Administrative Strategies for School Plant Maintenance in Secondary Schools in Okigwe Education Zone

This study was designed to investigate the administrative strategies for school plant
maintenance in Okigwe Education Zone. This study is important due to the fact that
maintenance of school plant is an indispensable and unavoidable role of school administrator
which makes for effective teaching and learning operations. Four research questions and two
hypotheses were formulated. The study was a descriptive survey design The population of
the study consists of 149 principals which were made up of 75 Senior Secondary Principals
and 74 Junior Secondary Principals. There was no sampling because of the smallness of the
population, thus 149 principals were used for the study. The instrument used for colf ection of
data was questionnaire. The research questions were answered using mean and standard
deviation while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.
The result of the analysis led to the following findings
I. The ways school facilities and equipment are maintained by principals in Okigwe
Education Zone are; applying to the Parents Teachers Association and philanthropists
for major repairs and replacement of school plant; adopting any suitable maintenance
strategy, carrying out major and minor repairs using internally generated fund,
encouraging teachers and students to treat school plant with respect.
2. The maintenance options adopted by principals in Okigwe Education Zone are;
emergency maintenance, remedial maintenance, no-maintenance at all, Adhoc
maintenance and preventive maintenance.
3. Inadequate hnd, poor quality of facilities and equipment, lack of qualified
maintenance personnel, extreme environmental conditions, lack of knowledge and
interest of staff on school plant maintenance and negligence of administrative roles by
the principals due to sheer apathy are the factors that miIitate against school plant
maintenance in secondary schools in Okigwe Education Zone.
4 The effective strategies for school plant maintenance in secondary schools in Okigwe
Education Zone are; students should pay for any equipment they damage in school,
schools should have maintenance and store officers who are in-charge of school plant,
equipment fee should be set aside for maintenance of school plant, repair inventory
book and maintenance workshop should be instituted in schools, teachers should
repair any school plant entrusted in their care, Secondary Education Management
Board should visit schools to inspect the condition of school plant while the Imo State
Ministry of Education should be responsible for maintenance of school plant.