THE IMPACT OF SCHOOL SECURITY MANAGEMENT ON TEACHING AND LEARNING ENVIRONMENTS IN CONFLICT-AFFECTED NIGERIAN REGIONS

Abstract There is a paradox surrounding schools in conflict settings; schools are supposed to be the bastions of education, but they are so fragile to attack. In this research work poses the question as to whether there is any association between the security management strategies of principals and the teacher-learning facilitative nature of the learning conditions in the public secondary schools in a conflict zone, North-Central Nigeria. Through the descriptive correlational design approach, a sample size of 45 principals, 375 teachers and 384 students of 45 schools across the state in 3 states was used to gather information. The findings demonstrate a rather pragmatic reality: on the one hand, the reality with regard to persistent security threats is still highly problematic; however, on the other hand, the contexts of teaching and learning are usually discussed as rather harmless. Nonetheless, with multiple regression analysis security management practices of principals indicates that a dismal percentage (R2 = 0.017) of variance in the teaching environment is explained using the teaching environment of conduciveness and the percentage of the variance in the learning environment is 0.249, which is comparatively small. This hopeless misfit brings out the complicated relationship of forces that determine the climates of education in crisis areas. It points out that despite the fact that the actions of principals cannot be regarded as trivial, high level of the influence is restricted with systemic and community related and psychological factors which are beyond the control of the principal.  Keywords: School Security Management, Teaching and Learning Environments, Conflict-Affected Regions, Educational Leadership.