Local Government participation in the Administration of Primary Education in Onueke Education Zone of Ebonyi State

Abstract

This study focused on Local Government Participation in the Administration of Primary Education in Onueke Education Zone of Ebonyi State. Five research questions and five null hypotheses guided the study. Descriptive research design was adopted for the study.  The population of the study was three hundred and twenty-nine (329) head teachers in the 329 public primary schools in Onueke Education Zone of Ebonyi State. The breakdown has one hundred and fifty nine (159) male headteachers and one hundred and seventy (170) female head teachers in Onueke Education Zone of Ebonyi State. No sampling technique was adopted as the size is manageable. Structural questionnaire tagged “Extent of Local Government Participation in the Administration of Primary Education Questionnaire (ELGPAPEQ) was for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts, two experts from the Department of Educational Foundations and one expert from Measurement and Evaluation option of Science Education Department, both in Ebonyi State University, Abakaliki. The overall reliability yielded 0.88. Data collected were analyzed using mean, standard deviation with the aid of statistical package for SPSS while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that: Local governments participation in the areas of:  funding of primary education, provision of infrastructures/ physical facilities in primary schools in primary schools in Onueke Education Zone are to a low extent while hypotheses results revealed there are no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female headteachers responses on the extent to which local government participate in the area of: funding of primary education and provision of infrastructures/ physical facilities in primary schools in primary schools in Onueke Education Zone. Based on the findings the study recommended that:  Local governments should prioritize education in their budgets. Advocacy campaigns can be initiated to raise awareness about the importance of education funding and also encourage collaboration between local governments and non-governmental organizations or private companies to fund educational initiatives and projects.