Abstract

 This study investigated the strategies for effective resource management in Akwa Ibom State secondary schools. The population of the study is the 248 principals of secondary schools in Ikot Ekpene Educational Zones of Akwa Ibom State. The sample comprised of 248 principals of secondary schools in Ikot-Ekpene educational zones in Akwa Ibom State. Four research questions and four hypotheses guided the study. An instrument titled "Strategies for Effective Resource Management in Secondary Schools in Akwa Ibom State (SERMSSAIS)" was used to collect data for this study. The instrument was subjected to both face and content validity by lecturers in the field of Educational Management after which the internal consistency of the instrument was established using Cronbach alpha method, which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.79. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while the hypothesis were tested using the t-test at 5% level of significance. The researcher observed that the most effective financial resource management strategies in the secondary schools are supervision of revenue receipts, regular and periodic checks of account clerks, annual auditing of school accounts and balancing of income! expenditure and the use of fee cards for clarification of payment made by students; effective strategies for managing school instructional resources includes; preservation, unit supervision of instructional resources usage and maintenance, ensuring adequate up-to-date keeping of resource inventory and involvement of PTA and community in procurement, servicing, maintenance and safeguarding of school instructional resources. Finally the study revealed that while there is no significant difference in the mean rating of male and female principals, rating of male and female principals on strategies for effective resource management are at variance based on the findings. The researcher recommended that secondary school principals be trained on strategies for effective resource management using these identified strategies among others.