Provision and Management of Physical Facilities for Sustainable Free and Compulsory Education in the 21st Century Plateau State

Abstract

This study investigated the provision of physical facilities for sustainable Basic Education in Jos Metropolis. Plateau State in the 21" century. To guide the study, three research questions were raised: one hypothesis was tested. The researchers adopted descriptive survey research design. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 20 secondary schools out of 51, while Proportional sampling technique was used to select a total of 200 teachers. All the 20 principals of the selected schools and all the JSS3 students' Basic Education Certificate Examination results of the selected schools for 2014-2018 were purposively selected for the study. A researcher self developed instrument titled ‘’Facility Provision for Sustainable Basic Education Questionnaire" (FPSBEQ) was used. While other Instruments: "Student's Academic Achievement Pro-Forma" (SAAP) and "School Facility inventory" (SFI) were also developed and used for the study. The instruments were validated by experts and validity index of 0.74 was obtained and the reliability of the (FPSBEQ) was subjected In a Test- retest method and obtained a correlation coefficient of 0.83 using Pearson product - moment correlation. The research questions were analyzed using mean, while the hypothesis was tested at 0.05 significance level; using t-test statistical method. The findings revealed that a significant relationship exists between facility provision and upper basic school students' Academic Achievement in Plateau State. The result also indicated that there is significant differences between the performances mean score of the students from adequately equipped schools and inadequately equipped schools. The findings furthermore revealed that there are inadequate provisions of educational facilities in Plateau stale Basic schools. Based on the findings, it was recommended that governments should adequately equip Basic Schools with necessary facilities and materials among other things.