Abstract
The study examined the level of community participation in school governance in public secondary schools in Sagbama Local Government Area of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, with particular focus on school discipline, provision of instructional resources, and school safety. The study was guided by three research questions and three corresponding hypotheses. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of principals and teachers drawn from 15 public secondary schools within the study area. From this population, a sample of 128 respondents, comprising 15 principals and 113 teachers, was selected. Data were collected using a researcher-developed instrument titled Community Participation and School Governance Questionnaire (CPSGQ). The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach’s alpha, which yielded a coefficient of 0.73, indicating that the instrument was sufficiently reliable for the study. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while the independent sample t-test was employed to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study indicated that the level of community participation in promoting school discipline, supporting the provision of instructional resources, and ensuring school safety was generally low. The results further showed that there was no statistically significant difference between the mean responses of principals and teachers on all the variables examined. Based on these findings, the study concluded that inadequate community involvement constitutes a major constraint to effective school governance and the attainment of quality educational outcomes. In view of this, the study recommended, among others, that there should be the establishment and strengthening of structured stakeholder engagement frameworks, increased sensitization and awareness programmes, as well as the promotion of collaborative safety initiatives aimed at improving community participation in school governance.
Keywords: Community Participation, School Governance, School Discipline, Instructional Resources, School Safety