Validation of coronavirus-2019 phobia scale using preschool practitioners in urban and rural communities in Nigeria Implication for educational sociologists

Coronavirus-2019 (COVID-19) emerged in December 2019, causing significant changes in people’s social lives and other human activities. The outbreak halted educational activities throughout the world. The Nigerian experience was unique in that most people were skeptical about the pandemic’s existence. This practice contributed to the Nigerian people’s fear of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, in Nigeria, there has never been a validated or established Covid-19 phobia scale, necessitating this study. This study was a pure validation study on COVID-19 phobia scale (C19PS). The study area was south-east states and a sample of 386 preschool practitioners in urban and rural communities of South East States, Nigeria participated in the study. The eligibility criteria include being a preschool teacher and demonstrating signs of COVID-19 phobia. The validation of the C19PS was done by subjecting the data gathered to principal axis factoring analysis with varimax rotation. The model fit for the data was tested using root mean square error of approximation and comparative fit index. It was found that the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of .845 for the measure of the adequacy of the sample size. There was also a significant Bartlett’s test of sphericity (P<.05). This implies that the correlation matrix for the C19PS is not an identity matrix. It was revealed that C19PS had good overall reliability (a=.896) and model fit (Root mean square error of approximation=.042, comparative fit index=.943) in a sample of Nigerian preschool practitioners. As a result, C19PS was recommended as a trustworthy tool for identifying persons who suffer from COVID-19 phobia.https://www.journals.elsevier.com/medicineam2023Science, Mathematics and Technology Educatio

Perceived Role of School Principal and School-Based Management Committee in School Library Administration and Management: Implications for School Library Policy

The functionality of school libraries depends on the availability of an effective school library policy. The role played by the school principal and school-based management committee is critical in terms of establishing, developing, and maintaining successful and functional school libraries. Their support plays a key role in the effectiveness of the school library policy. The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceived role of the school principal and school-based management committee in school library administration and management and highlight the implications for school library policy. Two research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. A representative sample of 350 respondents comprising 50 teacher-librarians, 100 classroom teachers, 50 principals and 150 parents completed the research questionnaire. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and analysis of variance. The finding of the study shows that both the school principal and school-based management committee play crucial role in school library administration and management. Finding also show that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of teacher librarians, classroom teachers, principals and parents regarding the role of the school principal (F(3,346)=.167, p=.92) and school-based management committee (F(3,346)=.007, p=.99) in school library administration and management. The implications of the findings for school library policy were discussed