MAINTENANCE OF SCHOOL INFRASTRUCTURE AND STUDENTS’ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS INKWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study examines the maintenance of school infrastructure and students’ academic performance in private
secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. The research is motivated by concerns over the declining condition of
school facilities and its potential effects on students’ learning outcomes. Using a descriptive and correlational
survey design, simple random technique was used to select participant and data were collected from 450
respondents, comprising 50 principals and 400 teachers across 50 randomly selected private secondary schools.
The study employed a researcher-designed questionnaire and checklist to assess the state of school infrastructure,
maintenance practices, and students’ academic performance based on their results in the 2021 to 2025 West
African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE). The instrument was validated by experts in the area
of Educational Management and Educational Measurement and Evaluation. Test-retest method of reliability was
conducted and obtained a correlation coefficient of 0.75. Five research questions and one hypothesis guided the
conduct of the study. The descriptive statistics of frequency count, mean and percentage rating were used to
answer the research questions raised in the study, while the Pearson product-moment correlation statistic was used
to test the research hypothesis which were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicate that a significant
proportion of school facilities, including classrooms, laboratories, libraries, and furniture, need urgent
maintenance. Key factors contributing to facility depreciation include delayed maintenance, inadequate funding,
and poor maintenance culture. The study establishes a strong positive correlation between effective maintenance
strategies—preventive, periodic, corrective, and breakdown maintenance and students' academic performance
with mean of 3.25. Based on these findings, it was recommended, among others, that Proprietors of schools should
ensure the provision of adequate infrastructural facilities in proportion to student enrolment to prevent
overutilization.