SCHOOL COMMUNITY RELATIONSHIP FOR EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN THE FEDERAL CAPITAL TERRITORY, ABUJA

This study was undertaken to investigate the impact of school community relationship in the
effective management of the FCT Senior Secondary Schools. Specifically, the study sought to
identify the community organizations that related with the schools; the areas of community
participation; the strategies adopted by principals of the schools to enhance positive school
community relationship; Compare principals' strategies for mobilizing community participation
in public and private schools; identify factors militating against effective school-community
relationship in FCT schools; and establish whether strategies adopted by principals to mobilize
community participation differ according to their gender or experience. 28 principals of Public
Senior Secondary Schools and 54 principals of Government approved Private Senior Secondary
Schools in the FCT took part in the study. A 34-item questionnaire -'School-community
Relationship Index (S-CRI) was used to elicit responses from the respondents. The data collected
were analysed using mean scores and t-test. The mean scores were used to answer the research
questions while the t-test was used to test the hypotheses. It was found that FCT senior
secondary schools maintained cordial relationships with some examination bodies especially
with W AEC and NECO; Poor communication and distrust of principals by the community
ranked highest amongst factors militating against effective school community relationship. The
study recommended that Principals in the FCT senior secondary schools should sustain their
cordial relationships with W AEC and NECO and that the extent of school community
communication should be broadened to remove distrust. The study concluded that there were still
some crucial areas of school management that the community agencies are not effectively
involved in which needed to be enhanced.