PRINCIPALS’ CO-CURRICULAR ACTIVITIES IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES FOR DEVLOPING STUDENTS’ SOCIAL SKILLS IN UNITY SCHOOLS, NORTH CENTRAL, NIGERIA

E. B. Oke (Ph.D.), G.  S. Olowonefa (Ph.D.), Oodo Michael Ichima

Abstract

This study examined the principals’ co-curricular activities implementation strategies for developing students’ social skills in unity schools, North Central Nigeria. Descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The total population for the study was 2701 teachers and 4356 Senior Secondary (SS) 3 students, 2018/2019 academic session. The sample size for this study comprised of 320 teachers and 338 students.Multistage sampling procedure was used for this study. Four out of seven states were randomly selected and each state was treated as a strata. Proportionate sampling technique and purposive sampling technique were used in the selection of students and teachers respectively. The questionnaire title principals’ co-curricular activities implementation strategies for developing students’ social skills in unity schools, North Central Nigeria, was administered to the respondents after validation by experts in the Department of Education Foundation, Faculty of Education, University of Abuja, Nigeria.. Cronbach Alpha was used to find the degree of internal consistency and a value (r=0.89) was obtained. The analysis of data collected from the respondents was done using mean scores and standard deviation. The findings revealed the implementation strategies adopted by the principal in ensuring quality co-curricular activities delivery in the schools to include the mobilization of local resources and materials, allocation of resources, the utilization of resources and the equipment needed for the implementation of co-curricular activities in the unity schools and ensuring that competent teachers are in charge of every co-curricular activity in the schools. The findings of the study also showed that co-curricular activity is an instrument for developing students’ social skills such as leadership skills, digital literacy skills, communication skills, vocational and entrepreneurship skills, decision making and problem solving skills, employability and mentoring skills among others. The study recommended among others the creation of office of the vice principal co-curricular activities for effective implementation of co-curricular activities in unity schools, North Central Nigeria.

Keywords: Principals, Co-curricular Activities, Implementation, Strategies, Students and Social Skills.