Assessment of causes and forms of insecurity in educational institutions in kebbi state: implications for school administration

Insecurity in schools is an international problem that is affecting all parts of the world and Nigeria in particular. To get the right antidote, the causes and forms of insecurity affecting schools must be correctly diagnosed. This paper therefore, assessed the causes and forms of insecurity in educational institutions in Kebbi State, Nigeria. In conducting this study a simple descriptive survey was adopted. Deliberate sampling was used to select 100 school administrators out of 460 comprising of headmasters, principals, provosts, rectors, and university administrators. The study also purposely selected 100 parents out of 1,870 represented by Chairmen of Parent Teachers Association (PTA) and School Based Management Committee (SBMC). Cluster and stratified random sampling techniques where used to select 300 out of 1,950 teachers cutting across the 50 schools which were selected from all the five Education Zones in Kebbi State to get a total sample of 500 participants. A researcher designed instrument titled Causes and Forms of Insecurity in Schools Questionnaire (CFISQ) was validated by experts in school security management. The instrument was pilot tested by test re-test method and reliability index of 0.71 was obtained using Crombatch Alpha Co-efficient at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument was based on an adopted four point Likert scale by which the Mean of 2.50 and above was used for acceptance, while below 2.50 was used for rejection. The findings of the study indicated that the cause of insecurity in schools included non-chalant attitude of some school administrators towards security matters, lack of a comprehensive and well disseminated school security policy, lack of execution of security duties by school security guards among others. It was also found the forms of insecurity prevalent in schools include physical attacks, abduction and rape among others. It was therefore recommended that school administrators should make school security their priority. They should identify peculiar forms of insecurity in their schools and devices preventive measures to protect the lives and properties of staff and students in their schools.