School Location and Road Accessibility as Determinants of Administrative Effectiveness of Public Secondary Schools in Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State, Nigeria
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Administrative effectiveness is essential for the effective coordination of teaching, learning, human resources and material resources in public secondary schools. However, the geographical location of schools and the accessibility of roads may constrain the capacity of principals to discharge their administrative responsibilities effectively, particularly in areas where schools are distributed across urban, semi-urban and rural environments. This study examined the influence of school location and road accessibility on the administrative effectiveness of public secondary schools in Jalingo Education Zone, Taraba State, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population comprised 1,776 teachers drawn from 43 public secondary schools in Jalingo and Ardo-Kola Local Government Areas. A sample of 317 teachers was selected using proportionate and simple random sampling techniques, with the sample size determined using the Krejcie and Morgan table. Data were collected using a researcher-developed instrument titled Geospatial Factors, Infrastructure and Administrative Effectiveness Questionnaire (GFIAEQ). The instrument consisted of items measuring school location, road accessibility and administrative effectiveness. Face and content validity were established by three experts, while test-retest reliability produced a coefficient of 0.812. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, while chi-square statistics were used to test the null hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that school location had a positive influence on administrative effectiveness, with a cluster mean of 2.79. The chi-square result showed a statistically significant influence of school location on administrative effectiveness, χ²(20) = 82.899, p < .001. Road accessibility also had a positive influence, with a cluster mean of 2.79, and the hypothesis test indicated a statistically significant influence, χ²(20) = 83.699, p < .001. The study concluded that geographical accessibility is an important condition for effective school administration. It recommended, among other measures, strategic school siting, improvement of access roads to schools, regular maintenance of rural school roads and stronger coordination between education and works authorities.
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