Utilization of Innovative Monitoring Strategy for Reducing Male Dropout in Secondary Schools in Enugu Stage, Nigeria

The purpose of the study was to determine extent of utilization of innovative monitoring strategy for reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State. One research question and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at a .05 significance level. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised all the 335 (295 and 40) secondary school principals in the public secondary schools and Science Technical, and Vocational schools respectively in Enugu State under the control of PPSMB and STVSMB. It was made up of 175 female and 160 male principals in the 273 rural and 62 urban public secondary schools in Enugu State. No sampling was done because the population was small and also served as the sample. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three research experts. Cronbach Alpha Reliability Coefficient was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The instrument yielded a reliability coefficient; of .89, indicating that the instrument is reliable and suitable for the study. The questionnaire was administered and retrieved by the researcher with the help of six research assistants. Out of the 335 copies of the administered instrument, only 318 copies were retrieved while 17 copies were retrieved. The data collected with the questionnaire were analyzed using Mean ( ) with Standard Deviation (SD) to answer the four research questions. However, the two null hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics at a .05 level of significance. The real limit of the mean scores was applied to the decision rule. The null hypotheses were rejected when the significance level was more than .05 and were not rejected when the significance level was equal to or less than the .05 level of significance. From the result of the findings, it was concluded that; to a great extent innovative monitoring strategy was utilized in reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State. Comparison of male and female principals showed that there was no significant difference in the mean response scores of male and female principals on the extent to which innovative monitoring strategy was utilized in reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State, while, there is no significant difference in the mean response scores of urban and rural principals on the extent to which innovative monitoring strategy was utilized in reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State. The researcher recommended among others that; Facilities for innovative monitoring strategy should be provided both at the urban and rural secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State.