PRINCIPALS’ RECORD STORAGE AND DISPOSITION PRACTICES AS PREDICTORS OF EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study investigated principals’ record storage and disposition practices as predictors of effective administration of public secondary schools in Anambra State. The study was guided by two research questions, and two null hypotheses were tested at an alpha level of 0.05. A correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 267 principals in public secondary schools in Anambra State. The census sampling technique was used, as the entire 267 principals were studied, given that the sample size is relatively small and manageable. The researcher developed questionnaires, namely ‘‘Principals’ Record Storage and Disposition Practices Questionnaire (PRSDPQ)” and “Effective Administration of School Scale (EASS)’’ were used for data collection. The face validation of the instruments was determined by three experts, of which two were from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and one from the Measurement and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Educational Foundations, all from the Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Cronbach's alpha method was used to determine the internal consistencies of the instruments, which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.79 and 0.76 for the two clusters of PRSDPQ, and 0.77 for EASS. The researcher, along with five research assistants, collected data for the study using the direct approach method, and a 97% return rate was recorded. Simple regression was employed to address the research questions and test the hypotheses. The study's findings revealed, among other things, that principals' record storage practices are a strong and significant predictor of the effective administration of public secondary schools in Anambra State. It was also found that principals’ records disposition practices are a fair and significant predictor of effective administration of public secondary schools in Anambra State. Based on the findings, it was recommended, among other things, that the Ministry of Education should formulate a handbook providing step-by-step guidelines to principals on when and how to destroy obsolete records, thereby improving their records disposition practices for the effective administration of secondary schools.