ADMINISTRATORS’ STRATEGIES IN MANAGING STUDENTS’ UNETHICAL BEHAVIOURS FOR REORIENTING VALUES IN PUBLIC SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study investigated administrators’ strategies in managing students’ unethical behaviours for reorienting values in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. Three objectives, three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 6247 consisting of 335 principals and 5912 teachers from 335 public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. A sample size of 376 consisting of 126 principals and 250 teachers was determined using Taro Yamane’s formula and stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for the study was a self-developed questionnaire titled “Administrators’ Strategies in Managing Students’ Unethical Behaviours for Reorienting Values Questionnaire” which was face and content validated by two experts in Measurement and Evaluation and the Department of Educational Management, Rivers State University respectively. Cronbach Alpha statistics was used to establish the reliability of the instrument which yielded reliability indexes of 0.86, 0.80 and 0.84. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while z-test was used in testing the formulated null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings of the study revealed that creating ethical awareness, engaging PTA in discipline and applying reward system as administrators’ strategies in managing students’ unethical behaviours enhance reorientation of values in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State to a high extent. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that school administrators should institutionalize structured ethical awareness programmes as part of the school’s core activities to foster greater internalization of positive values among students.