Management of school facilities and Academic performance in Secondary schools in Mbale district.

Abstract

ABSTRACT After observing the worrying trend facing the education sector in the world today and Mbale district in particular, the researcher conducted a research on ‘Management of school facilities and academic performance in secondary schools in Mbale district’ The objectives of the study were to assess the effect of management of library, laboratory and classroom facilities on academic performance in secondary schools in Mbale district. The researcher adopted across-section survey design .Population of the study comprised all secondary schools, secondary teachers, secondary students, secondary deputies and Headteachers in Mbale District. Overall, a total of six schools were purposively selected in both rural and urban areas of Mbale district. 80 students and 5 teachers from each school were randomly selected as the sample of the study.552 respondents participated in the study. Questionnaires were administered to: students, teachers, deputy Headteachers and Headteachers. The researcher also used interviews, observations and document analysis in the collection of data. The data collected was analyzed by an SPSS computer programme where descriptive statistics were used and converted to percentage and finally summarized in the tables and pie charts for easy interpretation of information The researcher identified that there was great deficiency in the availability and the use of science laboratories. The study also found out that a few schools had physical libraries. Those available were inadequately equipped and the few available facilities poorly managed .Inadequacy of enough classrooms, overcrowding of these classrooms and poor daily assessment were cited to be hindering effective and efficient classroom management.. Hence, there should be stress on development of good study habits by the students. There is the necessity to develop and maintain a good library and provide more opportunities for the students to visit and spend more time in library. The researcher concluded that the less availability, misallocation and the deficiency in the use of science laboratory items lead to the wastage of resources, the effectiveness of science laboratory and lower academic performance. Science laboratory can have an enormous effect if science laboratory items are properly allocated, equalized per student and efficiently used with the standard quantity and quality. It was established that facilities were potent to high academic achievement of students, therefore Ministry of Education and Sports should provide adequate material resources to rural/urban locations to enhance teaching and learning process. The Parents Teacher Association (PTA), philanthropist and other charitable organizations are also implored to compliment the effort of government to boost the academic performance of students in secondary schools in Mbale District