Abstract

<p>Feces management had become a major challenge in most of our secondary schools in Nigeria. The poor state of feces management in secondary schools in Cross River State may be as a result of inability of students to clean the available toilets facilities, poor funding of secondary schools, lack of public awareness on the danger of feces in the school environment and poor implementation of government policies on feces management by the school authorities. This study therefore, examined ‘Principals’ attitude on school sanitation and feces management practices in secondary schools in Cross River State, Nigeria’. To achieve this purpose of the study, one specific objective was raised to guide the study which was converted to research question and then transformed into hypothesis. Related literatures were reviewed in line with the variable of the study. The design used for the study was survey research design. This design was chosen because it permits inference and generalization to be drawn from a representative sample of the population. The research area is Cross River State, Nigeria. The target population of the study was principals of public secondary schools in the three Education Zones of Cross River State. They are 273 principals in public secondary schools in Cross River State (Ministry of Education, Calabar, Cross River State; 2015/2016 academic year). The instrument employed for data collection was the questionnaire, which was designed by the researcher to test the items. Cronbach Alpha method of reliability was used to determine the reliability estimate of the instrument which ranged from 0.64 to 0.85. Independent t-test analysis was used for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that principals’ attitude toward sanitation significantly influence their feces management practices in secondary schools in Cross River State, Nigeria. It was recommended among others that Principals of public secondary schools in the State should have positive attitudes toward feces management and inculcate maintenance culture in the handling of sanitary facilities sited in their schools.</p>