PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION AS PREDICTOR OF QUALITY EDUCATION DELIVERY IN PUBLIC SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN RIVERS STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper examined private sector participation as predictor of quality education delivery in public secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three objectives, with corresponding research questions and null hypotheses. The study adopted a correlational survey research design. The population of this study comprised of all the 6,893 teachers of 291 public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select a sample of six hundred and eighty-nine (689) teachers representing 10% of the entire population. Two instruments titled: Private Sectors Participation Scale (PSPS) and Quality Education Delivery Scale (QEDS) were used for this study. Cronbach alpha reliability test was conducted to ascertain the reliability of the instruments, of which the reliability coefficients of Private Sector Participation Scale and Quality Education Delivery Scale were 0.84 and 0.88 respectively. The research question 1 to 3 were answered using simple regression, while hypotheses 1 to 3 were tested with t-test associated with simple regression at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that private sector participation in the provision of health/nutritional services, sports/recreational facilities and laboratories in public senior secondary schools predict quality education delivery to a low extent in Rivers State. Thus, it was concluded that though private sectors participate in the area of provision of health/nutritional services, sports/recreational facilities and laboratories in public senior secondary schools to a low extent but can be significantly improved for the actualization of quality education delivery in Rivers State. Based on the result and conclusion of this paper, it was recommended among others that public secondary schools leadership should fall back to their host community leaders and food industries within the school communities with a good conscience of education purpose to seek funds and support regarding the provision of health/nutritional services. Also, principals of secondary schools should adopt good school-private sector relationship strategies to attract the support of private sectors and many other wealthy personalities in the provision of sports/recreational facilities in schools.