Quality Assurance in Secondary Education for Sustainable Development in Rivers and Bayelsa State, Nigeria

This study examined quality assurance in secondary education for sustainable development in Rivers and Bayelsa States, Nigeria. The study which adopted descriptive survey design was guided by two research questions and two hypotheses. The population of the study comprised 365 public senior secondary school principals in Rivers and Bayelsa States. A sample of 146 principals (80 male and 66 female) was drawn through stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire titled: “Quality Assurance in Secondary Education for Sustainable Development Questionnaire (QASESDQ)” developed by the researcher was used for data collection. The instrument which had 18 items was properly validated and the test of reliability yielded 0.81 using Cronbach Alpha Method. Mean standard deviation and rank order were used to analyze the research questions, while z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results of the study revealed among others that the challenges of quality assurance in secondary education for sustainable development in Rivers and Bayelsa States are inadequate infrastructure/facilities; poor funding; inadequate motivation/poor conditions of service; inadequate supervision. The study also revealed that factors that can enhance quality assurance include among others employment of qualified teachers; employment of adequate number of teachers; adequate provision of infrastructure/facilities; and adequate motivation of teachers. Based on these findings, conclusion was drawn and the following recommendations among others were made: secondary school principals and supervisors from Ministry of Education should intensify their efforts in instructional and schools’ supervision to enhance quality assurance in secondary education