AWARENESS AND PRACTICE OF CHILD’S RIGHT ACT 2003 AS CORRELATES OF STUDENT PERSONNEL SERVICES IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Student Personnel Services (SPS) such as counselling, first aid, health, recreational and security are support services rendered by the school to enhance learners’ all-around development. Reports show that SPS are inadequate in most secondary schools in Nigeria especially Southwest, and this has resulted in poor academic performance of students. Extant studies have largely focused on the influence of availability of funds, leadership styles and school climate on the provision of SPS. However, school administrators as well as teachers level of awareness and practice of Child’s Right Act 2003 (CRA) has received little or no attention. This study, therefore, investigated the influence of School Administrator Awareness of Child’s Right Act 2003 (SAACRA), Teacher Awareness of Child’s Right Act 2003 (TACRA), School Administrator Practice of Child’s Right Act, 2003 (SAPCRA) and Teacher Practice of Child’s Right Act 2003 (TPCRA) on SPS in public secondary schools in southwestern Nigeria. Dynamic Awareness and Fiduciary theories were used as the framework while the mixed methods design was adopted. The multi-stage sampling procedure was used. Three states (Ogun, Osun and Oyo) were randomly selected from the six States in southwestern Nigeria. Three Senatorial Districts – (SDs) one per State – were randomly sampled. Thirteen out of the 25 local government areas and 137 out of the 278 schools were randomly selected from the three SDs: Ogun (3; 47), Osun (5; 42) and Oyo (5; 48), respectively. The Proportionate to size sampling technique was used to select 433 teachers, while 137 school administrators were enumerated. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 968 Senior School II students. Twenty school administrators were randomly selected and interviewed. The instruments used were School Administrator Awareness of Child’s Right Act 2003 (r=0.73), School Administrator Practice of Child’s Right Act 2003 (r=0.84), Teacher Awareness of Child’s Right Act 2003 (r=0.74), Teacher Practice of Child’s Right Act 2003 (r=0.86), and Student Personnel Services (r=0.94) questionnaires. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics while qualitative data were content analysed. The SPS – health services (𝑥̅= 2.64) and sport services (𝑥̅=2.72) were – high, while association/club services (𝑥̅=2.50), security services (𝑥̅=2.55) and counselling services (𝑥̅=2.58) were moderate against the threshold of 2.50. The SAPCRA (𝑥̅=2.52) and SAACRA (𝑥̅=2.54) were moderate, while TACRA (𝑥̅=2.36) and TPCRA (𝑥̅=2.43) were low against the threshold of 2.50. School administrators were often sensitized about CRA through seminars organised by the All Nigeria Confederation of Principals of Secondary Schools, hence they showed a higher level of awareness than teachers. Inadequacy of counselling materials, poor security measures and limited spaces for counsellors negatively impacted on the practice of CRA by the school administrators. Another indication of poor awareness of CRA by most of the teachers is the use of corporal punishment without the consent of school administrators. School administrators in southwestern Nigeria unlike teachers were better informed about CRA and more favourably disposed to the provisions of SPS. Stakeholders should pay more attention to the sensitisation of principals and teachers on CRA for effective student personnel services.