10th U6+ Consortium of African Universities International Conference

The study investigated school administrators’ knowledge and awareness of teachers’ mental health and how it relates to teachers’ psychological well-being in primary schools in Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population comprised 5,445 primary school teachers and 337 school administrators in Ilorin South Local Government Area of Kwara State. A sample of 359 teachers was selected from the population using a stratified random sampling technique. The teachers were first stratified based on relevant characteristics such as school type (public and private schools) to ensure adequate representation of the different categories within the population. Thereafter, respondents were selected proportionately from each stratum through simple random sampling. In addition, all the 337 school administrators in the study area were included in the study using the census technique because their number was manageable and accessible. Two self-constructed instruments, namely the Teachers’ Mental Health (TMH) Rating Scale and the School Administrator Knowledge and Awareness of Teachers’ Mental Health (SAKATMH) Questionnaire, were used for data collection. The instruments were validated by experts in Early Childhood and Primary Education, while reliability was established using Cronbach’s Alpha, yielding coefficients of 0.83 and 0.81, respectively. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions, while independent samples t-test was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed a high level of teachers’ mental health (M = 3.64), a high level of administrators’ knowledge (M = 3.38), and a high level of administrators’ awareness of teachers’ mental health (M = 3.37). The study further showed no significant gender differences in teachers’ mental health (t = -0.19, p > .05), administrators’ knowledge (t = 0.66, p > .05), and awareness (t = 0.78, p > .05). The study concluded that teachers’ mental health and administrators’ awareness are generally high and not influenced by gender. It was recommended that continuous counselling support, regular training, and standardized mental health awareness programmes be strengthened across schools to sustain teachers’ well-being.