STRATEGIES FOR REDUCING MALE DROPOUT IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN ENUGU STATE

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to determine strategies for reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at .05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study comprised all the 335 (295 and 40) secondary school principals in the public secondary schools and Science Technical, and Vocational schools respectively in Enugu State. No sampling was done because the population was small and also served as the sample. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three research experts. Data collected from the respondents’ were analyzed using Cronbach Alpha. The overall reliability coefficient was .79, the questionnaire was administered and retrieved by the researchers with the help of four research assistants. Out of the 335 copies of the administered instrument, only 318 copies were retrieved while 17 copies were not retrieved. The data collected with the questionnaire were analyzed using mean (x̅) with Standard Deviation (SD) to answer the two research questions. However, each of the null hypotheses was tested using t-test statistics at .05 level of significance. The null hypotheses were rejected when the significant level was less than .05 and were not be rejected when the significant level was more than .05 level of significance. From the result of the findings, it was concluded that; to a great extent innovative monitoring strategy and mentoring strategy assist in reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State. Comparison of male and female principals showed that, there was no significant difference in the mean response scores of male and female principals on the extent to which innovative monitoring strategy and mentoring strategy assists in reducing male dropout in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State The researchers recommended that innovative monitoring strategy and mentoring strategy should be strengthened in secondary schools in the six Education Zones of Enugu State.