By Ninikanwa Lucy Onyenachi
The study was designed to find out the effective practices in the management of school plant in secondary schools in the South – Eastern states of Nigeria. The study employed descriptive survey design. The sample for the study comprised six hundred and ninety six administrative staff of school boards and four hundred and sixty seven secondary school principals in the five South – Eastern States of Nigeria through random sampling techniques. Six research questions and six null hypotheses guided the study. An instrument of 40 items on effective practices in the management of school plant in secondary schools was developed and used for the field study. The face validity of the items was done by five experts from the Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria Nsukka. Construct validity was also carried out by the use of factor analysis involving the Varimax rotation. Out of the forty (40) items that were subjected to factor analysis, thirty (30) items were found to be valid. They were loaded on six factors that addressed the variables. The surviving thirty (30) items were subjected to internal consistency reliability estimate using Cronbach alpha which yielded a reliability indices of 0.66, 0.76, 0.74, 0.58 and 0.73 for clusters A, B, C, D E, and F respectively and an overall reliability estimate of 0.90. Mean was used in answering six research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the six null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study revealed that principals should plan for the use of direct labour to reduce cost and plan for the economy of land as site of new buildings. The result indicated that principals should register the school under co-operate society through which building materials can be procured at a cheaper rate or hire purchase rates, and organize orientation for both staff and students on utilization of school buildings. The analysis also revealed that principals should establish school maintenance programme and encourage the communities to establish their own maintenance programme since they utilize the school buildings. The result also indicated that principals should carry out weekly inspections of school building and involves capable technical personnel for identifying major deficiencies after the normal activities in the school. The result of the study indicated that principals should make rules and regulations in securing secondary school buildings in South – Eastern states. Based on the findings of the study, recommended, among others, that principals should consult design experts before and during the construction of new buildings and that principals should appoint capable technical personnel for regular inspection of school buildings.