Administrators’ Communication Strategies for Building a Culture of Health and Safety Awareness among Secondary School Students in Bayelsa State

The study investigated administrators’ communication strategies for building a culture of health and safety awareness among secondary school students in Bayelsa State. The descriptive survey was employed for the study. Two research questions and two null hypotheses guided the study. A sample size of 368 students was drawn from a population of 24,723 in public secondary schools in Bayelsa State using the simple random sampling technique. The instrument of the study was an 18- item questionnaire titled “Administrators’ Communication Strategies for Building a Culture of Health and Safety Awareness Questionnaire” (ACSBCHSAQ), structured on a four-point Likert-type scale of Very High Extent (VHE)=4, High Extent (HE)=3, Low Extent (LE)=2 and Very Low Extent (VLE)=1., and validated by two experts from the Department of Educational Management. The test-retest method was used and a reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained using the Cronbach’s Alpha method. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions, while z-test was used to analyse the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results of the findings revealed that administrators’ oral and written communication strategies were vital for building a culture of health and safety awareness among secondary school students. In conclusion, there is no significant difference between male and female students in their responses to administrators’ communication strategies for building a culture of health and safety awareness among secondary school students. Among the recommendations made was that administrators of secondary schools should undergo training regularly so as to be exposed to innovative communication strategies that enhance a culture of health and safety awareness among secondary school students in Bayelsa State.