Esther S. Uko’s scientific contributions

This study assessed school management practices, teachers' effectiveness and students' academic performance in mathematics in Cross River State's secondary schools. The study was guided by two formulated null hypotheses. The study adopted the factorial research design. Simple and proportionate stratified random sampling techniques were adopted in selecting a sample of 2,145 (893 teachers and 1252 students) from a population of 6,356 teachers, and 39,468 senior secondary school students respectively. "School Management Practices Questionnaire" (SMPQ), "Teachers' Effectiveness Questionnaire" (TEQ), and Students' Mathematics Achievement Test (SMAT) were all used as instruments for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established using the Gutman Split-Half (GSH) reliability technique, with coefficients of .919, .889, and .952 obtained for SMPQ, TEQ, and SMAT respectively. The null hypotheses were all tested at .05 alpha level using Pearson correlation matrix and multiple regression. Multiple regression was employed as a multivariate statistical tool due to its ability to examine the combined effect of several independent variables on a dependent variable. Findings revealed that principals' leadership techniques, conflict management, teachers' motivation, teachers' discipline, school supervision, students' records management, students' discipline, effective communication, teachers' effectiveness, and students' academic performance are significantly related. The eight independent variables jointly predicted teachers' effectiveness (F= 505.47, p<.05) and students' academic performance (F=728.16, p<.05) significantly. It was recommended that secondary school principals should perform their routine duties of school management regularly and consistently in order to boost teachers' effectiveness and improve students' academic performance in mathematics. Contribution/Originality: This study is one of few studies which have assessed interrelationships among some school management practices, teachers' effectiveness and students' performance in Mathematics. The study also contributes to existing literature by determining the partial and cumulative effects of some school management practices on teachers' effectiveness and students' performance respectively.

This study was undertaken to assess the causal effects of the wastage of school material resources and school system effectiveness in secondary schools in Cross River State of Nigeria. A survey was conducted using a sample of 1,480 respondents (271 principals, 396 vice principals, and 813 teachers. Data were collected through two instruments Wastage of School Material Resources Questionnaire (WSMRQ) designed by the researchers, validated by three experts, and with Cronbach alpha reliability of .895; School System Effectiveness Scale (SSES) designed and validated psychometrically by Bassey, Owan, and Eze (2019) with Cronbach reliability values of .982, .983, and .930 for the three sub-scales, and a reliability coefficient of .941 for the overall instrument. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling were employed in analysing collected data. Findings of the study revealed that school material resources are wasted in different and numerous ways. Some of these ways are significant while others are not. Teaching equipment that are wasted in schools include manuals, desks, workbooks, charts, projectors, playgrounds, drawing books, chalks, textbooks, laboratories, chalkboard/whiteboards, markers, handbooks, and computers. It was discovered also that wastage of school farm resources, buildings, and teaching equipment have a direct significant but negative effect on the effectiveness of schools, accounting for 17% of the total variance in the effectiveness of the school. It was concluded, that increment in the wastage of school material resources will cause the effectiveness of schools to decline. The implication of the finding of this study is discussed for global best practices. Contribution/Originality: This study contributes to the existing literature by being the first to used a structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to analyse the direct and indirect effects of the wastage of school material resources on school system effectiveness.

Previous studies have documented numerous benefits of using Virtual Labs (VLs) in promoting effective teaching of science subjects. The low level of teachers' awareness, accessibility, and utilization of VLs in schools is also known. To the researchers' knowledge, what is yet to be known is the extent of administrators' awareness, procurement, and management of VLs in schools which have implications on teachers' accessibility and utilization of VLs. This study adopted a descriptive survey design. A questionnaire (AAPMVLQ), with Cronbach alpha (α = .83), was administered to a sample of 662 secondary school principals and vice-principals drawn from 271 public schools in Cross River State Nigeria. Findings revealed that the level of administrators' awareness, procurement, and management of VLs in secondary schools is very low. The low level of awareness was attributed to the poor supply of modern facilities to schools in the area of study. While the low levels of procurement and management were attributed to the low level of awareness of administrators. The conclusion and implications of these findings are that the teaching of science subjects at the secondary school level is witnessing a major setback and will continue if immediate actions are not taken to redress this issue. The poor academic performance of students in science subjects could also be liberated in the future if lessons are made more experiential by providing modern teaching aids such as VLs.

The problem of the study was centred on the unlikely acquisition of environmental literacy by students in Cross River State secondary-schools if their principals were incapable of infusing educational management perspectives info it. With the background of the current global realities of climate change, the purpose of the study was to empirically understand the correlation between principals' management of the school plant, the curriculum, co-curricular activities, school community relations and child-friendly school initiatives vis-6-vis environmental literacy in students. The nu/l hypotheses posited a no significant relationship between the independent variables mentioned in the purpose of the study as students' environmental literacy. Literature was reviewed on the independent and dependent variables. The study's design was ex-post facto. The stratified random sample size was 1,000 students being, 100 each from 10 secondary schools spread across the 3 senatorial districts of the state. The instrument for data collection was a 25-item, researchers-developed School Management Input info Student/s Environmental Literacy Questionnaire (SMISELQ). /t was face-validated. The reliability of the instrument was ascertained for each independent variable and if ranged from 0.63 to 0.87. The hypotheses were tested with Pearson Product Moment Correlation Analysis (r) at 0.05 level of significance. The five findings of the study indicated significant correlation between students' environmental literacy and each of principals' school plant management, principals' curriculum management, principals' co-curricular activities management, principals' child-friendly school initiatives and principals' school-community relation's management. The conclusion and recommendations of the study were reflective of the findings.

Climate change is a global phenomenon, and is evident in Nigeria. Millions of people are experiencing adverse climate conditions with negative impacts on their welfare. To combat this menace educational administrator's role in the educational process must be ensured through training, funding and provision of quality facilities. 0 It is against this background that this study was designed to determine the Educational Administrators' level of empowerment towards climate change management in Cross River State. A sample size of 200 school principals was assessed using three empowerment variables categorized as training, funding, and provision of quality facilities. Three null hypotheses were postulated to direct the study and a research instrument tagged "Educational Administrators Empowerment Towards Climate Change Questionnaire" (EAETCCQ) was designed for data collection. The value of the Cronbach Alpha method of reliability ranges from 0.57 to 0.81. This showed that the instrument was reliable in measuring consistently what it was purported to measure over a given period of time. Data collected was analyzed using Population t-test Statistical Techniques. The findings revealed that the level of Educational Administrators Empowerment towards the management of climate change was significantly low in terms of training, funding and provision of quality facilities. Recommendations made included; adequate training in climate change management and adaptation strategies should be applied and intensified in educational sector.

The issue-based paper incisively zeroes in on the scenario of inadequacy of funding in the Nigeria secondary school system. The paper recommends strongly the imperatives of school-based reforms tailored towards managerial efficiency by school heads. School-based reforms, it is being argued in the paper, has already been kick-started by the NERDC's curricula reorganisation for primary and junior secondary educational levels. However, these curricula changes have to he accommodated, activated and facilitated through reforms in She leadership thrust of the school principal, a revisitation of the advantages of reaching all primary schools through public-private partnership and the need to efficiently and effectively manage schools through fund generation approaches. The researchers concluded that school principals require training in modern techniques of management for result-oriented school-based reforms.

The attempts to understand conflict among the principals, teachers, non-teaching staff and student .in Cross River State public secondary schools system necessitated The study was aimed of finding out what options principals would wish to adopt against the background of their educational qualification as a demographic variable. To guide the search for solutions to the problem of the study, one research question and one research hypothesis were formulated. This involved studying the entire population of 260 public secondary school principal, with the researcher's designed Principal's Conflict? Resolution Options Questionnaire (PCROQ) at an alpha level of 0.05 for the research hypotheses. The instrument was face- validated by experts in Measurement and Evaluation, Faculty of Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, who advised that all words and items that could confuse respondents be token out. The reliability of the instrument ranged between 0.50 and 0-88 in Cronbach alpha. The findings of the study revealed that there was no significant influence of principals' educational qualification (as a demographic variable) on principals' conflict resolution options fin different settings). Of the five conflict resolution options, there was a wide use of the compromise and collaboration options by principals. It was concluded that principals were handling conflicts in their schools with the use of compromise and collaboration options. This was interpreted as the principals resolving conflicts competently. Recommendations were made including the fact that, irrespective of educational qualification, school principals should be encouraged to see conflict as a natural phenomenon in the school environment which requires collaborative management.

The purpose of the study was to consider and discuss the place of good records keeping in the effective administration of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Scheme. For effective decision-making, genuine information from school records is needed. Education law demands proper records keeping in all educational institutions. The usefulness of these records to the UBE Scheme depends on their reliability, validity and accuracy. Records keeping offer the basis for objective evaluation and appraisal by UBE Planners, School Authorities, Supervisors and Inspectors of Education. For smooth and efficient implementation of the Universal Basic Education, school records should be properly created, kept, preserved and secured to allow for ease of retrieval and application by authorized users. The paper therefore calls on School Administrators and Education Planners to ensure that good records are kept to facilitate and enhance effective administration of the UBE Scheme.

Given the place of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) as the fulcrum of the Nigerian educational system, the paper discusses ways to engender the pedagogic effectiveness of the UBE teacher through the school administrator-mediated teacher motivation. The rationale for and the dynamics of UBE teacher motivation are examined as the foundation for describing and prescribing such needed teacher motivation pedagogic effectiveness regimen as job enrichment, appropriate teaching context and appropriate teaching content, merit pay, shared governance, in-service education and systematic, supportive evaluation. The paper concludes that there is much room in the UBE teacher's profile to call for his/her greater motivation for the attainment of teaching effectiveness if the overall goals of the national policy on education are to she attained for the UBE programme.