Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 17 IMPACT OF EDUCATION LAW ON STAFF PERSONNEL GOVERNANCE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA Rev.Fr. Barr Onubuleze Franklin kelechi (Ph.D) and Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu, Nigeria Dr Akpagu Cletus I. Ebonyi state college of education ikwo Keywords: Education Law, Education and Staff Personnel ABSTRACT The study investigated the education law and staff personnel governance on secondary school level in Nigeria. Two research questions were posed and two hypotheses formulated to guide the study. The hypotheses were tested at p>0.05 level of significance. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study was made up of 120 urban and rural teachers in selected secondary schools in Enugu State. A 10 item questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. The reliability index of 0.79 was obtained for the instrument using Cronbach Alpha. Mean with standard deviation was used to analyze data related to research questions. The results of data analysed revealed among others that education law has a great impact on staff personnel governance in secondary schools relating to the employment of teaching staff. One of the recommendations made was government in Nigeria to ensure that there is no favouritism in the disbursement of funds in secondary schools in order to provide the needed infrastructural facilities Introduction The School administration is different from that of enterprises due to its goal. However, like any other organization, the school needs means to run efficiently. These means are mainly of human, material, financial, legal and technological nature. The existence of these means is not enough in itself; there is a need to make a rational utilization and combination which fundamentally remains the responsibility of the staff personnel with a law as a backup (Ogbonnaya, 2009). Education law is a set of rules and regulations that guide the workings of an education system. Many regions have detailed educational law systems, in order to create comprehensive educational policies for a specific nation. Education law may deal with the creation and https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 18 funding of schools and school policy, teacher requirements and the rights of students. Education law is also the portion of the law in a state, country or city that specifically governs educational bodies such as public and private schools and universities. Various education laws cover every aspect of education and school systems (Okeke, 2007). The author further posited that, the pursuit of education is seen by many as key to creating a productive citizenry. By instilling basic knowledge such as reading, writing, science and mathematics, schools help produce knowledgeable workers that are primed for work or for additional training in a specialized field. This, in turn, creates a more skilled workforce, which can benefit the economy and well-being of an entire nation. However, legal means of a secondary school are constituted of legal texts, rules and instructions to which are added contracts that the school signs with individuals. The respect of all legal means of the school contributes to the fulfillment of planned objectives. Indeed, the strict application of all texts governing the school helps to prevent and resolve conflicts and problems which may occur. It is also a sign of the application of education general policy because the school legislation reflects this policy. The respect of this national policy is therefore translated into the application of these legal documents; which will allow our education system to achieve its mission by the help of staff personnel being guided by appropriate education law. For these reasons, many governments consider education to be a priority. Education is an important tool for creating national awareness, positive change and development. The growth of a nation’s economy, politics and social values mostly depend on the quality and quantity of education the nation could offer its citizens. Nigeria for example, advocates for the philosophy of education that could cater for the needs of her citizens. Nwadialo (2004) noted that the rate of return to a nation from investment in education is greater than that from any form of investment. Education in Nigeria is overseen by the Ministry of Education. Local authorities take responsibility for implementing state-controlled policy regarding public education and state schools. The education system is divided into Kindergarten, Primary education, Secondary education and Tertiary education. One of the educational levels where the government invests much is the secondary education level. The broad goal of Nigerian secondary education as specified by the Federal Republic of Nigeria (2013) is summed up to be; preparing students for useful living within the society and higher education. It has been observed by Adebayo (2007) that achieving these objectives depends largely on the quality of staff personnel and their adherence to the laws guiding education. Indeed, staff personnel today face a big challenge not only to know different tools of secondary school management but also to maintain the required professionalism to efficiently handle the available means. This goes further because some of them do not yet master the basic principles of school management or face problem of understanding which may hinder the efficiency of the general administration of the school. Furthermore, the initial training of some of them does not allow them to acquire enough knowledge in school governance. The necessity of continuous training of Nigerian secondary schools https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigerian_Federal_Ministry_of_Education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Government_Areas_of_Nigeria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_schools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_schools https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindergarten https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primary_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secondary_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_education https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tertiary_education Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 19 managers finds its justification. No more explanation is needed to prove that the secondary school remains today one of the cornerstones of the development of the Nigeria education system because it is at this level that the pupil acquires the requirements to improve intellectual flexibility (Okeke, 2007). In addition, Oboegbulem (2004) viewed staff personnel governance as the manpower or human resources management in an organization. Oboegbulem pointed out that staff personnel refers to manpower activities of any organization which embraces recruitment of staff, staff maintenance, selection, induction, motivation, appraisal, developmental, discipline, training, compensations and evaluation of staff for education activities. In a school system, the overall goals of the personnel administration are to recruit adequate and qualified staff, develop and maintain the staff so that they would be willing to render effective and efficient educational services to the students. In secondary school setting, staff personnel governance forms an important responsibility of the school management in achieving the goals of the schools in particular and of education in general. Therefore, education law adherence of secondary school governance has influenced the activities of staff personnel in different ways. It is observed that in areas of employment within education sector, staff personnel to a large extent determine who is to be taken and who is not to be employed. Eze (2002) observed that in the distribution of infrastructural facilities to schools, the education law is paramount. Therefore, this study sought to determine the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance in the secondary schools in Nigeria. Statement of the Problem Education law can be a vital factor that influences decisions in the management of secondary schools in various situations by the staff personnel. Since the government has taken over the control and management of secondary schools, political issues, societal interest and environmental influences on the management of secondary schools have come to the fore. Some secondary schools in Nigeria are known to be doing well with experience teaching staff, good equipments and adequate infrastructure while others unfortunately suffer serious deprivations. Although, there are a number of researches directed at the level of governance of staff personnel and its consequences in relation to educational policies and National development, none so far has been specific on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of the secondary school improvement. Hence, the problem of this study is what are the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools in Nigeria? Research question The following research questions guided the study: i. what are the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff? ii. what are the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provision of infrastructural facilities? Hypotheses The following null hypotheses were tested at P<0.05; HO1: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of urban and rural teachers on the https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 20 impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. HO2: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provisions of infrastructural facilities. Research Method Survey research design was used for the study. The study covered some of the schools in Enugu education zone. The education zone comprises thirty (30) schools spread out across three Local Government Areas (LGAs) namely: Enugu East, Enugu North and Isiuzo. Enugu education zone is one of the six education zones in Enugu State which is in Nigeria. The researcher purposively sampled ten secondary schools from the zone. The population of the study was made up of 120 teachers which were 60 urban teachers and 60 rural teachers. The instrument used for data collection was a researcher made structured questionnaire, which was validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education, ESUT. The instrument comprised 10 questionnaire items divided in clusters according to the two research questions. Reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate, at the end of which a reliability index of 0.79 was obtained. Copies of the questionnaire were administered to all the teachers by the researcher. Mean with standard deviation was use to analyse data related to research questions. The degree of agreed was determined by finding the mean of the values assigned to the options. In rating the computed mean scores that range from 2.50 and above was regarded as being agreed while the item that falls below 2.50 was regarded as disagree. The criterion mean of 2.50 was gotten by summing up the weighted options (4+3+2+1=10) and dividing it by total number of response options (4) as follows; 10/4=2.50. The t-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significant. The decision rule for the hypothesis were that, hypothesis was not rejected when the t- calculated value is less than the critical table value, but rejected when the t-calculated value is greater than the critical table value. Research Question 1: what are the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff? https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 21 Table 1: Mean response scores of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. Urban Teachers Rural Teachers S/ N Items X SD Dec. X SD Dec. 1 Bias in the appointment of inexperienced personnel to carryout duties leads to inefficiency. 2.54 0.86 Agree 2.66 0.87 Agree 2 The issues of favouritism in the appointment of staff to work in the school system leads to conflict among staff personnel. 2.63 1.03 Agree 2.81 0.95 Agree 3 Recruitment of unqualified teachers into secondary schools leads to low quality of teaching. 2.51 0.92 Agree 2.60 0.90 Agree 4 The teaching staff in my school are experts in their disciplines. 2.35 0.88 Disagre e 2.27 1.15 Agree 5 Most of the teaching staff in my school teach subjects that they did not study in school. 2.67 0.79 Agree 2.55 0.99 Agree Cluster mean 2.54 0.90 Agree 2.58 0.97 Agree Data presented on Table 1 show that the respondents agreed on items 1, 2, 3 and 5 but disagreed on item 4. The urban teachers mean ranged from 2.35 to 2.67 while that of rural teachers ranged from 2.27 to 2.66. In addition, they were cluster means of 2.54 and 2.58 for Urban and Rural Teachers and standard deviations of 0.90 and 0.97 respectively. These imply that there is an impact of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. Research Question 2: what are the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provision of infrastructural facilities? https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 22 Table 2: Mean response scores of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provision of infrastructural facilities. Urban Teachers Rural Teachers S/N Items X SD Dec. X SD Dec. 6 There are adequate classrooms in my school. 2.68 0.83 Agree 2.62 1.00 Agree 7 There is a standard laboratory. 2.56 0.94 Agree 2.84 1.02 Agree 8 Staff personnel always provide seats in the various classrooms. 2.58 0.99 Agree 2.68 0.97 Agree 9 There is adequate sport equipment in our school. 2.78 1.02 Agree 2.66 0.88 Agree 10 There is standard science equipment in our school. 2.97 0.89 Agree 2.91 0.89 Agree Cluster mean 2.71 0.93 Agree 2.74 0.95 Agree Data presented on Table 2 show that the respondents agreed on all the items. The urban teachers mean ranged from 2.56 to 2.97 while that of rural teachers mean ranged from 2.62 to 2.91. In addition, they were cluster means of 2.71 and 2.74 for Urban and Rural Teachers and standard deviations of 0.93 and 0.95 respectively. These imply that there is an impact of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provision of infrastructural facilities. HO1: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. Table 3: t-test of significant difference between the mean scores of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff Group N Mean SD Df t-cal t-crit Decision Urban Teachers 60 2.54 0.90 118 0.24 1.98 Not rejected Rural Teachers 60 2.58 0.97 Table 3 above presents the independent t-test analysis of the mean difference in the response opinions on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 23 relating to employment of experience teaching staff. The result showed that the calculated t- value (0.24) was less than the critical value (1.98). The null hypothesis was not rejected. Therefore, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of Urban and Rural Teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. HO2: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provisions of infrastructural facilities. Table 4: t-test of significant difference between the mean scores of urban and rural teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provisions of infrastructural facilities Group N Mean SD Df t-cal t-crit Decision Urban Teachers 60 2.71 0.93 118 0.18 1.98 Not rejected Rural Teachers 60 2.74 0.95 Table 4 above presents the independent t-test analysis of the mean difference in the response opinions on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provisions of infrastructural facilities. The result showed that the calculated t-value (0.18) was less than the critical value (1.98). The null hypothesis was not rejected. Therefore, there was no significant difference between the mean scores of Urban and Rural Teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provisions of infrastructural facilities. Summary of data analysis From the results of the data analysis, it was found out that: i. there is an impact of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff; ii. there is an impact of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provision of infrastructural facilities; iii. there was no significant difference between the mean scores of Urban and Rural Teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff; and iv. there was no significant difference between the mean scores of Urban and Rural Teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provisions of infrastructural facilities. https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 24 Discussion of Findings The results of the data analysed clearly shared the position of the respondents with respect to the assessment of educating Nigerian children amidst the challenges of insecurity in the country. The study in research question one revealed that there is an impact of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. In other words, it showed that both Urban and Rural Teachers agreed that, the education law has a positive impact on the staff personnel governance relating to the employment of teaching staff. The finding is in line with the statements of Ogunu (2006) that education law influences the appointment, promotion and transfer of teachers. The author further observed that in the school situation, staff personnel governance forms an important responsibility of the school administration in achieving the goals of the school in particular and in education in general. With reference to Table 3 hypothesis 1, it shows that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of Urban and Rural Teachers on the impacts of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to employment of experience teaching staff. The study in research question two revealed that there is an impact of education law on staff personnel governance of secondary schools relating to the provision of infrastructural facilities. The findings of this present study support Ogbonnaya (2009) who stated that education law influences the provision of basic infrastructures in schools. Ogbonnaya reported that there is quota system in the provision of science equipment that government determines where schools are cited. Okeke (2009) also stated that education law influences the provision of sports equipment as federal government colleges and schools in the urban cities, particularly state capitals are more favoured than those in the rural areas. Conclusion Education is very important in every nation of the world but it is usually influenced in various ways and education law is one of the ways. The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of education law on staff personnel governance in secondary schools in Nigeria. It is perceived that education law influences government interference in secondary education in staff-Personnel governance and provision of basic infrastructures. Recommendations of the study Based on the findings of the study, the following were recommended: 1. The states governments should avoid quota system in the provision of facilities and equipments in schools. This is because these leads to differentials in the quality and quantity of schools. 2. Government in Nigeria should ensure that there is no favouritism in the disbursement of funds in secondary schools in order to provide the needed infrastructural facilities. References Federal Republic of Nigeria, (FRN), (2013). National Policy on Education. Abuja: Federal Ministry of Education. Krahmann E. (2003), Conceptualizing Security Governance. Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association Vol. 38 No 1. https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Global Journal of Education and Allied Research | ISSN: 2837-3707 Volume. 6, Number 4; April - 2021 https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear Pg | 25 Oche, O. (2001) “Democratization and the Management of African Security” in Akindele, R. and Ate, .B (eds) in Nigerian Journal of International Affairs, vol.13, No.1, Lagos, NIIA. Okorie, I. (2011), “Insecurity” Consequences for Investment and Employment, “The Punch, Thursday, September 9, pp37-38. Omede, W. (2012), National Security and Development in Nigeria. African Journal of Business Management. Vol 6 No 23 Schappiro, T. (2009) “Who is a Child”? Ethics 109 in World Bank Economic Review, Vol. 17, No. 2. World Bank. (2003). World Development Indicators. Washington, D.C.: World Bank. https://zapjournals.com/Journals/index.php/gjear