LEVERAGING ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TOOLS FOR EFFECTIVE ADMINISTRATION OF PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE.

Abstract

This study examined leveraging on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for effective administration of public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. The study design was Descriptive study and the population was 7178 principals and teachers in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. The sample consists of 718 respondents representing 10% of the population. A 21-item self -structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was duly validated by experts and 0.84 reliability index was established using Cronbach alpha. A criterion mean of 2.50 was use as cut-off mark while mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions. A t- test inferential statistics was used to test all null hypotheses at 0.05 level significance. Statistical analysis was done using the statistical package for social science, SPSS version 23. Findings of the study identified types of AI tools used by school administrators, identified the impacts of leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools to include; improved students’ performance, data-driven decision making, enhanced communication and engagements, better resource management, increased accessibility, increased students and staff wellbeing etc. The study further identified deficient fund, digital divide, limited access to infrastructure and others as the challenges of integrating AI for efficient administration of public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. The study concludes that leveraging AI tools in the administration of public senior secondary school will increase students’ interest, administration and management of the school system will be efficient which will in turn lead to high success rate in students results. The study recommended among others that government should train and retrain school administrators and teachers on the importance of incorporating AI in the administration of schools, government and secondary school administrators should identify the challenges of utilizing AI and work towards handling those challenges.