Abstract:
The main purpose of this research was to asses educational materials management in government secondary schools of Bale Zone. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. The participants of the study were: concurrently using both quantitative and qualitative research approach. The study used both primary and secondary sources of data. Secondary school principals, teachers, warehouse personnel and students were used as sample respondents. Simple Random Sampling (SRS) technique and availability sampling technique were employed to select sample respondents. The researcher used both items of close-ended and open-ended items of questionnaires and interviews as relevant data gathering tools. Teachers and students involved in responding close-ended questioners. Inter-views were held with warehouse personnel. The quantitative data were analyzed by using frequencies, percentages and mean values by using SPSS version 20. The qualitative data were analyzed by identifying and narrating them. The findings of the study revealed that ensuring effective and efficient utilization of educational materials in secondary schools is crucial to attain educational objectives. On the other hand, shortage of students’ desks, students’ textbooks and computers; failure of the schools to systematically distinguish, store and repair damaged educational materials, absence of maintenance personnel, inability of IT room coordinators to repair computers and absence of continuous trainings to enhance the utilization of material resources were problems to solved. In order to solve the problems seen in managing educational materials; it is recommended that the schools to seek research-based solutions, increasing internal in-comes, searching donors, mobilizing will very important to fulfill the scarcely available educational materials. Because, these kind of trainings can improve the maintenance capability of IT room coordinators were suggested as important strategies to ameliorate the problems
