ABSTRACT
This study examined the attitudes of secondary school teachers and students toward the fundamental rights of students in the exercise of control in Edo State. It investigated the differences such variables as sex, age, location, ownership and kind of school make on the attitudes of teachers and students. It also ascertained the differences educational qualification and studies in education law make in the attitudes of teachers. Two research questions were answered while thirteen hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance.
The population of the study was the entire students and teachers of the 663 approved secondary schools in Edo State. A sample of 542 teachers and 1957 students were selected through the stratified random sampling technique. Two different questionnaires were designed for teachers and students respectively by the researcher. Data were collected with the aid of research assistants. The research questions were answered by mean and percentage statistics while the hypotheses were tested with the Z Test and the one way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) statistics.
The result of the analysis revealed that Edo State secondary school teachers and students had positive attitudes towards the fundamental rights of students generally. With a mean score of 2.67 as against teachers’ mean score of 2.39, students had more positive attitudes than the teachers did. The analysis of data also revealed that educational qualification, studies in education law, sex and age of teachers, as well as location and ownership of school did not make any significant difference in the attitudes of teachers to the fundamental rights of students. However, the kind of school made a significant difference in the attitudes of teachers to the fundamental rights. Tukey post hoc test conducted to ascertain the area of significant difference showed a significant difference of -1.92 between teachers in mixed schools and boys’ schools. The sex and kind of school did not make any significant difference in the attitudes of secondary school students to the fundamental rights of other students. However age, location and ownership of school made a significant difference in the attitudes of secondary school students. Early adolescents had a score of 81.2 while later adolescents had a score of 80.1 to show the age differences. Urban secondary students had a mean score of 81.4 while rural secondary school students had a score of 79.3 to show the location difference. Public secondary school students had a score of 81.3 as against the private secondary school students with a score of 79.7. As a result of the findings, recommendations were made for policy options.
