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Assessment of the Functionality of Parent-Teacher Association in Public Secondary Schools in Ondo State, Nigeria

The study assessed the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in Public Secondary Schools in Ondo State, Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted. The 304 Public Secondary Schools in the state were the main population while 20 secondary schools, 220 government-employed and full-time teachers (males and females) were the targets. 4 questions were raised and 3 hypotheses formulated for the study. Samples were drawn using multi-stage, stratified, and simple-random sampling techniques. Data were collected using a 20-item questionnaire, validated and tested for reliability. Data were analyzed using tables, frequency count, and percentages while the hypotheses were tested using chi-square statistic (x 2 ). It was found among others that there was no significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers, female and male teachers, female and male principals, on the functionality of the ParentTeacher Association in the schools. It is recommended among others that the government should ensure that the Parent-Teacher Association is made functional and effective in all secondary schools, should be more involved in the administration and financing of schools while there should be an execution of standard projects related to an academic pursuit in schools. Original Research Article Matthew and Omobola; SAJSSE, 8(2): 1-13, 2020; Article no.SAJSSE.58350 2


INTRODUCTION
Effective management is a sine qua non to the achievement of the objectives of organizations, schools inclusive. Management of a school is a herculean task and a serious business, which should not be seen as a one-man affair. It is not doubtful that the teacher plays a significant role in the training and development of a child. According to [1], Teachers are also the trainers of other professionals, needed for the economic, technological, political, cultural, and social development of a nation. Also, parents have roles to play in the education of a child in many aspects, such as the provision of funds, monitoring of the academic and behavioral progress of the child in school, among others. It has even been established that parents' involvement is associated with school effectiveness and children's performance in general [2][3][4][5][6].
If a school is to achieve its objectives, satisfy the needs of the pupils/students, as well as fulfill the expectations of the parents and other stakeholders, there is a need for linkage between the teachers and parents.
The establishment of Parent-Teacher Association has been a revolutionary step towards the community participation and devotion of financial and administrative powers at the school level. A report indicates that during the latter years of the 19 th century, the Parent-Teacher Association was first organized by a group of women in America. The first meeting called 'the national congress of Mother' was held in 1877. It was this meeting that stimulated the founding of the national congress of parents and teachers in association in 2000, which metamorphosed to the Parent-Teacher Association and has continued to assist the majority of schools.

Concept of Parent-Teacher Association
Parent-Teacher Association is one of the agencies of the community which influences school administration. [7] sees it is a voluntary and welfare association of parents/guardians of children of a particular school, with teachers who teach in that school, as well as an association that promotes mutual understanding and cooperation between a school and community. According to Abdullahi (1996), cited in [8], Parent-Teacher Association consists of the parents of students of a particular school and the teachers forming a group, to improve the running of such school.

Objectives of PTA
The National body of the PTA set its objectives to include the following: -. To provide a platform for the parents, guardians, sponsors, and the teachers of students of Nigeria's secondary schools. -To cooperate with the support morally and financially, the state establishments of education to achieve a high standard of academic performance, discipline, morality, service, and integrity in Nigerian schools. -To foster mutual understanding, harmonious relationship, and cooperation among the parents, guardians, sponsors, and teachers in the fulfillment of their common goal, the welfare of the schools, and the students therein. -To ensure a suitable uniform and high standard of discipline, both at home and at school; -To assist materially and provide schools with additional requirements that will enable it to carry out its educational functions adequately; and -To assist in the proper development of the children physically, morally, socially, and mentally so that they can grow to become useful and leading members of society.

Roles of PTA in school administration
Parent-Teacher Association plays notable roles in the administration of a school, in different aspects. Oniyngi, cited in [9] agreed that PTA assists in maintaining disciplines in schools, ensuring smooth co-existence, understanding, and cooperation between the school and community. Abdullahi (1996), cited in [8] also stressed that PTA complements the government's efforts in the provision and maintenance of infrastructures in schools.
According to [10], parents of some community schools willingly levied themselves or made contributions and subscriptions towards the building of classrooms, dormitories, laboratories, and libraries. The PTA has also been contributing to the recruitment of qualified teachers in schools. [11], asserts that recruitment is the process of searching for and attracting prospective teachers with the required abilities and attitude to apply for jobs in the schools while PTA pays salaries and other benefits to those teachers employed, to complement the efforts of government and other stakeholders in the running of secondary schools.
According to [12], PTA provides financial assistance to schools, pay teachers' salaries, finance the construction and rehabilitation of projects. [13] also states that PTA funding is concerned with the processing, expanding, and maintaining financial assistance in the achievement of educational goals. [11] also opines that PTA participation makes up half of the total returns in fees from the sales of agricultural, arts, and craft products, among others. [14] also states that money provided by the PTA is one of the important resources needed in the management of education and needs to be well managed because other vital elements in the schools can be obtained through the provision of financial assistance from the federal, state, or local government. [15] also posits that the state of infrastructural facilities in schools in Nigeria is deplorable. PTA is, therefore, assisting the government in providing infrastructural facilities, such as buildings, science laboratories, toilet facilities, and water for teaching and learning.
According to [16], apart from the provision of infrastructural facilities, PTA also helps to: i.
Supply a concrete basis for conceptual thinking and reduce the meaninglessness of constructs, concepts, and units; ii. Make learning more permanent; iii. Arouse and maintain a high degree of learner's interest; iv. Offer a reality of learning experience which stimulates self-instructional activities on the part of learners; v. Develop continuity of thought; vi. Provide experience riot easily obtained without practice and contribute to the depth, variety; and effectiveness of the teaching and learning process; vii. Provide experiences and materials for research after the teaching and learning process; and viii. It is a dependable and reliable source of information and data for practice and other academic pursuits.
Besides, [17] notes that PTA helps to provide such items, such as school grounds and equipment, buses, and other transportation equipment.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
Achieving effective management of a school has been a major challenge in countries in the world, Nigeria inclusive. Over the years, issues of indiscipline of students, insufficient funding and infrastructural facilities, wastage, the poor academic performance of students, just to mention a few, are noticeable in schools. The government cannot continue to manage and finance education solely, thus making it imperative for the community, parents/guardians, and others in the private sector to be involved.
One of the Associations approved by the government to help to achieve effective management of schools is the Parent-Teacher Association. A school is required by policy to establish PTA, to assist in the smooth running of the school and to cooperate with the government in the provision of qualitative education for the children. Even though most schools have PTA, these are not active. In most schools where PTA exists, the actual roles and functions in the school management are not distinct. There is the belief that PTA is concerned mainly with the collection of levies and the execution of projects in schools. Many are not aware of other functions which the Association supposes to perform in school. Even though there are studies on roles of PTA in school management, those that focus on the functionality of PTA in schools, particularly in Nigeria, are insignificant, thus making this study to be highly imperative

Purpose of the Study
This study was designed to assess the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in Public Secondary Schools, with a particular focus on Ondo State, Nigeria. Specifically, it found if PTA is functional in the: -communication of vital and official information to members and schools; -monitoring of the progress of schools; -organizing fundraising activities for schools; -management of indiscipline of students in the school; -provision of additional infrastructural facilities in schools.
Also, it found if there was a significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers, male and female principals; male and female teachers, on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.

Significance of the Study
The findings of this study will be useful to the stakeholders in education, in particular, the educational planners, school administrators, PTA executives, students, teachers, and the general public. Specifically, Educational planners will ascertain through the findings, what it takes to run a secondary school effectively, which will enable them to advise government appropriately, regarding the number of funds to be injected into secondary education Also, school administrators will be informed about what a school needs, in terms of finance, for smooth administration. This idea will help the principal to devise other means of generating income to complement the fund being allocated to school by the government. The PTA of various secondary schools will also be aware of their roles in funding secondary education.
Besides, teachers, being the implementers of the curriculum, will gain by way of the improvement that will occur in the provision of teaching and learning resources, good classroom building, etc that will enhance their performance of their duty as teachers in schools.

Research Questions
The following questions guided the study: -Is PTA functional in the monitoring of schools? -Is PTA functional in organizing fund-raising activities for schools?
-Is PTA functional in the management of the indiscipline of students in schools? -Is PTA functional in the provision of infrastructural facilities in schools?

Hypotheses
The following hypotheses guided the study -. There is no significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools -There is no significant difference in the perception of male and female teachers in the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools -There is no significant difference in the perception of male and female principals on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools

Design
The study adopted a descriptive survey design.
The fact that data and information were gathered from representatives of the population, after which the findings were generalized on the entire population, qualifies it to be survey research.
Since data and information gathered were used to describe the status, particularly, the functionality of PTA in schools, qualifies it to be a descriptive study.

Population, Sample and Sampling Technique(s)
All the three hundred and four (304)  LGAS in Ondo North (Owo, Ose, Akoko southeast, Akoko South West, Akoko North East, Akoko North West), Owo Local Government Area was randomly selected, while Akure South LGA was also randomly selected from the six LGAs in Ondo Central (i.e. Akure South, Akure North, Idanre, Ifedore, Ondo East and Ondo West).
Out of the 28 schools in Akure South Local Government Area, 8 public schools were randomly selected while out of the 18 schools in Owo Local Government Area, 6 schools were randomly selected. 6 schools were also randomly selected from the 13 schools in Ile-Oluji Local Government Area of the State. An average of 10 government-employed teachers (5 males and 5 females), were selected from each of the schools. Multi-stage, stratified, and simplerandom sampling techniques were adopted by the researcher to select the sample.

Instrument: Validation and Reliability
A specially designed questionnaire was used to collect the needed data. The questionnaire consisted of two sections. Section A contained questions on demographic information on the schools and respondents (principals and teachers). Section B contained statements on the functionality of PTA in schools. 4-Point Likert Scale was used where each statement was followed by four options: i.e. Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, and Strongly Disagree. Strongly Agree-4 points, Aree-3 points, Disagree-2 points, and Strongly Disagree-1 point. This scale was adopted because of the belief of the researchers that the inclusion of another option 'undecided' may not assess the real opinion of the respondent on each statement, in particular, the confusion it creates for respondents. A respondent was however expected to select any of the four options that corresponded to the best response to each statement. The researcher adopted a 4-point scale.
The initial draft of the questionnaire was submitted to a professional colleague in the field of educational administration, for comments and suggestions towards improvement. After taking into cognizance of the suggestions/comments, the final draft of the questionnaire was prepared for administration. The questionnaire was however pilot tested in ten (10) Public Secondary Schools that were not used for the study, within two weeks. Responses to the items in the questionnaire in the two attempts were correlated using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. A reliable coefficient (r) of 0.85 was obtained.

Method of Data Collection and Analysis
The researcher visited the selected schools personally, to collect the data and information needed for the study. Copies of the questionnaire were administered on the principal and teachers in each school, while procedures for their completion were vividly explained. To give room for proper attention to items in the questionnaire, three weeks were allowed for their completion.
Several analytical methods were adopted to analyze the data for the study, such as tables, frequency count, and percentages. The hypotheses were tested using chi-square statistic at 0.01 level of Significance, using the formula: Where O i = Observed Value and E i = Expected Value

DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
Data in Table 1 shows the distribution of schools according to the senatorial districts in the state. Six (6) schools were selected from Ondo North District while 6 principals and 60 teachers were selected and used for the study. 8 schools were used in Ondo Central District, with eight (8) principals and eighty teachers selected and used. Six (6) schools were used from Ondo South with six (6) principals and sixty teachers used for the study.
Data in Table 2 shows that all the schools have the Parent-Teacher Association.
As revealed in Table 3, 215 respondents (principals and teachers), returned the questionnaire, thus implying that 5 were not returned. It is also revealed that 179 respondents (83.3%) were married and36 respondents (16.7%) were single (i.e. unmarried). This shows that majority of the respondents were married. 37(17.2%) of the total respondents' highest level of education was NCE, 54 respondents (25.1%)

Question 1
Is PTA functional in the monitoring of schools?
An expected mean was calculated using (4+3+2+1)/4 = 10/4 = 2.5 and any item with mean below 2.5 which is the expected mean is accepted as DISAGREED while items with mean 2-5 and above are accepted as AGREED. Table 4, the highest percentage of the staff strongly agreed that PTA visits and inspects classroom facilities and learning environments thus ensuring that study condition is conducive with 150 (69.8%) responses, 48 (22.3%) respondents agreed that PTA visits and inspects classroom facilities and learning environments thus ensuring that study condition are conducive, while only 17 (7.9%) respondents strongly disagreed that PTA visits and inspects classroom facilities and learning environments thus ensuring that study condition are conducive and mean= 3.5395 which is higher than 2.5 making the statement generally agreed to. Also, 184 (85.6%) respondents strongly agreed that PTA assists schools in the monitoring of academic progress of students while 31(14.4%) agreed that PTA assists schools in the monitoring of academic progress of students with a mean =3.8558 a value also greater than the expected mean. Likewise, 171 (79.5%) respondents said PTA monitors progress being made by the school, while only 44 (20.5%) strongly disagreed that PTA monitors progress being made by the school with the mean =2.5907. All the statements generally agreed to it, therefore, it showed that PTA is functional in the monitoring of schools.

Question 2
Is PTA functional in organizing fund-raising activities for schools?  As indicated in Table 5, 117 (54.4%) of the total respondents strongly agreed that PTA assists school generate additional revenue internally, 73(34.0%) respondents also agreed that PTA assists school generate additional revenue internally while 9 (4.2%) and 16 (7.4%) respondents disagreed that PTA assists school to generate additional revenue internally and the total mean = 3.3860. It was also revealed that 88 (40.9%) of the total respondents strongly agreed that PTA helps in the financing of projects in school, 36 (16.7%) respondents also agreed that PTA helps in the financing of projects in school, while 79 (36.7%) respondents strongly disagreed and 12 (5.6%) respondents disagreed that PTA helps in the financing of projects in school, the total mean = 2.9302.
With all the statements having means greater than 2.5, it, therefore, showed that PTA is functional in organizing fund-raising activities for schools.

Question 3
Is PTA functional in the management of the indiscipline of students in schools?
Data in Table 6 revealed that 109 (50.7%) respondents strongly agreed that PTA assists school in maintaining the discipline of students, 50(23.3%) respondents also agreed, while 48(22.3%) respondents strongly disagreed and 8(3,7%) respondents disagreed that PTA assists school in maintaining the discipline of students with a total mean of 3.0233. Also, 154(71.6%) respondents strongly agreed that PTA orientates members on the need to ensure adequate care of the students, 57(26.5%) respondents agreed that PTA orientates members on the need to ensure adequate care of the students, while 3(1.4%) and 1(0.5%) respondents disagreed that PTA orientates members on the need to ensure adequate care of the students with a total mean of 3.6837. With all the items under consideration having a mean value greater than 2.5 which is the expected mean, it is vividly clear that PTA is functional in the management of indiscipline of students in schools.

Question 4
Is PTA functional in the management of conflict among staff in schools?

Source: Fieldwork by researchers
Data in Table 7 revealed that 110 (51.2%) respondents strongly disagreed that PTA manages conflict among staff in the schools, while 55 (25.6%) respondents strongly agreed that PTA manages conflict among staff in the schools and the mean =2.1581 this mean value is below the expected mean value hence it is concluded that PTA is not functional in the management of conflict among staff in schools.

Question 5
Is PTA functional in the provision of additional infrastructural facilities in schools?
As indicated in Table 8

Hypothesis 1
Ho1: There is no significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.

Ha1:
There is a significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools. The result of the X 2 -test computed and tested at 0.05 level of significance and 213 degrees of freedom, as shown in the Table 9, indicates that X 2 -calculated (3.3908) was lesser than X 2 tabulated (77.929). The null hypothesis is therefore accepted. This implies that there is no significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.

Hypothesis 2
Ho1: There is no significant difference in the perception of male and female teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.
Ha2: There is a significant difference in the perception of male and female teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.
The result of the X 2 -test computed and tested at 0.005 level of significance and 193 degrees of freedom, as shown in the Table 10, indicates that X 2 -calculated (4.2105) was lesser than X 2 tabulated (77.929). The null hypothesis is therefore accepted. This implies that there is no significant difference in the perception of female and male teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.

Hypothesis 3
Ho3: There is no significant difference in the perception of male and female principals on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.
Ha3: There is a significant difference in the perception of male and female principals on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools.
Using the Chi-Square Statistics X

DISCUSSION
This study revealed that PTA is functional in the communication of vital official information to members and school as two-third of the respondents responded that PTA establishes a forum through which parents and teachers exchange information and research concerning education and welfare of students, keeps parents informed about activities planned for the school. Also, PTA is functional in holding meetings in schools. The majority of the respondents 181(84.2%) responded that PTA meetings are held in the school. These revealed that the PTA functionality is high in that area of holding diverse kinds of meeting in schools. The findings are in line with the objectives of the Association, as highlighted by Abdullahi (1996), cited in [8].
It was further revealed that there was a significant difference in the perception of principals and teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools. Another finding from the study was that there was a significant difference in the perception of female and male principals on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools. There is individual difference in the way of thinking and taking actions by individuals. Principals and teachers operate at different levels while there is bound to be a difference in the way they reason, ditto for male and female individuals. Both males and females do not perceive in the same way.
There was also no significant difference in the perception of female and male teachers on the functionality of the Parent-Teacher Association in schools. This finding could have resulted from the objectivity shown by the respondents while completing the questionnaire. It is very noteworthy that the respondents (principals and teachers) did not allow gender factor to affect their judgment on items of the questionnaire.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDA-TIONS
The study concludes that the Parent-Teacher Association has vital roles and functions in the management of secondary schools. The importance of such Association to education cannot be overemphasized, their roles in educational development being very important to nation-building. Parent-Teacher Association also contributes immensely to the managerial functions of secondary schools which revolve on the acquisition of efficient utilization of such resources for the attainment of schools set goals.
The outcome of this study is supported by [18] who said Parent-Teacher Association assists the school in reviewing the school progress through Parent-Teacher Association meetings, effective communication between the school and parents, supporting the school's various activities and initiatives, for instance, organizing social events for the students, etc. likewise, [19] said that the Parent-Teacher Association and orientation program gives parents and students opportunity to interact, provide feedback and exchange ideas with school management. Parents are encouraged to be involved in the social and emotional development of their children.

SECTION B
Each statement in this section is followed by four options: Strongly Agree (SA) Agree (A) Disagree (D) Strongly Disagree (SD). You are required to read each statement and tick the option that applies to it.
. SA A D SD PTA communicate vital information to members and school PTA meetings are held regularly in the school Members are not punctual to meetings held in the school. PTA helps in the financing of projects in school. PTA orientate members on the need to ensure the adequate case of students PTA keeps parents informed about activities planned for the school. PTA organization monitors progress being made by the school PTA organization a forum through which parents and teachers exchange information and research concerning education and welfare of students.