of
AdminiiiU'iiiOl'l.FllI
ISSN 0-795-220], VOL. 5 NO.2 - July 2005
SPECIAL iSSUE ON
PUBLIC/PRIVATE SCHOOL DlCHOTOM'.' iN NIGERIAN EDOCATiON SYSTEM
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U.~~~~"~--'I _
Published by
Nigerian Assocation for
Educational Administration and Planning
(NAEAP)
www.naeap.net
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
NJEAP \'01. 5. No.2 .Jut). 201)5210
A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE QUALITY OF THE MANAGERS, TEACHERS AND FACILITIES OF
PRlVATE AND PUBLIC PRIMARY SCHOOLS IN IBADAN, OYO STATE.
DR. A.O.U. ONUKA
Institute of Education
University of Ibadan
Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract
This paper compared the quality of private and public schools in lbadan in 0yo state. The sample for the
study comprised 15 randomly selected schools of each type across five of the eleven Local Government
Areas that make up lbadan. The findings of the study were that the management, at the personal
management characteristic level, in the public schools was more qualitative than in the private schools. In
addition, the private schools performed better in the area of school-imposed indicators of quality. These
same findings were true of the teacher quality indices. These differences between the two types of schools.
on the aggregate,' were discovered to be significant in favour of public schools in the quality of school
management and thai of teachers whereas it was in favour of private schools in terms of the quality of
infrastructure. However, neither of the two school types had absolute edge over the other in any of the three
quality variables of It-Ie study. Based on these findings, relevant recommendations were mClrip fi'!"
improvement of school irrespective of ownership.
Introduction
In Nigeria, private schools are all over the place and are competing favourably with public schools fOI PUt
These private schools are now found in every nook and cranny of Nigeria. It is observed that quite a lot,
parents now patronize private schools supposedly thinking that they are mo~ qualitative than public SCh00ls
(Arowojolu, 2004; Onuka and Arowojolu in press). Onuka (2004) quoted Oeji-Folutile as reporting low
enrolment in public schools, which Arowojolu (2004) ascribed to the assumed poor quality of public schools.
However, Adenegan, Yusuf and Sodipo (2004) found that the children of the core poor do not enroll in
private schools. Onuka (2004) posits that the bane of the quality of public education in Nigeria is poor
funding for which reasons many public schools seem to lack the necessary infrastructure, and thus quality
education. Onuka (2004), however, found that most private schools are not as qualitative as was being
assumed. He found trorn the study that the quality of staff in the private schools, in the main, is not better
than the quality of those in the public schools. It is observed that most private schools operate with less
educated staff than do the public schools.
He, nevertheless, discovered that productivity-wise, the private schools are more qualitative because of the
strict supervision and personal involvement of most of the proprietors in the daily administration of the
private schools. It must be noted, however, that the participation of the private/individual sector in the
Nigerian education SG8ne is not an aberration as the National Policy Education (1977) and all the revised
editions encourage private participation in the education enterprise. Section 15 (13) states this very clearly
thus:
Government welcomes the contribution of the Voluntary
Agencies, Communities as Private individuals in the
establishrnent and management of primary schools
alongside those provided by the state governments as
long as they meet the minimum standards laid down
by the fedr::ral government.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
NJEAP VoL 5. No.2 .led). 2005 211
Therefore, {tiere is no doubt that the private participation in the education enterprise is a welcome
development and of course not new but should be able to provide quality education as a challenge to the
public education player in ths field.
Abe (1999) lists the characteristics of quality education as including buildings that are conducive to learning,
adequate classrooms with good and adequate equipment such as seats, chairs, enough space and seats for
the teachers. Other indicators of quality education provision include sufficient quality libraries, furniture and
adequate and qualified teachers.
Afemikhe (2004) opines that only optimal quality inputs, process and output can lead to quality assurance in
education. Thus, all these three components of education must be of optimal quality, otherwise there cannot
be qualitative education, and education may therefore continue to be on the decline and people would
continue to view education in Nigeria as being on the decline. If, therefore, there are two key participants
namely the government anci the private individuals/ corporate bodies, they cannot but compete to outdo
each other in the provision of quality education. However, how far are these two bodies striving to provide
quality education at all levels particularly at the primary level which in the foundation of any good education
for the child?
Statement of the problem
This investigation, therefore, sought to find out the comparative level of the quality managers, teachers and
facilities/infrastructure in private and public primary schools in Ibadan, Oyo State of Nigeria.
Research Questions
The following research questions were examined:
1. What is the comparative level of the quality of the manager in private and public primary schools in
lbadan?
2. What is the comparative level of quality of teachers of private and public primary schools in Ibadan?
3. What is the comparative level of quality of facilities in private and public primary schools in Ibadan,
Oyo state? ~ J~
4. Is the expected quality of both public andprtlITary schools in Ibadan the same as the actual quality in
terms of managers, teachers and facilities?
The following hypothesis was tested:
H01: There is no significant difference between private and public primary schools in Ibadan with regard to
the aggregate management, teacher and infrastructural qualities.
Scope of the study
This study covers the old Ibadan municipality of Oyo State now Ibadan North, North - East, North - West,
South - West and South - East.
Methodology
Comparative descriptive type of research was employed for this study.
Sampling procedure and sample
Three schools of each type (private and public) were randomly selected after their stratification into private
and public schools. It was purposively decided that equal! number of schools was to be selected from each
LGA irrespective of quantity of schools in each LGA.
Instrumentation and Validation
A three-level 30-item (at four scale) observational-inventory was developed by the researcher. This
instrument was pilot-tested twice with the help of an Assistant. The pilot tests covered 30 private and public
schools in Akinyele and Ona - Ara Local Government Areas (LGA's) in the lesser Ibadan City. The reliability
test resulting from the pilot was 0.59. This exercise resulted in reducing the number uf items to 25. The two
pairs of data collected from this exercise by the two observers - the researcher and his assistant - were
analyzed ;o~ one inter-rater and two individual intra-rater correlation reliability coefficients using the
Spearman .:=lankCorrelation. The reliability\coefficient obtained from the inter-rater analysis was 0.73 while
the relia'.ility coefficients obtained from the two respective intra-rater analyses were 0.71 and 0.68
respectively.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
Data Collection
Two trained assistants, under the direction of the researcher, observed the quality of tacilities, teachers, and
managers in the 15 private and 1fi public primary schools by verifying physically the managers' quality,
teacher quality and infrastructurai facilities in each of the thirty schools employing the instrument for the
study. This also involves scrutinizinq school records.
Data Analysis
The data on the comparative quality of the public and private schools in Ibadan of Oyo State, collected with
the observational - inventory instrument, was analyzed using percentages and graphs. The four-point levels
on the instrument for each item were collapsed into two categories of 'adequate' and 'inadequate'. The
frequency for each category per item for each type of school was converted to percentage and chi-square.
T-test was also used. .
Results and Discussion
Table 1: Showing the percentages of the observed quality of private and public schools in Ibadan,
Oyo state (nearest whole number)
_7~=~=~'~~~==,.,·~~~~
SIN Quality of school Private Public
manager
_._---_ __ .._-------_. - ---- % Adequate % Inadequate % Adequate % InadequC3..!~...
1. Qualification 40 60 80 20
2. Years of experience 20 80 80 20
3. No. of management 13 87 60 40
courses/seminars attended
4. Administrative experience 27.5 72.5 67 33
5. Supervisory role 73 27 43 57
6. Staff welfare level 53 47 67 33
7. Level of general knowledge 20 80 57 43
(versatility)
B
~~~"~~~~'~~.~~~~
SIN Teacher quality Private Public
%Adequate % Inadequate %Ade~~!..~. % Inadeguate
8. Teacher's qualification 43 57 93 7
9. Teacher's experience 40 60 87 13
10. Teacher's punctuality 80 20 53 47
11. Teacher's regularity 87 13 67 33
12. Teacher's work effectiveness 93 7 53 47
13. Teacher's work efficiency 43 57 60 40
14. Teacher's attendance at 33 67 20 80
seminar
15. Teacher teaching appropriate 43 57 13 87
____ "~utjec~_~ •._."._, _"'"__ ,, _
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NJEAP VoL 5. No. ~hi1:. 20(15 213
c
~·s;~_.·__.~,~~~.~ -=Oi<-".o.:..A.:..:.d.c:e-,q",U.:..:.a.:..:.te.:..Ipn_~r;_~iV~~_~a~--:-t.~et;o %AdeqUat:UbliC% In?d~:~ate
16. Adequate number of blocks 20 80 93 7
17. Ouality of bl'ildings 40 60 40 60
18. The environment 40 63 100
19. Sports facilities 27 73 73 27
20. Laboratory 53 47 100
21. Furniture 87 13 60 40
22. Instructional materials 73 27 33 67
23. Library 67 33 27 73
24. Library attendant 27 73 100
25. Nursery playground/ n 53 100
facilities
Years of experience- Very Adequate = 15 years and above,
Adequate = 8-14 years
Not adequate = below 8 years.
Administrative experience Very Adequate = 7 years and above
Adequate = 4-6 years
Inadequate = below 4 years
In terms of infrastructural quality, the private schools are ahead of their public counterparts in the areas of
quality of buildings, laboratory, quality furniture, instructional materials, library, having library attendant and
nursery facilities while in the areas of sports facilities, serene and quality environment and adequate number
of buildinqs, the contrary ~ the case.
The three tables and ::! graphs show clearly that none of the two sectors possesses absolute quality above
the other. The quality of the school management sector in the private sector was found to have possessed
better quality over the public sector only in the areas of supervisory role (73.0%) as against 4:3% in favour of
the public sector. It could be seen that the close supervisory role played by the private school managers,
. probably due to the fact that the proprietors are often the managers of the privately-owned schools, makes
them to personally supervise the daily running of the schools. This is because their primary aim for setting
up the schools IS to make profit, and it is only good level of supervision that can make the teachers work for
what they are paid. This confirms the finding of Arowojolu (2004) that parents patronize private schools in
Abeokuta because they are sure that the proprietors pay personal attention to the running of their schools
because they have personal stake, anc the success of their schools will keep them in business and give
them profit (Onuka, 20(4). This finding contradicts the view of Abe (1999) on quality of education. The public
schools excelled over the private schools in the following identified areas of school managers/management
quality and manager's qualifications. This implies that in Ibadan, the public schools have better qualified
teachers as the least qualified teachers are Grade II teachers. Most of the teachers .in public schools in
ibadan either possess the Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) or are currently running the course via the
Distance Learning ProQdmrne of the National Teachers' Institute (NTI). This finding did not conform to the
finding of Arowojolu (2004) that the quality of teachers attracted the patronage of parents to private schools.
Eighty percent (80%) of the managers had NCE while the remaining 20% were already attending relevant
courses to qualify them for the NCE.
However, only a fraction of private school managers are trained managers. They come from various
professional backgrounds but qualify because they possess the wherewithal to own schools. This finding
does not conform to tile National Policy on Education (2004) that envisaged adequately qualified managers
for schools. This implies that these owners/rnanaqers would really do all the necessary management except
to act like slave drivE7(sprobably to get results in terms of pupil population and profit with seenunqly 'good'
results in pupil achievement which may not necessarily be the reality as sooner than later the deficiencies of
the system beo::ome t"'''e3-led. It also shows that proper evaluation/mspection might not have been carried
out before approval is given to proprietors to run schools.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
NJEAP Yol. 5. No.2 lul). 2'h15 214
The public schools lead in the areas of Qualification (80%), year of experience (80%). management
seminars/courses attended (60%), administrative experience (67%), staff welfare level (43%), versatility in
education (57%) as against ttle private schools (40%, 20%, 13%, 27%, 53% and 20% respectively). The
implication of this is that it the private sector performed better, it is not because of better quality of
management, but be .ause of quality of commitment to duty, by these owners/managers of private schools.
It, however, confirms the findings of Onuka (2004) in another study carried out in Ibadan metropolis that the
level of rnanaperneru education of the private school managers was low and that the level of their
participation in management seminars/workshops was also low. Also found low was the years of both post-
qualification and administrative experience. This leads to the conclusion in nearly absolute terms that the
public schools surpassed the private schools in the area of quality of school managers.
In terms of quality of teachers, the following findings were made:
Table 2
SIN Teacher Quality _ c-- ~P~r~iv.:.:a.:.:t=e _':_P=u:.::::b~li:.::::c .
1. Teacher's qualification 43% r.j3°/~*
2. Teacher's experience 40% 87% *
3. Teacher's punctuality 80% 53%
4. Teacher's regularity 87% 67%
5. Teacher's work effectiveness 93% 57%
6. Teacher's work efficiency 43% 60% *
7. Teacher's attendance at seminars 33% 20%
8. Teacher's teach~. a£1Jropriatesubjects 43% 13%
*Attributes in which the public sector excels.
Of eight characteristics of teacher quality, the private schools excelled in five characteristics (punctuality,
regularity, work effectiveness, attendance at seminar, and teaching appropriate subject). The implication of
these areas in which the private schools excelled is that they are not teacher's personal attributes but those
imposed by the work environment..
The meaning of this is that the personal touch in the daily administration of school imposed some
quality on the system to make it qualitative. Thus, it is possible to impose qualities which are not inherent in
operators on them to make the system work effectively. These findings confirm those of Arowojolu (2004) in
the same direction, which led to parent's patronage of private schools. We can thus infer that a system,
which does not possess all the necessary ingredients to make it work, can be made to work if the will and
commitment are there.
In the area of infrastructural/facility quality, the public schools excelled in the areas of adequacy of
school buildings and number of blocks (93%) as against 20% for the private sector. In terms of quality of
buildings, they both scored 40%. The reason is that while the government provides buildings in sufficient
quantum and in large land areas, most private school owners not only convert residential houses to schools,
their schools are mostly situated in residential areas. In addition, they cannot build many blocks of
classrooms because of financial limitation. It becomes important, therefore, that the government must have
policy in place as in the banking sector to control. quality of private schools and also ban the use of
residential areas for schools if the purposes of education are to be achieved. These aspects of the findings
conform to the findings of Arowojolu (2004).
The following table shows the X2 of difference in quality between public and private schools in
Ibadan.
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
NJEAP Vl,1 'i. No, 2 .July. 2005 215
Table 3
X2 Comparison of expected and actual of public and private school qualities in terms of managers,
teachers and facilities
Variable X2 obs X2 crit. Cramer's V Level of
Significance
'Juality of 127.6·-(-P-u-b--.--3)-1-.6-1-(P-u-,-b-:-lic--,-)----0-.-6-9·------ 0.02
Managers 112.7(Private) 29.01(Pte) 0.57
Quality of 345.07(Pub.) 34.08(Pub.) 0.63· 0.02
Teachers 2B9.06(Pte) 31.81(Pte)
Quality of Facilities 224.2(Pub) 5~.05(Pub) 0.65·· 0.02
__ 235 01(pte) 61.00(Pte) 0.51
'in favour of public school·· in favour of private school
The table above that there is significant difference in quality of managers, teachers and infrastructural
facilities of private and public schools in the five LGA's in Ibadan municipality. In terms of the quality of
managers and teachers, the public schools excelled in principle, because the government absolve all
qualified manpower as far as the vacancies exist, whereas ttle private owners wanting to make as much
profit as possible, this contradicts the finding of Arowojolu a(2004) about the high quality in private schools.
However, whsn it comes to supervision and diligence the private schools excelled. In terms of infrastructural
facilities the private schools on the aggregate are shoulders high above their public counterparts thus
confirming H18position of ASUU (Fashina, 2005) that government educational institutions are grossly under-
funded and the finding of Arowojolu (2004) that the quality of private schools attracted patronage to them.
The hypothesis was tested as follows:
Table 4: t- test: Private and Public Schools compared in quality of managers, teachers and facilities.
Variable School type N Mean SD t-obs t-crlt Level of
significance
Quality of managers Public 105 45.5 7.8 3.12 2.01 0.02
Private 105 31.8 5.1
Quality of teachers Public 120 47.1 6.8 5.91 4.3 0.01
Private 120 57.3 8.9
Quality of Faciliti8s Public 150 35.0 6.1 4.231 2.119 0.01
Private 150 38.2 8.3
From the above table, the t-observed is greater than t-critical, thus the hypothesis of no significant
difference is rejected because there is a significant difference in the quality of school managers between the
public and private schools. This result confirms the earlier finding that the mean school manager quality was
higher in public schools particularly in the region of personal qualities like experience and qualification
among others. Tr18 reasons that can be adduced for this development are that government participation in
education had been stable over time and S0 its members of staff are recruited on the basis of quality, the
government or public schools are also prepared to pay some reasonable remuneration while the case is the
opposite in the private school segment of the study. As a result of the stable government participation in the
education' enterprise, staff gain much experience before assuming managerial positions.
The lliftetenC8 in teacher quality between the private and public schools is significant in favour of
the former. The quality of· the private schools is rather not in terms of teacher's personal qualities but in
terms of environmental management-imposed qualities. In the area of personal qualities, the public school
teachers are better as earlier adduced in the case of school managers.
This table presents the t-test comparison of the quality of facilities in public and private schools. It
shows there is a significant difference in the quality of facilities in public and
private schools in favour of the latter especially in six of the ten identified indicators of facility
-qualities. The ~6nEHalimplication is that both the government and the private schools must be properly
equ.ppec so as to elevate the status of the managers particularly in the private schools; qualified teachers
sho··.:dbe ernployed in the private sector to improve teaching as management-imposed qualities only cannot
UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN LIBRARY
NJEAP \'ol.~. t;o. 2 .July. 2005 216
fully achieve the desireo end. In fact, government should set up a regulatory body for the private schools at
the state and local government levels.
Conclusion and recommendations
The co-existence of private and public schools has come to stay as this promotes healthy
competition, which is likely to lead to improvement in the standard of education being provided as this level,
which basically is the foundation of education and life-long learning. Thus the following recommendations
i'!aore were made: The influx of private schools into the primary education sub-sector of the education
enterprise calls for the setting up of a regulatory body for private schools to ensure minimum acceptable
conditions for owning and operating private schools.
The regulatory body, when set up, should ensure that rules and requlations are put in place to guide
the establishment of new private schools. In fact, the education sector should emulate the banking sector
whereby some minimum amount of money must be set aside for capitalization and re-capitalization. The
organized private sector (OPS) should be encouraged to participate in a large-scale across local
governments which will make education at that level more qualitative as a result of an increased level of
competition. Private schools owners should be given deadline to relocate their schools to more conducive
environment wherever they are located in residential areas. Specification of types of buildings to be used as
schools should be given to prospective owners before they commence the building of their schools.
The public schools should improve in the area of supervision, discipline and provision of the
appropriate facilities to engender learning. Such facilities should include library, laboratory, the quality of
buildings and better furniture. These measures, if taken, are sure to improve schooling at that level of
education in the Local Government Area.
References
Abe, C.V. (1999). Educational Evaluation and Quality Control in Secondary Education in Nigeria. In
Obemeata, J.O; Ayodele, S.O and Ararorni, M.A (Eds) Evaluation in Africa in Honour
FA, Yoloye. Ibadan: Stirling-Horden Publishers (Nig) Ltd (pp. 122-128)
Adenegan, K.O., Yusuf, KA & Sodipo, MA (2004). Government Expenditure on Nigerian Primary School
Education: Benefit Incidence Approach in African journal of Educational Planning and policy Studies,
J:1 (D3-94).
Afemikhe, OA (2004). Quality Assurance in Teacher Education in Nigeria: Reflections of an Evaluator. In
Afemikhe, O.A. and Adewale, J.G. (Eds): Issues in Educational and Evaluation in Nigeria in Honour of
Wole :=alayajo.
Arowojolu, A.F. (2004). Factors Determining Parents Patronage of Private Primary Schools in Abeokuta. An
M.Ed. Dissertation at the Institute Of Education, University of Ibadan (Unpublished).
Fashina, 0 (2005). History and Struggles of ASUU in The National Schola December, 2005. 5 (7).4-
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Federal Ministry of Education (1977). National Policy in Education. Lagos: NERDC Press.
Federal Republic of Nigeria (2004). National Policy on Education. 4th Edition. Yaba,Lagos: NERDC Press
Onuka, AOU (2004). The Quality of Private Schools in Nigeria: How Fair? A Paper Presented at the 2004
National Conference of Nigeria Association of Educational Administration and Planning held at the
University of Jos, Nigeria (Sept. 27-30, 2004)
Onuka, A.O.U. &Arowojolu, A.F. (In Press). An Evaluation of Parents' Patronage of Private Primary Schools
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