APPRAISAL OF MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF THE TEACHING SERVICE COMMISSIONS IN NORTH CENTRAL ZONE, NIGERIA

This study appraised the management practices of the Teaching Service Commissions in North Central zone, Nigeria. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was all 1228 principals and all the 3015 senior administrative staff of the Teaching Service Commissions. Multi-stage sampling procedure and simple random sampling technique were adopted for selecting 787 respondents comprising 247 secondary school principals and 540 senior administrative staff. A 40-item questionnaire and 32 interview schedule questions were the instruments used for data collection. The questionnaire was validated by experts. The overall reliability co-efficient obtained was 0.93. The mean ratings and standard deviation (SD) were used to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that the Teaching Service Commissions to “a great extent” adhered to the management manuals in the areas of personnel services, financial management, supervision of instruction, staff development while to “a less extent” on the distribution of physical facilities and equipment. The following conclusions were also drawn; staff of the Teaching Service Commissions in North Central zone adhered to the manuals on personnel services, financial management, supervision of instruction and staff development. But staff of the commissions adhered to a little extent to the manual on distribution of physical facilities. Following the findings, the researcher recommended that the commissions should continue to be guided by the commissions manuals in personnel services, financial management, supervision of instruction. The commissions should ensure the equitable distribution of physical facilities and equipment in both rural and urban areas. The commissions should sponsor staff to trainings so that they can be exposed to new skills in administration and in the classrooms.