An Appraisal of Building Maintenance Practices of Public Secondary Schools in Ekpoma
CHAPTER ONE
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of the study is an appraisal of building maintenance practices of public secondary schools in Ekpoma. Specifically, the study will:
- determine the extent to which building maintenance practices of public secondary schools in Ekpoma adhere to the manual on planning for the procurement of physical facilities
- investigate the state of Buildings in the secondary schools.
- determine the extent to which building maintenance practices of public secondary schools in Ekpoma adhere to the manual on the maintenance of physical facilities.
- find our the extent to which building maintenance practices of public secondary schools in Ekpoma adhere to the manual on the safety of physical facilities
- determine the extent to which building maintenance practices of public secondary schools in Ekpoma adhere to the manual on the supervision of physical facilities.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Deterioration of Buildings
All elements of buildings deteriorate at a greater or lesser rate depending on materials, method of construction, age, environmental conditions, usage of building, and method of design and maintenance management. Before maintenance would be required in buildings, much can be done at the design stage to reduce the amount of subsequent maintenance work [1]. The deterioration of a building hampers its ability to perform adequately and thus is important to ensure proper maintenance for building continuity [5]. The continued efficient and effective performance of any building depends partly on the nature or condition of the buildings and partly on other factors. Some factors like methods of construction, age and environmental conditions, usage of the building, method of design and maintenance management of buildings determine the deterioration level of buildings. Understanding how existing buildings affect occupants, designers can minimize problems and have successful design features. Post occupancy evaluation of some selected Secondary Schools in Minna, Nigeria, noted that there are deterioration factors [6]. The maintenance of a building, the building usage, exposure to natural forces, correction and identification of defects would increase the life span of the buildings and the safety of users. In agreement with that statement, the major problem in many schools is overcrowded classrooms, the study also established that private schools are far less well maintained than public ones.
Buys (2004) cited Shen et al. (1999) noted that sometimes maintenance is delayed and occasionally, insufficient number of maintenance staff was cited as the main cause for delays in carrying out maintenance work [8]. However, [9] explained that deterioration can however be avoided or rectified through maintenance of the building. Failure to undertake regular maintenance of a building will ultimately in reduce the life span of the building and finally its demolition. It would be difficult to find one best solution to promote safety and reliability of maintenance activities or to determine and
describe deterioration factors in general. The opinion of the users will definitely assist the maintenance manager in the maintenance delivery.
Building Inspection as a Way out of Deterioration and Disrepair
Walkthrough at intervals is fundamental to good maintenance, together with knowledge of design. In doing that, all properties should be inspected at regular intervals to identify any deterioration and disrepair, in order to document the required maintenance jobs. Shohet et.al, [10] described regular inspection as a fundamental part of a preventive maintenance. The study suggests that a building condition survey be carried out so as to identify the optimum moment for intervention, with the aid of prioritization of actions and planning for the future.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter describes the design of the study, area of the study, population of the study, sample and sampling techniques, instrument, validation of the instrument, reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.
Design of the Study
This study is a descriptive survey design. According to Nworgu (2001) descriptive survey describes the opinion of a cross section of the public on an issue of interest. Olaitan and Nwoke (1988) described a descriptive survey study or research design as one which aims at collecting data and describing it in a systematic manner the characteristics, features or facts about a given population. Ali (2006) considered this research study or research design as being mainly concerned with describing events as they are, without any manipulation of what is being observed.
It is considered appropriate for the present study, since information was elicited from both Academic and Administrative Staff of the selected secondary Schools on Appraisal of the Management of physical facilities in their colleges.
Population of the Study
A study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitute of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description (Udoyen, 2019). In this study the study, the population of the study consisted of all the staff in the 10 Public secondary Schools in the zone.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
This chapter presents the result of this study based on the data analysis. They were presented on the basis of the seven research questions
Research Question One:
To what extent do the building maintenance practices of public secondary schools in Ekpoma ?
Table 3 revealed that all items had their mean ranging from 2.36–3.74 which indicates that all the variables were considered the extent to which the building maintenance practices take place in public secondary schools in Ekpoma.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary Of Findings
The study revealed that lack of maintenance culture is a common users’ practice in Nigeria. On the contrary, the users’ rated inflation of cost of maintenance and the use of poor quality materials by the maintenance managers as the most significant factor responsible for poor maintenance management of public secondary schools. For the purpose of this study, fourteen deterioration factors were investigated. There is no maintenance body and policy in place for the public secondary schools. There is also a lack of effective national maintenance policy, laws and regulations to compel both maintenance managers of public schools and users to undertake maintenance responsibility of which sanctions can be applied. This is consistent with [6] who stated that the country does not have a maintenance policy which has resulted in the persistent problems of building maintenance.
It is obvious from the study that the population of the students in the classroom was more than the number that the spaces were designed for. Some disrepair could be avoided, if there is quick response to deterioration by the maintenance managers. In most cases, some components were abandoned and allowed to deteriorate for a while before they gain maintenance attention. After building completion, there is no provision put in place for maintenance in the future. Most renovation work was found to be carried out by inexperienced people who are not professionals. Sometimes their charges are found cheaper than the professionals. There is also high deterioration on school building because of lack of maintenance schedule and plan. Even for those that claimed to be having it was observed that they do not apply them properly.
The maintenance condition seems to be worst in the schools because unskilled person were used instead of skilled. Sometimes, some of the students were instructed to carry out some construction and renovation. There is generally a lack of maintenance culture on the part of both the government
and maintenance managers, thus resulting in deferred maintenance of school buildings. Buildings deteriorate because of the users’ attitude. Some drag furniture, break louvers, and throw stones at the ceilings. Eventually such students were sometimes not compelled to replace those components. For this reason, the students continue to act in such manner.
The building age sometimes do have influence on academic achievement of students. The modern buildings were preferred over older buildings by the users’ because maintenance was not controlled, but when it is controlled, the older buildings would be acceptable. The findings in this study did not agree with [3] view that most maintenance problems can be attributed to poor design. The influence of building design was found not to have much influence on the deterioration condition of buildings in the school investigated. The lack of maintenance of these school buildings negatively affects the users’ in their teaching and learning. The working environment are sometimes not conducive for the teachers, the capacity of the classrooms are stretched in some cases doubled. This may result in ill-health, psychological trauma and poor performance.
CONCLUSION
From the results obtained in this study, the following conclusions are made. The major factors responsible for the state of maintenance of public school buildings in the study area were identified to lack of maintenance culture on the part of both the governments, maintenance managers and the building users, thus resulting in deferred maintenance of the academic buildings in public secondary schools. A majority of the public secondary school building users were also indifferent towards maintaining their buildings because they destroy the facilities the more, on a daily basis. From the population data, there is also pressure on public secondary school buildings by number of users. There is inverse relation between population density and the quality of school buildings conditions. Public secondary schools with fewer people had better conditions as against those with large number of occupants.
Recommendations
Based on the findings the researcher recommends that:
- Management of Secondary Schools should continue to be guided by physical facilities manual in the planning, provisions, maintenance, supervision and safety of physical facilities in their institutions. This is necessary since adherence to the manual would prevent weaknesses and/or problems in the management of physical facilities in their institutions.
- UBEB should regularly organize seminars and workshops for staff of Secondary Schools on the use of the manuals in the management of physical facilities.
- Academic, administrative staff, and students should be given proper orientation on the handling of physical facilities in their institutions.
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