OPINIONS OF STAKEHOLDERS ON IMPACT OF FUNDING ON THE MANAGEMENT OF PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGERIA

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background to the Study

The history of modern education in Nigeria could be traced to the efforts of private organizations, especially the Christian Missionary Socieities.              Ayodele (2004) confirmed emphatically that „one of the incontrovertible facts in the history of Nigerian education is that the first schools, whether primary, secondary or teacher training, were set up          as private institutions.‟         In fact it took the then colonial government several decades after the first private schools had emerged before delving into the enterprise of education. Although Fafunwa (1974) affirms that     „the     missionaries  without           exception       used    the       school as        a          means of conversion”. There is no doubt that the schools established during these periods served as a springboard for the emergence of nationalized government schools in Nigeria. The  issue  of  government  neglect  of  educational  sector  is  not  a  new phenomenon, for as Fafunwa (1974:92) postulates: “Up to 1882, the colonial government in Nigeria paid little or no attention to the educational needs of the people and the field was left entirely to the missions. This period can therefore be justifiably termed the era of exclusive Christian missionary education in Southern Nigeria” During this period, the Church Missionary Society (CMS), The Western Methodist Missionary  Society,            The     Roman            Catholic         Mission,         The     United  Presbyterian Church of Scotland, The Qua Iboe Mission, The Primitive Methodist Missionary Society and the Based Missions, firmly established themselves with each having a school for teaching their devotees. In addition to the teaching of their religious doctrines, Fafunwa (1974) confirms that „subjects like carpentry, bricklaying, ginnery and agriculture were taught‟ especially, at missionary schools located in places like Abeokuta, Onitsha, Lokoja and Calabar in 1876. The Roman Catholic Mission established the famous TUPO, that is Industrial School for delinquents near Badagry. By the end of 1912, there were already ninety-one mission schools as against government‟s fifty-nine schools in Southern Nigeria. Below is a tabular presentation of schools owned by each of the missions and the government:

Table 1.1          NUMBER OF SCHOOLS OWNED BY EACH OF THE MISSIONS AND THE GOVERNMENT BY 1912

Source: Fafunwa, A.B. (1974) History of Education in Nigeria, pg. 97

The demand for post-primary education by Southern Nigerians according to Fafunwa (1974) found expression in the founding of the C.M.S. Grammar School, Lagos in 1859 by a Nigerian clergyman trained in Sierra Leone and England, the Revd T.B. Macaulay. The school, it was said „was influenced more by the wealthy Lagosians who were mostly ex-slaves from Sierra-Leone, than by the C.M.S mission under which Macaulay served. Therefore, in addition to corporate organization‟s participation in school establishment in the early history of modern education in Nigeria, private individual also played significant role in schools establishment particularly in the southern part of Nigeria. In the Northern part of Nigerian also, private involvement in education could be said to be characterized by Islamic activities. According to Fafunwa, (1974) „the first thing a Muslim community did was to build a mosque and used the premises or courtyard as a Quaranic School. However, what could be said to be the first modern private school in the north was established in Lokoja, the present capital of Kogi state in 1865 by one Dr. Baikie of the C.M.S. where instructions were given in Hausa and Nupe languages. In 1898, the C.M.S. succeeded in penetrating the core north and established the first private school known as “Home Schools” in Zaria. Although all the private schools were later taken over by the government inline with her indiginisation policy. Private individuals were later granted the right of participation in schools establishment. Today, each state in Nigeria has over two hundred (200) private secondary schools operating along side with those of government. The lists of private secondary schools in selected states for this study are included as appendix „C‟. On the issue of funding, though the work for education begun in 1840 in Lagos colony, the idea of grant-in-aids to voluntary agencies did not begin until 1877 and the grant only totaled to #200 (two hundred pound) to each of the three missionary bodies, the Anglican Church Missionary Society, The Wesley Methodist and the Roman Catholic Missions (Fafunwa, 1974). In the year 1882, the assistance was increased to #600 per annum. In the same year, the Educational Ordinance of 1882 introduced new approaches that schools established by government became responsibility of government to maintain and financed. A central board of Education that was to recommend the reception of grant-in-aid by schools was also set up. The conditions of buildings and teachers‟ certificates were to be satisfied by the board. Another Ordinance in 1926 introduced new guidelines for grants-in-aids which classified schools into four status as each class will mirror the level of efficiency and tone of schools which would in turn influence the amounts of grants-in-aid to be given.

The availability of funds determines the success of planning and management of education in Nigeria to enable implementation of policies. The financing of education has been a controversial issue since the inception of modern education. Nigeria had only met between 8% and 11% allocation to education within the last years. Even the money allocated is concentrated to public or government owned schools at the detriment of private schools, which was not the case when education started in Nigeria. The concept of Funding and Management are two interwoven terminologies that can hardly be broken. This is because wherever fund is mentioned, the need for proper management cannot be overruled, either because it is hardly in sufficient supply or it needs to be properly and accountably managed. This is why Fayol‟s (1961) statement on management where he said that “to manage is to forecast and plan, organize, command, coordinate and control” has not only keep making an impact on every human endeavor, but it also served as a springboard for several other management scientists who have adapted it for more elaboration and clarity due to development. In more recent times, Gordon, Mondy, Sharplan, (1990:17) similarly defined management as the process of getting things done through the efforts of other people and that the management process consists of four functions: planning, organizing, influencing and controlling. According to these writers, a function is a type of work activity, which can be identified and distinguished from other works, and each management function involves decision making. The management process, in the context of the foregoing definitions of management, connotes the sequence or series of mutually inter-related tasks or work activities (i.e. functions), which are usually undertaken in order to achieve organizational goals. In essence therefore, the management process involves the systematic and sequential execution of the mutually inter-related work activities of planning, organizing, influencing, controlling, and decision-making. Each of these work activities or functions is discussed in turn and in the context of their inter-relationship. Planning is the process of determining in advance what should be done, the means for doing it and how it should be done. In planning for his organization, a manager will first survey the present conditions prevailing in the organization after which he sets goals for what need to be done, before working out the means and ways of realizing the stated goals. The meaning of organization or organizing as a process was briefly distinguished from organizations as a social entity. As explained, organizing is the process of arranging the people and resources available in an organization in the best possible way that will enable the organization achieve its objectives. Once the manager has identified what need to be done and has also set out the objectives, he must next work out the resources and types of work activities that will be required to achieve the set objectives and people or units in the organization to handle activities. Organizing therefore requires that the manager should not only have the ability to do these things, but he needs to be trained in management

The management function of influencing according to Olagboye (2004:10) is sometimes referred to as leading, actuating or directing, but the term influencing is more embracing. Influencing is the process of bringing about a change in the behavior or attitude of another person or group of persons through motivation, good leadership and effective communication. Motivation refers to factors which cause, direct, and sustain people‟s behavior. Controlling is the process of setting standards of performance in organizations, measuring and comparing actual performance with the set standards, and taking necessary action to correct performance that does not meet the established standards. There are thus four basic elements of control namely: setting standards of performance; measuring performance; comparing actual performance against set standards; and taking corrective action where necessary. In essence, the manager must monitor action plans and activities assigned to different units and people (e.g if in the school setting, pupils, teachers, non-teachers, etc) in the organization and take corrective action where performance is below the standards that have been set. Decision-making is the process of generating and evaluating alternative ideas or solutions to problems and making choices among them. It is the process by which a particular course of action out of many, is chosen as the best way to deal with a specific problem. People at every level of an organization such as a school are constantly required to take decisions and solve problems arising out of their own particular work in the organization. The manager or administrator such as the school head, on the other hand, is expected to make decision affecting either the whole organization or part of it under his management

Management has become a parlance that most people make use of today because of the austere conditions they find themselves. When you meet people on the street and ask how they are, the answer is we are managing”. In other words, condition has made everyone to become a manager overnight. This situation is not peculiar to individual alone beause even corporate organizations (both private and public) have to daily manage the scarce resources available to them to achieve their purpose. Virtually, every aspect of an organization requires adequate funding, the lack of which brings constraints to the practice of management principles. One of the seven principles of administration identified by Olagboye (2004:57) is the „prudential principle of administration‟. He said to be prudent is to be sensible and careful, especially by trying to avoid taking unnecessary risks. Applied in this sense to the use of educational resources, prudential principle focuses on the need for educational administrators to be highly judicious in their utilization of the scarce resources available to education for goal attainment. In other words, prudential principle of administration demands that educational administrator should have, or develop the ability to anticipate, determine, arrange, use and control the material and human resources at his disposal carefully, efficiently and effectively towards the achievement of educational objectives. Olagboye (2004) explained the principle of „sound economy‟ under prudential principle. Here, he stated that „the principle of sound economy‟ demands that since resources (human, materials, money, time. School plant, etc) available to every organization (schools, colleges, etc) are always limited, the educational administrator must use them carefully and without any wastage whatsoever. Impliedly, private school managers and school administrators at large must learn to judiciously utilize resources available to them because they are in most cases in short supply. In support of this assertion, Fadipe (2005) who recommended „strategic management‟ as a panacea for the challenge of inadequate funding in our educational system in Nigeria, opined that: “in the midst of inadequacy of resources therefore, the concept of strategic management of human, materials and financial resources should be properly understood and utilized to achieve the objectives of education. Also, optimal utilization of resources, effective allocation to various units of the institution without putting others at disadvantage, and avoidance of wastage in the system must be encouraged.” The issue of management and adequate funding in the educational sector cannot be overemphasized. In spite of the fact that stakeholders in the field of education know this quite well, education has remained under funded. The result of this under funding has brought so many constraints into educational management, the implication of which is the half-baked graduates on the streets of Nigeria. Not only this, because youths are not properly trained due to lack of facilities, they become unemployable and cannot become employers of labour themselves. If this could be said concerning those who had opportunity to get enrolled into our higher institutions, what about millions of Nigerians who could not get admitted as a result of lack of adequate infrastructural facilities in our schools to accommodate school age children ? The 6-3-3-4 system of Nigeria‟s education which was introduced in 1977 portrays a lofty ideas which could have transformed Nigerian educational system into a model for countries in Africa to emulate. This could not be so because even the President, along with others termed it a failure (Jonathan, 2010). Although a lot of scholars have hinged its failure to poor implementation, the real issue is that of inadequate funding, corruption and lack of political will on the part of political leaders. Every part of the 6-3-3-4 system requires funding for it to be properly implemented. The first 3 year stage in particular require more funding because it provides a broad based education upon which a student will finally decide which way to go to further his/her education. This dream has never been fully achieved because, every junior secondary school student looks forward to entering the senior secondary school class and not any technical college anywhere. The main reason has been that at the JSS 1 – 3, there is no adequate supply of educational facilities to most of our secondary schools because the financers have not provided enough fund for it or could not do so. Result-oriented Educational management under this condition cannot be fully realized. This research was set out to assess the impact of funding on the management of private secondary schools in Nigeria because the system has come to bridge the gap in our educational sector by strengthening the weaknesses existing in the area of poor planning, controlling, decision making, organizing, influencing and resource allocation.

1.2        Statement of the problem

Private school has been known for a long time to be a pacesetter in the provision of sound and qualitative education. This fact has not only been established by various research findings but also from attestation by well meaning Nigerians. The beginning of modern education in Nigeria according to Fafunwa, (1974) is traceable only to private schools through the missionaries. These were the periods when education was solely financed by its operators, and high moral standard, educational achievement, good educational environment and availability of virtually all educational materials needed were the tradition in education. In the 1970s however, the government of Nigeria took over the management of education with the aim of providing education for its citizens. The government did this for sometimes until it discovered that financing education should not be the responsibility of government alone. Therefore, government invited the private individuals and corporate organizations to partner with it in the provision of education. In other words, private individuals or corporate organizations are to collaborate with government to finance and run education. This is by no mean a big task. It is widely believed that the private school through sound management has been able to create room for more students to go to school, provide quality education, eradicate cultism, discourge teachers strike through the maintainance of labour agreement thereby bringing stability to the system. The question is, how has private schools system been able to do this? How does it get its fund to carry-out all of these assignments? The Federal Government in its National Policy on Education asserted that relevant sectoral bodies such as Education Tax Fund ,Industrial Training Funds and National Science and Technology Fund have been established to ease the financial challenges of education in Nigeria. The policy however, remained silent on whether private schools could also access these funds to manage their operation. As a matter of fact, Onah (2011) reported the Nigeria‟s Minister of State for Education in the New Nigeria Newspaper of Monday 26^th August, 2011, as saying “No Intervention Fund for Private Schools”. In the light of this obvious situation, the private school has no other means of funding except fees charged to parents. It is not an overstatement that Nigerian‟s population is on the increase and mortality rate is progressively reducing. These have great implication on the system because more people need to get enrolled into the school. The fact is that if we must meet the Addis Ababa recommendation of 45,000 of secondary school enrollment annually, then more schools should not only have to be opened, but the existing ones need to be appropriately funded so as to meet the demand for education., and private schools have a lot of role to play along this line. This is a task that must be done if we don‟t want to turn our society to the type that breeds vagabonds and nuisance who will be ever ready to vex their anger back on the society. Like Aina (1981:14) said on the influence of school size on educational planning in Nigeria, “it is better to have children in school learning under a controlled system than having them taught outside where no one is sure of what the curriculum content is‟‟. It is imperative to state first and foremost here that, the existence of private secondary schools in particular, and other private institutions in general in Nigeria are as a result of Social demand approach. To be precise, the population of school going age children in Nigeria has outgrown the proportion the government alone can accommodate in its schools. This is in addition to the problems of quality and graduate unemployment, which the establishment of private schools has come to ameliorate. However, if a school established and there is no patronage because of complaint of high school fees, the purpose of its establishment cannot be achieved. Students‟ enrollment is a critical factor for the successful management process in Private secondary schools. When more students enrolled in school, it will lead to stability in school fees, curb incessant school fees increase, boost the morale of management, particularly the proprietors and lead to improvement in the provision of infrastructure and good school climate. All of these are almost not found in most of our private schools today because of poor funding. This is a problem that needs to be seriously and urgently tackled. Another problem worthy of note in this study is that of general conditions of service of staff of private secondary schools in Nigeria. It is evidently clear today that the conditions of service of most private secondary school teachers cannot be compared with those of government schools in Nigeria. While government provides housing, bonuses, insurance coverage, pension and gratuity to its staff, very few or non at all does that in private secondary schools due to poor funding as money realized from school fees can barely pay staff salary and meet some other vital needs of the school. The implication of this is high rate of teacher turnover. Teachers want to leave as soon as they get government job. This is very dangerous to the progress of private initiative in our educational system. Formidable funding structure therefore, needs to be put in place to checkmate high rate of teacher turnover in private secondary schools in Nigeria. The contributions of parents, individuals and NGOs and government to the funding of private secondary schools and is another problem worth stating. Private schools generally, and private secondary schools in particular, has since inception not failed in their duty to contribute in the development of education through sound management, creation of room for more students to go to schools, provide quality education, eradicate cultism, disallow the menace of teachers strike and bringing stability to the system. All these are in addition to mopping able-bodied men and women out of the labor market through the provision of employment opportunities. The question however, is how have private schools been able to do this. How do they get their fund to carry out all of these assignments? The federal government statement concerning private schools funding has clearly established its unpreparedness to create a counterpart funding for private schools in Nigeria (Daily Trust, 23^rd August, 2011, pg 5). Furthermore, there is not known incidence of NGOs coming to the aids of private secondary schools in Nigeria. To compound the issue of financing private secondary schools, another dangerous and pathetic development in the recent time is the introduction of outrageous levy by government upon private school proprietors who are supposed to be a partner in the provision of education service in Nigeria. This is a problem to the funding and management of these types of school, which needs to be considered. Most parents don‟t want to make additional contribution aside the fees they pay. Most of them will not even pay the fees as at when due while some owing fees will enroll their children to other schools. Only schools patronized by the rich can see less of a problem like this, and unfortunately, such schools are very few. The aim of this study is to see how problem of this nature could be checkmated.

Moreover, communication in the school system is very important as failure to establish a formidable communication network in the school could spell doom to the management of the school. There is the need for constant flow of information between the school and the parents, teachers, officials of ministry of education and even the community. Some aspect, if not all, of these stakeholders who needed to be communicated to, are not receiving informantion as regularly as required from the school due to lack of fund to purchase equipment needed to facilitate this. The effect of this is that students are not made aware on time of why some facilities are not in place for their welfare, teachers are in dark as to why they are not promoted or sent on course, communities are not aware of what their roles should be to assist the growth of the private school in their domain. A situation of this lack of good communication can bring about distrust and acrimony between the school and other stakeholders. Funding is therefore required to checkmate these challenges brought about by lack of communication in private secondary schools. Furthermore, the impact of funding on staff development is a problem that should not be left unattended to. One of the major reasons why people patronize private secondary school is because of their ability to deliver good education services to them, The provision of good teaching skill can only be done by well trained teachers. Staff development simply means getting teachers or human resources adequately trained to the level they can deliver to the satisfaction of the school and the students. Most private secondary schools don‟t consider training of staff as part of their responsibility. Staff are left to train themselves before they are employed. This is not too good for the students and teachers of private schools. They are to be encouraged through regular training, which can impart positively on thier performance and that of the students they teach and improve the image of the school. This can however not be possible if there is no good funding. Equally important for the problem statement is that of funding for the provision of educational facilities in Private secondary schools. One of the things that distinguish private schools from public schools is the provision of educational facilities good enough to inculcate into students the required educational values. Facilities such as computers, scientific equipment, playground and play equipment and classroom accessories, are essentials that must be provided in the school. These facilities are hard to come by in private schools because of shortage of funds. Therefore, lack of adequate educational facilities in private secondary schools constitutes a major problem that needs to be solved. Another problem is that of students‟ welfare in private secondary school because it constitutes a major problem. Welfare of students involves the provision of what could make the stay of students in school as moderately comfortable as possible. Provision such as first-aid box, clinic for the sick, transportation, security, provision of boarding house for interested students, especially those from far distance, and organization of extra-curricular and sporting activities are not only necessary but are activities that distinguish private secondary schools from public. Availability of fund plays a vital role towards ensuring that all these are made available. The problem is how could private secondary school acquire enough fund to provide all of these. This and many more are what the research tried to find out.

Summarily, this research observed that several research work and well meaning individuals have spoken on poor funding of our public educational institutions with little or no emphasis on funding in private schools. This is a problem to the operators of private schools in Nigeria. Also, lack of enough fund to start and run schools, parents‟ lukewarm attitude towards payment of school fees, the complaints of most of them, which unfortunately are in the majority, about exorbitant fees charged by private schools and frequent increase in school fees by proprietors are problems that worth investigating since the system has come to stay. This is what is summarized under the topic, „Opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the management of private secondary schools in Nigeria‟ to suggest better alternative means of funding to this important partners for secondary Education.

1.3        Objectives of the study:

The objectives of this study are:

1. to examine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of school fees on enrollment of students in Private Secondary Schools;
2. to determine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on general conditions of service of staff of Private Secondary Schools;
3. to examine the opinions of stakeholders on on the impact of financial contributions of parent, individuals, NGOs and Government on the management of Private Secondary Schools;
4. to examine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of delayed payment of school fees by parents on planning of educational programmes and extra-curricular activities and its implementation in Private Secondary Schools;
5. to examine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the teachers‟ turnover in the Private Secondary Schools;
6. to determine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on communication in and out of school in Private Secondary Schools;
7. to investigate the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on staff development in Private Secondary Schools;
8. to investigate the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on provision of educational facilities in Private Secondary Schools;
9. to determine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the welfare of students in Private Secondary Schools;
10. to examine the opnions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the operation of boarding system in Private Secondary Schools; and
11. to examine the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the provision of security services in Private Secondary Schools.

1.4    Research Questions

The following are the research questions this study aimed at providing answers to:

1. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of school fees on the enrollment of students in Private Secondary Schools?
2. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the general condition of services of staff of Private Secondary Schools?
3. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of parents, individuals, NGO and Government financial contributions on the management of Private Secondary Schools?
4. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of delay in school fees payment by parents on the planning of educational programmes and extra-curricula activities and its implementation in Private Secondary Schools?
5. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on teachers‟ turnover in Private Secondary Schools?
6. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on communication in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria?
7. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on staff development in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria?
8. What are the opinions of stakeholders on impact of funding on the provision of educational facilities in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria?
9. What are the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the welfare of students of Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria?
10. What are the  opinions  of  stakeholders  on       impact  of  funding  on  the decision to operate Private Boarding Schools in Nigeria?

11. What are the opinions of stakeholders on impact of funding on provision of security services in Private Secondary School in Nigeria?

1.5        HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were formulated and tested for this study:

1. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on students‟ enrollment in Private Secondary Schools
2. There is no significant difference in the opinions of the stakeholders on the impact of funding on the general conditions of services of staff in private Secondary Schools.

3. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of financial contribution of parents, individuals, NGO and Government in the management of Private Secondary Schools
4. There is no significant difference in the response of stakeholders on the impact of delay in fees payment on planning of educational programmes and implementation in Private Secondary Schools
5. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on teachers‟ turnover in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria.
6. There is no significant difference in the opinion of stakeholders on the impact of funding on communication in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria.
7. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on staff development programmes in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria.
8. There is no significant difference in the response of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the provision of educational facilities in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria
9. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the welfare of students in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria
10. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding on the establishment of Private Boarding Schools in Nigeria
11. There is no significant difference in the opinions of stakeholders on the impact of funding and provision of security services in Private Secondary Schools in Nigeria.

1.6    Basic Assumptions

The following are the basic assumptions for this study:

1. That funding has a lot of influence on the management of private secondary schools in Nigeria.
2. That funding, especially from parents, determines the enrolment rate of students into private secondary schools in Nigeria
3. That funding has impact on the general conditions of service provided by the school management.
4. That funding to a large extend determines the attrition rate of the teachers in the school.
5. That parents, NGO and government financial contributions goes a long way to ease the management challenges of private secondaryschools in Nigeria.
6. That funding has impact on communication in Private secondary schools in Nigeria.
7. That funding has impact on the provision of educational facilities in Private secondary schools in Nigeria.
8. That funding impact on establishment of staff development programmes in Private secondary schools in Nigeria.
9. That funding has a huge impact on students‟ welfare programme in Private secondary schools in Nigeria.
10. That funding has impact on the operation of private boarding schools in Nigeria.
11. That funding has impact on the type of security services provided by private secondary schools in Nigeria.

1.7                Significance of the study

This study is very significant to the body of knowledge because, a search into the field of educational planning and administration reveals that not much work has been done in the area of funding in private schools generally. This study will contribute greatly into the ever growing and rich repertoire of educational administration and planning collection of literatures as a body of knowledge in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in particular and the nation in general. Secondly, the study is significant to all stakeholders in the operation of private school system in Nigeria, which include those who intend to establish one, those who patronize and those who are concerned with its administration and planning. This is because many people believe that opening of private school is a business venture and therefore, whoever is going into it should be able to finance it. Little did they know that if schools are to be handled for profit making purpose, very few people will be able to afford them, thereby making the purpose of giving education to the people defeated. The study will therefore, enable people to know how private schools in general and private secondary school in particular are been planned, available resources managed, and funds are generated to meet the needs. It will enable interested practitioner and those already in it to know that, though a little profit may be made from running a school like every other business venture, it is all the same not intended for profit making but to bridge the gap in the provision of qualitative education in Nigeria. Also, the study is significant to the government at federal, state and local levels because it will enable them to know how they can make the partnership they sought with the private individuals and corporate organization work in the area of administration of education in Nigeria. If the government wants to share the responsibility of sponsoring of education with the people, it has to empower people economically. If parents are gainfully employed, and they earn living wages, the responsibility of paying the school fees for their children education will not be a problem . The government also needs to know that you don‟t invite a person to partner with you on a particular issue and yet begin to impose stringent conditions on him. Such person can easily withdraw his interest or seek other means of survival in the relationship. This is applicable to school proprietors considering the several levies imposed on the in Nigeria. The government should know that the burden of these levies is eventually transferred to the parent.

Moreover, the study is significant to the proprietors because it will provide suggestions for them on other available means of sourcing for fund to run their schools.

Finally, the study is highly significant to the parents as it will enable them to appreciate the need to pay the school fees to enablethe school operate profitable and efficiently.

1.8        Scope of the study

The study is limited to funding of education at Private Secondary Schools in the thirty-six states of Nigeria, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, with particular emphasis on impact of funding on management process. Therefore the study will focus only on the stakeholders of private secondary schools. Also the study will focus only on the private secondary schools owned by private individual and not those owned by corporate organization, missionaries or Non-governmental organizations.