Influence of Human Resource Development on the Management of Public Primary Schools in the North Central States of Nigeria

This research investigated the influence of Human Resource Development on the Management of Public Primary Schools in North Central, Nigeria. Five specific objectives sought to find out the influence of staff Selection, Induction, Training, Workshops and Staff Job Rotation in Public Primary Schools in North Central, Nigeria. Five research questions were raised to guide the study while five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 94,492 head teachers and teachers from 13,235 public primary schools. The sample size for the study was 397 respondents who were selected using Taro Yamen’s formula and 377 public primary schools. A 35 – item structured questionnaire developed by the researcher titled “Influence of Human Resource Development on the Management of Public Primary Schools Questionnaire (IHRDMPPSQ)†was used for data collection. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha method and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained. Data were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics of Mean and Standard Deviation to answer the five research questions. Chi-square was used to test the five null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that, staff selection, induction, training, workshops and job rotation significantly influence the management of public primary schools in North Central, Nigeria. The study concluded that development of teachers such as selection, induction, training, workshop and job rotation have significant influence on the Management of Public Primary Schools in the North- Central, Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study, the researcher recommended that, government and education agencies should provide appropriate procedures for staff selection, government and education authorities should organise induction programmes for new and old staff for the management of public primary schools in the north-central, Nigeria. Staff should be given opportunities to attend training programmes to improve their performance, workshops, seminars and conferences should be organized for teachers in order to update their skills and knowledge to enhance their performance and achieve school goals and objectives. Government and education agencies, school administrators should rotate teachers from one task to another in order to acquire more skills, knowledge and experiences to develop them for high performance and productivity to achieve quality education outcomes in public primary schools especially those in North- Central, Nigeria. Suggestions for further study include influence of human resource development on the management of public secondary schools in other zones in Nigeria as well as to conduct study on other variables like motivation, prompt payment of salaries, promotion, security, health facilities.