EFFECTIVE INTEGRATION OF STEM EDUCATION IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study was carried out to investigate effective integration of STEM education in the management of secondary schools for sustainable development in Anambra state. Three research questions guided the study.  Descriptive survey design was adopted. The population consist of all the 263 principals and 2054 science teachers in public secondary schools in Anambra state. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 80 principals and 240 science teachers, totaling 320 respondents from four education zones. A self-structured instrument titled ‘’Integration of STEM Education in School Management Questionnaire’’ (ISTEMESMQ) was used for data collection.  Reliability of the instrument was conducted to check the internal consistency using Cronbach alpha and yielded an index of 0.85. 281 copies of questionnaire were returned, being 87% return rate. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the hypothesis was tested using z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. A mean of 2.50 and above was accepted while any mean less than 2.50 was rejected. The result of the findings revealed that STEM education is not effectively integrated in secondary school management for sustainable development. It also revealed that inadequate provision of ICT, funding and poor motivation of STEM teachers are some challenges that hinder effective integration of STEM education in schools.  It was recommended that provision of adequate fund and effective digitalization of schools among others are necessary to accomplish effective integration of STEM education in schools.