Assessing School Facilities in Public Secondary Schools in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigated school facilitates in public secondary schools in Delta State, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to find out the state of the facilities, the types of maintenance carried out on the facilities by school administrators, the factors encouraging school facilities depreciation and the roles of school administrators in the management and maintenance of school facilities. The study employed the ex-post-facto research design. The questionnaire was the instrument for data collection from 640 respondents selected through stratified sampling techniques from all the 358 public secondary schools in the state. Findings revealed that school facilities in the schools are generally in a state of disrepair. The findings further revealed that the maintenance carried out on school facilities were inadequate for majority of the facilities. The factors encouraging school facilities deprecation included excess pressure on available facilities and delayed maintenance amongst others. The roles of school administrators in the management and maintenance of school facilities included periodic inspection of facilities and decentralization of maintenance. The study recommended that school administrators, teachers and students should develop and inculcate good maintenance culture, government should budget for facilities maintenance and allocate more funds to schools for effective management and maintenance of school facilities.