In many nations of the world Nigeria inclusive, there has been continuous effort for improved educational systems which resulted in some kind of shift in educational planning and specific efforts on the part of the governments to develop policies for transforming education. Over the past two to three decades, different Nigerian governments have shown interest in trans-forming education system and have come up with various educational policies and programmes to ensure that they achieve their goals. Such efforts generally led to the introduction of the universal Primary Education (UPE) in 1976 and 6-3-3-4 system in 1985 (Six years in primary school, three years in Junior, three years in senior secondary school respectively and four years in  the university), yet the desired educational goals have not been met as many policies and programmes were  poorly implemented. The latest venture by the Federal Government of Nigeria is her emphasis on the need to promote the effective use of strategic planning among others to improve the quality of education provision and service delivery (FRN, 2013). Education is widely accepted by many nations to be one of the most important needs for the well-being of any society.  It is seen as a powerful instrument of social progress without which neither an individual nor a nation can attain professional growth, hence the need for quality provision and service delivery. Following this view, Kansanen (2004) posits that there is need for good schools, good teachers and administrators. Given its importance the Federal Government of Nigeria (FRN, 2008) adopted education as an instrument par excellence for national development and therein places much emphasis on it, as a necessary condition for realizing the five national goals.  It states:

Education shall continue to be highly rated in the national development plans because education is the most important instrument for change, any fundamental change in the intellectual and social outlook for society has to be proceeded by an educational revolution (FRN, 2008:7).

The National Policy on Education objectives for secondary education sector is to prepare the people for useful living in the society as well as participate in higher education (FRN, 2008). From the stated objectives, secondary education should develop in each Nigerian child the knowledge, interests, ideals, habits, and powers whereby he will find his place and use that place to shape both himself and society towards nobler ends. Onwuka (1994) asserts that this type of education helps people to become good workers who effectively combine their hands, heads and hearts. The expectation is that these well articulated objectives of secondary education can only be achieved if all the issues involved in implementation of policies and programmes at secondary education level are addressed squarely. This means that providing resources, facilities and funds in right quantity and quality and the effective management of these resources are major determinants for the achievement of these broad goals. The school in collaboration with the government will ensure the existence of a germane environment that will help the achievement of these goals.

While these efforts in force achieved some of the desired goals there is still an accusation that Nigerian educational system which was known for very high standards over the years has deteriorated. There is a public outcry about the deterioration in quality of public education provided for Nigerian citizens. Scholars like Ajobiewe (2008), Iyamu (2005) and Titilayo (2002) also noted with gross dissatisfaction that the quality of education delivery and output in Nigerian education sector today cannot bring about any significant desirable transformation. These problems/challenges include dilapidated infrastructures, inadequate staffing, ill motivated teachers, poor funding, lack of essential facilities, poor quality assurance owing to various training limitations, poor quality entrants (higher level), too much emphasis on paper qualification, which led to a disparity between educational philosophy and objectives on the one hand, and the practice on the other; contextual problems of rapid transformation, improper mission interpretation, inappropriate curricula, students’ unrest,  paucity of academic staff as well as problem of staff retention, lack of quality assessment,  and research, unsuitable policy environment and other organizational and management issues pertaining to school admini-stration,  among others  (Babalola, 2009; Onwuliri, 2008).

Given these problems in the education sector, the Federal Government of Nigeria mandated the use of strategic planning in schools. School administrators are therefore   increasingly   being  urged  to  utilize  strategic planning managerial tool and bring about transformation in their schools. The principal is looked upon as the chief executive officer expected to work hard to achieve stated goals using his knowledge and wisdom. He is essentially the organizer and implementer of plans, policies and programmes meant to achieve specific educational objectives. His administrative tasks include carrying along the staff both academic / non-academic and students in an environment conducive to the maximum development of the learners. The extent to which principals possess the ability to effectively transform their schools through the application of strategic planning is a matter of concern given that most secondary school principals struggle with enormous shortage of everything. It would seem also that the principals lack sufficient knowledge of how to effectively implement strategic planning. It is a general expectation that when schools are transformed, the learners, staff and community are positively affected to enhance national transformation. In other words, strategic planning is an indispensable tool for the success of any educational programme.  Effective implementation of strategic plan that will cause a shift from quantity to quality and the achievement of system-wide transformation as desirable goals is the thrust. This will enhance the most promising strategy for sustained, substantive school improvement in building the capacity of school personnel to function as a professional learning community. The term strategic planning when mentioned according to Reeves (2007) immediately brings to mind a disciplined and thoughtful process that links the values, mission, and goals of a school system with a set of coherent strategies and tasks designed to achieve those goals. Its aim is to develop a better road map to guide the organization to a place through focusing on the institution’s mission, objectives, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Scholars such as Bryson (2011) states that  strategic planning is a set of concepts, procedures and tools designed for managers’ use; Goodstein et al. (2008) view it as a systematic process in which an organization envisions its future and assesses its basic reason for being; and for Yepwi (2007) is a comprehensive statement for an organization’s mission objectives and strategies. Strategic planning as a reiterative process builds the strategic-management capacity of the organization.

Urban and rural schools will not differ significantly in Terms of the problems they encounter in the implementation strategic plan.

The survey research design was adopted for the study. This design is used in this study to collect data from secondary school principals in order to determine the extent of the problems public secondary schools in Anambra state encountered during the implementation of their schools’ strategic plans. The target population comprised 217 principals of Anambra State public secondary schools. There was no sampling technique as all the schools from the six educational zones in Anambra State of the 21 Local Government Areas formed the population of the study. The instrument for data collection was questionnaire. The questionnaire called ‘Schools’ Strategic Plan Implementation Problem Questionnaire’ (SSPIPQ) is an 8-item questionnaire eliciting information on the extent of the problems schools encountered in the implementation of their school strategic plans.

Research Question 1

What problems do schools encounter in implementing their strategic plans?

As indicated by the mean responses in Table 1, all the eight listed problems that could constraint the development of strategic plans were endorsed by the principals as the problems they experienced in the development of their schools strategic plans.  The mean responses range between 3.52 and 4.50 and are above the acceptance value of 3.00. Financial constraints (Mean = 4.50), lack of experienced professionals in strategic planning (Mean = 4.07) and unwillingness of key organizational leaders to embrace strategic change (3.96) were the top three strategic plan development constraints faced by the schools.  

Hypothesis

Urban and rural schools will not differ significantly in terms of the problems they encounter in the implementation strategic plan

Urban and rural secondary schools principals do not differ significantly in terms of their mean rating of the problems schools encounter in the implementation of their strategic plans as the z-values for the entire eight (8) problem areas were less than the table value of 1.96 (Table 2).  Therefore the null hypothesis of no significant difference between urban and rural schools in terms of problems of implementation of strategic plan was not rejected. The researcher concludes that schools in urban and rural schools do not differ significantly in the problems they encounter in the implementation of their strategic plans. 

Conclusion

This study indicated that the strategic plan implementation and quality education provision is still within average level in secondary schools. In addition it was discovered that principals have inadequate understanding of strategic planning process.  The researcher therefore concludes that both the schools in urban and rural areas experience almost equal difficulty in the implementation of their strategic plans.

However principals as instructional leaders are expected to be more resourceful and pro-active in collaborating with the stakeholders in education sector to ensure effective resource inputs, skillfully coordinating and managing human and material resources in their strive to meet the competing demands of school administration and instructional supervision which are germane for continuous improvement and achievement of the set goals in secondary schools. Therefore in this light the principals need to create an enabling environment for proper implementation of strategic planning a veritable tool managers employ for successful administration in order to profitably achieve the desired goals.

Based on the findings of the study it is therefore recommended that the Planning, Research and Statistics Unit of the Post Primary School Service Commission should attempt organizing for educational managers (principals) and staff members, periodic capacity development workshops - regular short courses and seminars, on strategic planning to enable them grasp the fundamentals and have confidence in planning strategically.

School principals are encouraged to collaborate with relevant stakeholders to promote capacity development of teachers through intensive and regular in-house seminar/workshop to improve knowledge, pedagogical skills and competence of teachers in various subjects, and improvisation of instructional materials to enhance teaching- learning process in secondary schools.

The authors have not declared any conflict of interests.