PRINCIPALS' INTEGRATION OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN SCHOOL SECURITY AS PREDICTOR OF THREAT MANAGEMENT IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN IMO STATE, NIGERIA

The study investigated principals’ integration of artificial intelligence in school security as predictor of threat management in public secondary schools in Imo State. Three research questions guided the study and three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Correlational research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 311 principals in public secondary schools in Imo State, Nigeria. Census sampling technique was used since the entire 311 principals were studied because it is relatively small and manageable. The researchers-developed questionnaires namely ‘‘Principals’ Integration of Artificial Intelligence in School Security Questionnaire (PIAISSQ)” and “Threat Management Questionnaire (TMQ)’’ were used for data collection. The face validation of the instruments was determined by three experts of which two were from the Department of Educational Management and Policy, and one in Measurement and Evaluation Unit in the Department of Educational Foundations, all from Faculty of Education, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. Cronbach alpha method was used to determine the internal consistencies of the instruments which yielded reliability coefficients of 0.81 and 0.83 for two clusters of PIAISSQ with an overall coefficient of 0.82 and 0.84 was obtained for TMQ. The researchers together with three research assistants collected data for the study using the direct approach method and 98% return was recorded. Simple regression was used to answer the research questions and test hypotheses 1 and 2, while multiple regression was used to answer research question and test hypothesis 3. The findings of the study revealed among others that principals’ integration of AI-driven image recognition in school security is a strong and predictor of threat management in public secondary schools in Imo State, Nigeria. It was also found that principals’ integration of AI-driven crisis management system is a strong and significant predictor of threat management in public secondary schools in Imo State, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that Imo State Secondary Education Management Board should conduct annual training and re-training for principals on integration of artificial intelligence in school security to up-date their skills of threat management.