The study examined the effects of Emotional Intelligence programmes on school engagement among selected senior secondary school students in Abia State, Nigeria. Thus, the study was guided by two research questions and two null hypotheses. Adopting a quasi-experimental design which includes pretest post-test control. The study employed a multistage sampling technique to select a total of 40 SS2 students out of the population of 3,238 (1,637 males and 1,601 females) identified with low levels of school engagement in government secondary schools in Abia State. Two instruments were developed by the researcher as School Engagement Identification Scale (SEIS) and Emotional Intelligence Training Package (EI). Three experts in Educational Psychology, Guidance and Counselling, and Measurement and Evaluation from the College of Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State validated face content of the instrument. Reliability of the instruments was established using test-retest procedures among SS2 Students with low school engagement in Secondary Technical School Amandugba, Isu LGA, Imo State. Cronbach’s alpha internal consistency coefficient was 0.82 and Pearson Product-Moment Correlation stability coefficient was 0.83. The instrument was given in three phases with the help of two teacher-counsellors. Descriptive statistics in the form of mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, whereas inferential statistical analyses required to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance were completed through Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). Results indicated that the Emotional Intelligence training programme had a significant positive impact on students’ involvement in school when compared to the control group, and that no gender difference existed between mean scores for boys and girls who received this programme. Overall, the results suggested that teachers should perceive and respond to classroom emotions in all students regardless of whether they are boys or girls.

Key Words: Psychological Capital Programmes, School Engagement Senior Secondary School Students.