University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. The reliability of the instrument was determined by Crombach Alpha Statistic technique which yielded the value of 0.81. The data obtained for the study were collated and analyzed using the Pearson Product Moment correlation co-efficient statistics and Fisher’s Z test.
The findings revealed that the predominant leadership style adopted by principals in public secondary school in Ondo State was the democratic leadership style. The findings also revealed that 84% of the public secondary schools in Ondo State have low level of school security. The study further revealed that there is a significant relationship between Principals’ leadership styles and the security of secondary schools. Based on the findings, it was recommended that school principals should create safety partnership with the various organs and departments in the school system to combating school security threats. Principals should ensure regular inspection of school facilities and supervision of students’ activities to forestall security breaches. Any open access and porosity of public secondary schools should be properly demarcated and fenced off from trespassers. Principals should adopt transactional leadership style in delaing with security issues.
