Abstract

This study investigated safety management for service delivery in secondary schools in Rivers State Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study The study was guided by Theory of Foundation for Safety Management The study adopted a descriptive survey design comprising all the 247 government senior secondary schools in the state with 6 890 principals and teachers A sample size of 2 100 respondents was drawn using stratified random sampling technique representing 30 5 of the population This included 110 principals and 1 990 teaching staff The instrument used was questionnaire titled Safety Management of Secondary Schools Questionnaire SMSSQ developed by the researchers The questionnaire was validated and the reliability calculated with Pearson s Product Moment Correlation yielded an index of 0 81 Mean scores and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions The findings revealed among others that the techniques needed for safety management of secondary schools include establishment of clear safety objectives transparency in the management of safety senior management s commitment to improve safety in schools accountability of safety management system for educational service delivery establishment of defined methods needed to meet safety goals in schools building upon the existing procedures to create new knowledge on safety management and continuous process of improvement in the safety level among staff Based on the findings it was recommended that secondary school management should adopt the safety management objectives to protect the health and safety of staff and students School managers should establish defined methods needed to meet the health and safety goals in secondary schools