Efficacy of Public and Private Partnership Initiatives in four Management Variables in Public Secondary Schools in North Central Nigeria

Efficacy of Public and Private Partnership Initiatives in four Management Variables in Public Secondary Schools in North Central Nigeria

EMAIKWU, Igoh Helen PhD* , OGWUCHE, Okewa Angelina PhD
Department of Educational Foundations & General Studies, Federal University of Agriculture, PMB 2373 Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria
Corresponding author*

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.7428

Received: 04 March 2023; Accepted: 01 April 2023; Published: 30 April 2023

ABSTRACT

The study focused on the efficacy of public and private partnership initiatives in four management variables in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. The study was guided by four research questions and four hypotheses. Survey research design was adopted for the study.  The population of the study was 44,342 academic staff from 1,656 public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. The sample for the study consisted of 396 respondents selected using Taro-Yamane formula and which were further made up of 66 principals, 66 vice principal academic, 66 vice principal administration, 66 deans of studies and 2 class teachers each in 66 (132) purposively sampled public secondary schools that are spread in four states of Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Plateau and Federal Capital Territory Abuja in North Central Nigeria. The sampling technique used in this study was multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire. The instrument consisted of a 24-item questionnaire developed by the researchers. The items of the instrument were validated by four experts in the area of Educational Administration and Planning and one expert in the area of Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha method. The reliability coefficient for the entire instrument was 0.87 which indicated that the instrument was reliable. The research questions posed in the study were descriptively answered using mean and standard deviation. The hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance using Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit statistic. The result indicated that public and private partnership initiatives have statistical significant positive effects on school management in the areas of provision of security, maintenance of students’ discipline and staff recruitment with effect size statistic of 44.9%, 67.6% and 62% respectively but, have no statistical significant positive effect in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools. Based on these results, it was recommended that there should be a continuous encouragement on the part of stakeholders in education for active private intervention in the provision of security, maintenance of students’ discipline and staff recruitment. The morale of the teachers should be enhanced through motivational strategies such as improved welfare, regular promotion and timely payment of salaries.

Keywords: Public and private partnership initiatives, Management variables, Public secondary schools, North Central Nigeria, School security, Students’ discipline, Teacher motivation and Staff recruitment

INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Education is a social investment that is shared by individuals, government, missionaries and other international agencies. Adequate funding and financial discipline are essential elements in school management as they foster schools’ development and achievement of set goals.  Funds are necessary to pay school staff, procure teaching and learning materials, construct school plant, and ensure that schools are able to provide quality education for all students as well as guarantee the care and safety of the school community.  For a school to be very productive and effective, adequate funding and other management variables such as provision of school facilities, staff development, instructional supervision, school security, students’ discipline, staff motivation and appropriate staff recruitment are very important.

One of the major problems of Nigerian educational system is that of yearly low budgetary allocation to educational sector which has hindered the sector from achieving its optimum objectives. The problem of inadequate finance might have resulted from the failure of Federal Government to implement the UNESCO recommendation of 26% budget benchmark allocation to educational sector (Ogubia, 2014). Educational sector in Nigeria for the past six years, has received the woeful percentage of 7.7% in 2015, 6.1% in 2016, 7.4% in 2017, 7.1% in 2018, 6.7% in 2020, 6.3% in 2021 of national budgets as against UNESCO recommendation of 26% national benchmark for developing country (Emaikwu, 2021). The growing incidence of inadequate funding in public secondary schools has left stakeholders in education helpless and this poses a great challenge to school management in Nigeria. Once there is an issue of inadequate funding in education, it affects all activities that go on in the school system and in turn, effective outcome is hampered. The problems associated with the decline in quality of public secondary school education are usually attributed to lack of government commitment in the provision of adequate facilities, scarcity of experienced teachers and obsolete equipment in educational sector. These factors combine together to hamper the quality of public secondary education in Nigeria. There is an indication that government alone cannot adequately fund education. It is against this ugly scenario that successive governments introduce various reforms towards improving the educational system.

It is an issue of concern that in many public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria, there are schools without enough classrooms; classrooms with insufficient chairs and tables; there are also many science schools without laboratories and laboratories without chemicals and apparatuses; there are equally schools without libraries and libraries with outdated books. In many schools, teachers are largely neglected and degraded, looked upon with pity or disdain and often denied their salaries for several months (Odigwe & Eluwa, 2013). The dearth of learning materials, insecurity, lack of staff motivation and professional development, students’ indiscipline, ineffective instructional supervision and inadequate facilities in schools have cast doubts about government’s ability to adequately handle the huge financial requirements in public secondary schools. The decay in public secondary schools may affect negatively, the teaching and learning thereby resulting in poor performances by students. Provision of education is perceived as the responsibility of government. Due to population explosion and increasing awareness about the benefits of education, it seems the demand for education is increasing to the point that government, religious organizations, private individuals and other corporate organizations have to combine resources towards the provision of educational services.

The ownership of educational institutions in Nigeria is between public and private sectors. The public sector refers to the government in three tiers namely Federal, State, and Local while the private sector is concerned with individuals, group of persons, organization, communities or missionary bodies coming together to establish and run educational institutions. The concept and practice of public and private initiative are recent developments as part of Nigerian Government reform agenda for the realization of the vision 2020 plan as set out by the then government of President Olusegun Obasanjo and it is aimed at improving the quality of performance of public enterprises through private investment in cash and kind especially where some tasks can be best performed by private bodies. According to the Bureau of Public Service Reforms (2016), the objectives of co-operation between government and the private sector in Nigeria (through PPPI) are set out as follows:

1. To fulfill sustainable funding requirements in the supply of infrastructure through mobilization of private sector funds.
2. To improve the quantity, quality, efficiency and sustainable delivery of services through healthy competition.
3. To improve the quality of management and maintenance in the supply of infrastructure.
4. To promote, co-ordinate and regulate the activities of the private sector agents.

The public and private partnership in the management of public secondary schools has been a central theme in secondary school reform in Nigeria. The call for private sector involvement in public secondary school management is due to the challenges faced by the management of the public secondary schools established by the government. In the context of this study, private sector participation in the management of public secondary schools is the involvement of individuals, organization or group in the provision of school security, students’ discipline, staff motivation and staff recruitment in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. The evidence of the strategic effect of public and private partnership initiative on the management of public secondary schools is still sketchy. There is therefore the need to ascertain the efficacy of public and private partnership initiatives in four management variables in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria.

Management is a meticulous process of planning and allocating human and material resources, directing and coordinating same to realize specific objectives (Idoko, 2015). Management of school entails engaging in various activities of school to efficiently deliver school function and provide better education experiences to students. School management is concerned with planning, organizing, coordinating, directing and controlling the various resources and segments of a school towards achieving the set goals of the school. Management involves harnessing all the available resources (money, men, material), channeling them appropriately, controlling, providing a conducive environment for their operations, and supervising them to ensure compliance with the school plans. It is a diverse activity which requires the cooperation and partnership of the various stakeholders in the school system for success. According to Daso (2013), school management variables include teacher quality, school resources available, teacher motivation and other incentive schemes offered in the school. Without ushering large amounts of resources and skills from government and private sectors, the challenge of providing and coordinating resources may not be met. There may therefore, be the need for public and private partnerships in management of public secondary schools, in order to help raise the resources needed.

Effective management of schools entails combining the characteristics of management attributes and directing them towards achieving the goals of education.  It requires provision of adequate funding, provision of school facilities, adequate staff development, discipline, adequate supervision, provision of adequate security in the school environment and staff motivation, which according to Daso (2013), are necessary ingredients for attaining the goals of education. These management attributes seem to be lacking in public secondary schools in the North Central Nigeria as evidenced in the poor academic performances, gross indiscipline, high school drop-out rate, examination malpractice, dilapidated or absence of required infrastructural facilities, and so on, as observed and reported by various stakeholders (Odigwe & Eluwa, 2013).  Therefore the management attributes seemingly essential in public secondary schools in the North-Central Nigeria in which this study would focus on school security, students’ discipline, staff motivation and staff recruitment are briefly explained in subsequent paragraphs.

The 1^st management attribute that would be of focus in this study is the provision of school security and it is a very important attribute of school management. Ensuring students’ and staff safety in schools has been part of the ethical framework for public secondary school management for decades.  Idoko (2015) maintains that school security is an issue that concerns many stakeholders in education including school managers, teachers, students, parents, the community, and government. Security and safety is a broad responsibility for all participants in the education process. In an effort to address security challenges in schools, partnerships could be established between schools and the other stakeholders through public and private partnership initiative in order to enhance security in public secondary schools.

The 2^nd management attribute that is very essential in the aspect of school management is students’ discipline. Discipline is concerned with doing according to the prescribed norms and standards of the society. Discipline involves self-control and restraint. Students’ discipline is a critical factor in maintaining a safe environment for students and staff. Disciplinary behaviours are the behaviours that run contrary to laid down rules and regulation of secondary schools. Several forms of indiscipline acts exist among the students in secondary schools. Some occurred within the classroom, some within the school premises, while some others are carried out outside the school premises. In a school system, Rosen (2015) distinguishes ten common types of disciplinary problems which include; defiance of school authority, class disruption, truancy, fighting, the use of profanity, damaging school property, dress code violations, theft, and leaving campus without permission. Public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria need to partner with stakeholders in their various communities that share the same interest in students’ success through public and private partnership initiative.

The 3^rd management attributes of concern in this study is motivation of teachers and is critical to students’ learning in the school system. According to Orji (2014), teacher motivation includes forces from within and external to the individual teacher, and comprises the needs, wants and desire which influence the teacher’s thought, leading to a positive change in behaviour towards improving learning. The needs, want and desires could be provided by the school management and other stakeholders in the community. There may be the need for collaboration with individuals and organizations through public and private partnership initiatives for provision of the teacher motivation factors in public secondary schools towards improved school performances.

The 4^th management attributes of concern in this study is staff recruitment. To ensure that the organization gets the right individuals at the right place and at the right time, the organization has to carry out the tasks of staff recruitment. Staff recruitment is the act of providing a large group of potential employees for managers to select the very qualified employees that they need. It is a process involving screening and short-listing of the right candidates for the vacant positions. In the processes of recruitment there are number of factors that need to be taken into consideration. These include educational qualifications, competencies, experience, personality traits, job expectations, and organizational goals (Kapur, 2017). Public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria could partner with stakeholders such as parent-teacher association in the hiring of extra staff in areas of need often referred to as PTA staff.

The main issue of concern is what can be done to improve the management of the public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria towards improving the performances of the schools in the area? It has been observed that in North Central Nigeria, there is a yawning gap in educational attainment, school quality, educational expenditure, and school enrolment (Eze, Okpala & Ogbodo, 2014).  This yawning gap has negative effects on the people of the zone. There is therefore, the need to take measures that could help to reduce poverty and ignorance through education by improving educational achievements which could be achieved through functional public and private partnership initiatives in the management of public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. There is an assumption that when the public and private sectors are involved in the management of public secondary schools, the schools may function properly. It is in the light of this, that this study was undertaken to determine efficacy of public and private partnership initiatives in four management variables in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. The study sought to determine the extent to which public and private partnership initiatives are effective in the areas of school security, students’ discipline, motivation of teachers and staff recruitment.

Research Questions

The following research questions were raised to guide the study

1. How effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools?
2. What is the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools?
3. How effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools?
4. What is the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools?

Research Hypotheses

The following hypotheses were formulated and were tested at 0.05% level of significance:

1. Public and private partnership initiatives do not have positive effect on school management in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools.
2. Public and private partnership initiatives do not have positive effect on school management in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools.
3. Public and private partnership initiatives do not have positive effect on school management in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools.
4. Public and private partnership initiatives do not have positive effect on school management in the area of Staff recruitment in public secondary schools.

REVIEW OF RELATED EMPIRICAL STUDIES

Akpam (2014) conducted a study on the influence of motivation of teachers and their incentives in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of motivation of teachers and their incentives on students’ academic performance in Biology in Ikot Ekpene Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. The finding revealed that teachers that are motivated teach more effectively in the classroom than those teachers that are not motivated at all. Bosompem, Kwarteng and Obeng-Mensah (2014) conducted a study on determinants of motivation of senior high school Agricultural Science teachers in the Central Region, Ghana. The purpose of the study was to examine the perceived levels of motivation and related variables of Agricultural Science teachers of selected Senior High Schools in Central Region of Ghana. The results showed perceived average levels of motivation, job satisfaction, supervision, recognition, promotion and involvement in goal setting among the teachers. However, they perceived low level of work conditions.

Mutinda (2015) carried out a study to investigate the role of Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) in management of public secondary school in Gatundu North, in Kenya.  It was clear from the findings that the PTA faced challenges related to staff personnel, school finance, staff recruitment, physical facilities and material resources, curriculum and instruction, students’ activities, and school community relations. Some of the strategies put in place to curb the identified challenges include; training and development, careful selection and recruitment processes, sourcing funds from different quarters, constant appraisal of teachers and effective communication. The study revealed that the appointments of PTA staff from among people of integrity and competence with a minimum requirement of university education would enhance teaching effectiveness. Orabueze (2016) conducted a study on management of security of human and material resources in tertiary institutions in Anambra State. The purpose of the study was to examine the level of security threats, its management and challenges to the management of security of human and material resources in tertiary institutions in Anambra State. The results showed that threats to life and property of staff and students are high. Challenges to effective maintenance of security in tertiary institutions in Anambra State include poorly-trained security staff, poor remuneration of security staff, and irregular maintenance of security gadgets.

Sakari (2017) conducted a study on public and private partnership in education: The role of Nzoia Sugar Company in the development of secondary schools in Bungoma County, Kenya. The purpose of the study was to investigate public and private partnership in education. The findings indicated that although the company has a corporate social responsibility policy towards education, very few secondary schools in its sugar belt have received support to set up physical facilities or repair and maintain infrastructure in the last five years.  Madumere-Obike and Obasi (2019) conducted a study on community involvement in the management and control of delinquency among adolescents in secondary schools in Imo State. Four research questions were posed to guide the study. Some of the findings were that parents are encouraged to visit the schools most of the times to check their children’s activities; school authorities ought to feel free to involve the parents in committees on school discipline, as well as use them as resource persons. The Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) ought to be used in fighting many acts of indiscipline amongst students so that teaching and learning can be enhanced. The study recommended a solid cooperation between the school and the community for the purpose of eliminating deviant behavior among students in secondary schools in Imo State.

Gutuza and Mapolisa (2020) carried out a study on the analysis of indiscipline amongst secondary school students in Nyanga District of Zimbabwe. The study revealed that if all secondary schools have qualified guidance counselors to deal with students’ behaviour problems and schools enforce school rules collaboratively and effectively using some critical stakeholders in the community, the issues of disciplinary behaviours would be reduced in public schools. Mohammed and Usman (2020) conducted a study on teachers’ perceptions on prevailing students’ indiscipline and the management techniques used by secondary school principals in handling students’ indiscipline in Bauchi metropolis. The findings of the study revealed that lateness, examination malpractice, absenteeism, indolence are the major prevailing discipline problems. The study also revealed that corporal punishment, invitation of parents, signing undertaking and dialogue, synergetic approach between teachers and parents through formidable PTA are very effective in dealing with disciplinary problems. Mkoga (2013) carried out a research on the impact of public and private partnership on quality education and the results of the study showed low level of motivation but however, revealed that public and private partnership could contributed to improving education through expansion of students’ access to schooling, delivering education to low-income families and financing school inputs. The study further revealed that salaries, attractive working conditions for teachers such as housing, electricity, water services, and other allowances could serve as a motivation however; these incentives were only visible in private schools where fees charged were very high.

METHODOLOGY

The design for this study was survey research design. The population of the study was 44,342 respondents made up principals, the vice principal academic, vice principal administration, dean of studies and class teachers some of whom  were PTA officials from 1,656 public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria as attached in appendix A. The sample for the study was 396 respondents drawn from the population using Taro-Yamane formula as attached in appendix B.

The sample was made up of 66 principals, 66 vice principal academic, 66 vice principal administration, 66 deans of studies and 2 class teachers each (132) they were disproportionately and purposefully selected from 66 public secondary schools that were spread in four states of Benue, Nasarawa, Kogi, Plateau and Federal Capital Territory Abuja in North Central Nigeria as attached in appendix C.

The sampling technique used in this study was multi-stage sampling procedure.  The instrument for data collection was a self-structured questionnaire. The instrument consisted of a 24-item questionnaire developed by the researchers. The questionnaire was a 4-point rating scale and anchored on the continuum of Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Disagree (DA), and Strongly (SD). The items of the instrument were validated by four experts in the area of Educational Administration and Planning and Measurement and Evaluation. The reliability of the instrument was computed using Cronbach Alpha method.  The reliability coefficients of the instrument using Cronbach Alpha method for clusters 1, 2, 3 and 4 were 0.80, 0.75, 0.77 and 0.84 respectively. The reliability coefficient for the entire instrument was 0.87 which indicates that the instrument is reliable. The research questions posed in this study were descriptively analyzed using mean and standard deviation.  Mean score and standard deviation were calculated for each item of the instrument. The cut-off point of 2.50 was used for decision making. A mean score of item above 2.50 was considered as an agreement with the item and a mean score below 2.50 was considered as a disagreement to the item. In this study, weighted mean was used to further classify the extent of effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the mean responses for clusters 1, 2, 3 and 4. Any item with a mean value of 3.50 to 4.00 was regarded as very effective (VE), and any item with a mean value of 2.50 to 3.49 would be regarded as moderately effective (ME), while any item with mean response of 1.50 to 2.49 was regarded as ineffective (IE), whereas any item with mean response of 0.50 to 1.49 was regarded as very ineffective (VIE). The hypotheses formulated were tested at 0.05 level of significance using inferential statistics of Chi-square test of goodness-of-fit. Since Chi-Square by itself provides no answer regarding the magnitude of the relation, there was the need to confirm how significant every obtained significant outcome of the hypothesis would be by calculating the effect size statistic for any result which yielded a significant result. The effect size statistic provides an indication of the magnitude of the significant result and this was given by the formula C = ,

According to Pallant (2011) as cited in Emaikwu (2021), for either R-1 or C-1 equal to 3, (four categories of response options) small effect size is when C value equals to 0.06 (6%); for medium effect size is when C is equal to 0.17 (17%); for large effect size, is when C is equal to 0.29 (29%)

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS

This section deals with the presentation of results of data analysis and discussion of findings based on the results of the study. The presentation follows the sequence of the research questions posed and the corresponding hypotheses that guided the study. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation.

Research question 1: How effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools?

To answer this research question, the responses of principals, vice principal academic, vice principal administration and class teachers on how effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools were collected, analyzed and their mean responses and standard deviation are presented in Table 1 using the responses to items 1-6 of the instrument.

Table 1: Mean and Standard Deviation on how effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools

KEY: Any item with mean response of; 3.50 to 4.00 =Very Effective (VE),  2.50 to 3.49 =Moderately Effective (ME),  to 2.49= Ineffective (IE),  0.50 to 1.49 = Very Ineffective (VIE).

The data presented in Table 1 showed that items 1-6 which focused on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools had item mean values of 3.08, 3.00, 3.09, 3.05, 2.71 and 2.62 with the corresponding standard deviation values of 0.99, 0.97, 0.88, 0.91, 0.75 and 0.87 respectively. From Table 1, the cluster mean and standard deviation are 2.93 and 0.90 respectively   On the basis of the criteria set for decision making, any item with a mean rating of 2.50 and above would be regarded as an acceptable medium of effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools. Based on this classification, all the six items in cluster 1 have mean values more than 2.50 in Table 1. In this study, weighted mean was also used to further classify the level of effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the mean responses for cluster 1. It was stated that any item with a mean value of 3.50 to 4.00 would be regarded as very effective (VE), and any item with a mean value of 2.50 to 3.49 would be regarded as moderately effective (ME), while any item with mean response of 1.50 to 2.49 would be regarded as ineffective (IE), whereas any item with mean response of 0.50 to 1.49 would be regarded as very ineffective (VIE). On the basis of this categorization, all the items were classified as being moderately effective (ME).  Table 1 also shows the ordered ranking of how effective the items in cluster 1 are with regard to public and private partnership initiatives in the area

of provision of security in public secondary schools in the North Central Nigeria.  From Table 1, the obtained observed frequencies are displayed in columns 3-6. To ascertain if the observed frequencies in columns 3-6 are statistically significant with respect to expected frequencies, the corresponding hypothesis 1 is tested using Chi-Square goodness–of–fit statistic and the result is displayed in Table 5.

Research question 2: What is the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools?

To answer this research question, the responses of principals, vice principal academic, vice principal administration and class teachers on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools were collected, analyzed and their mean responses and standard deviation are presented in Table 2 using the responses to items 7- 12 of the instrument.

Table 2: Mean and Standard Deviation on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools

 KEY: Any item with mean response of; 3.50 to 4.00 =Very Effective (VE),  2.50 to 3.49 =Moderately Effective (ME),  to 2.49= Ineffective (IE),  0.50 to 1.49 = Very Ineffective (VIE).

The data presented in Table 2 showed that items 31-36 which focused on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools had item mean values of 2.93, 3.02, 2.90, 3.24, 2.84 and 2.87 with the corresponding standard deviation values of 0.62, 0.57, 0.64, 0.77, 0.66 and 0.64 respectively. From Table 2, the cluster mean and standard deviation are 2.97 and 0.65 respectively   On the basis of the criteria set for decision making, any item with a mean rating of 2.50 and above would be regarded as an acceptable medium of effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools. Based on this classification, all the six items in cluster 2 have mean values more than 2.50 in Table 2. In this study, weighted mean was also used to further classify the level of effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the mean responses for cluster 2. It was stated that any item with a mean value of 3.50 to 4.00 would be regarded as very effective (VE), and any item with a mean value of 2.50 to 3.49 would be regarded as moderately effective (ME), while any item with mean response of 1.50 to 2.49 would be regarded as ineffective (IE), whereas any item with mean response of 0.50 to 1.49 would be regarded as very ineffective (VIE). On the basis of this categorization, all the items in Table 2 were classified as being moderately effective (ME).  Table 2 also shows the ordered ranking of how effective the items in cluster 2 are with regard to public and private partnership initiatives in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in the North Central Nigeria.  From Table 2, the obtained observed frequencies are displayed in columns 3-6. To ascertain if the observed frequencies in columns 3-6 are statistically significant with respect to expected frequencies, the corresponding hypothesis 2 is tested using Chi-Square goodness–of–fit statistic and the result is displayed in Table 6

Research question 3: How effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools?

To answer this research question, the responses of principals, vice principal academic, vice principal administration and class teachers on how effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools were analyzed and their mean responses and standard deviation are presented in Table 3 using the responses to items 13- 18 of the instrument.
Table 3: Mean and Standard Deviation on how effective is public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools

KEY: Any item with mean response of; 3.50 to 4.00 =Very Effective (VE),  2.50 to 3.49 =Moderately Effective (ME), 1.50 to 2.49= Ineffective (IE),  0.50 to 1.49 = Very Ineffective (VIE).

The data presented in Table 3 showed that items 13-18 which focused on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools had item mean values of 1.73, 2.49, 2.68, 2.01, 1.84 and 2.39 with the corresponding standard deviation values of 0.85, 0.86, 0.71, 0.93, 0.94 and 0.84 respectively. From Table 3, the cluster mean and standard deviation are 2.19 and 0.86 respectively   On the basis of the criteria set for decision making, any item with a mean rating of 2.50 and above would be regarded as an acceptable medium of effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools. Based on this classification, only one item in cluster 3 has mean value more than 2.50 in Table 3. In this study, weighted mean was also used to further classify the level of effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the mean responses for cluster 3. It was stated that any item with a mean value of 3.50 to 4.00 would be regarded as very effective (VE), and any item with a mean value of 2.50 to 3.49 would be regarded as moderately effective (ME), while any item with mean response of 1.50 to 2.49 would be regarded as ineffective (IE), whereas any item with mean response of 0.50 to 1.49 would be regarded as very ineffective (VIE). On the basis of this categorization, only two items in Table 3 were classified as being moderately effective (ME).  Table 3 also shows the ordered ranking of how effective the items in cluster 3 are with regard to public and private partnership initiatives in the area of motivation of teachers in public secondary schools in the North Central Nigeria.  From Table 3, the obtained observed frequencies are displayed in columns 3-6. To ascertain if the observed frequencies in columns 3-6 are statistically significant with respect to expected frequencies, the corresponding hypothesis 3 is tested using Chi-Square goodness–of–fit statistic and the result is displayed in Table 7

Research question 4: What is the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria?

To answer this research question, the responses of principals, vice principal academic, vice principal administration and class teachers on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria were collected, analyzed and their mean responses and standard deviation are presented in Table 4 using the responses to items 19- 24 of the instrument.

Table 4: Mean and Standard Deviation on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools

KEY: Any item with mean response of; 3.50 to 4.00 =Very Effective (VE),  2.50 to 3.49 =Moderately Effective (ME), 1.50    to 2.49= Ineffective (IE),  0.50 to 1.49 = Very Ineffective (VIE).

The data presented in Table 4 showed that items 19-24 which focused on the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools had item mean values of 3.19, 3.30, 3.36, 3.41, 3.02 and 3.14 with the corresponding standard deviation values of 0.81, 0.75, 0.70, 0.71, 0.60 and 0.63 respectively. From Table 4, the cluster mean and standard deviation are 3.24 and 0.70 respectively   On the basis of the criteria set for decision making, any item with a mean rating of 2.50 and above would be regarded as an acceptable medium of effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools. Based on this classification, all the items in cluster 4 have mean values more than 2.50 in Table 4. In this study, weighted mean was also used to further classify the level of effectiveness and ineffectiveness of the mean responses for cluster 8. It was stated earlier that any item with a mean value of 3.50 to 4.00 would be regarded as very effective (VE), and any item with a mean value of 2.50 to 3.49 would be regarded as moderately effective (ME), while any item with mean response of 1.50 to 2.49 would be regarded as ineffective (IE), whereas any item with mean response of 0.50 to 1.49 would be regarded as very ineffective (VIE). On the basis of this categorization, all the items in Table 4 were classified as being moderately effective (ME).  Table 4 also shows the ordered ranking of how effective the items in cluster 4 are with regard to public and private partnership initiatives in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools in the North Central Nigeria.  From Table 4, the obtained observed frequencies are displayed in columns 3-6. To ascertain if the observed frequencies in columns 3-6 are statistically significant with respect to expected frequencies, the corresponding hypothesis 4 is tested using Chi-Square goodness–of–fit statistic and the result is displayed in Table 8.

Test of hypotheses

The hypotheses formulated for the study were tested using Chi-square test of goodness- of -fit analysis at 0.05 level of significance.

Hypothesis 1: Public and private partnership initiatives do not have significant positive effect on school management in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools.

To test hypothesis 1, Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis is conducted at 0.05 level of significance and the result obtained is presented in Table 5.

Table 5: Chi-Square test of goodness-of-fit analysis of the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives on school management in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools.

N=Total Number of respondents, Fo= Observed frequency, Fe= Expected frequency df=degree of freedom, -cal= Chi-square calculated value, Asymp. Sig.= Asymptotic significance value under Chi-Square test of goodness-of-fit analysis, S=Significant result (Reject H₀), =  Alpha level= 0.05  

The result presented in Table 5 showed the Chi-square calculated value of 100.000^a, with 3 as the degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance, the asymptotic significance value under Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis yielded a P- value of 0.00. Based on decision rule, it was stated that wherever the p-value is less than -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be rejected whereas whenever the p-value would be greater than the -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be accepted. Since P-value of 0.00 is less than the -value of 0.05, this indicates that the test statistic is significant and hence the null hypothesis is rejected. This therefore implies that public and private partnership initiatives have positive effect on school management in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools. Since Chi-Square by itself provides no answer regarding the magnitude of the relation, there is the need to confirm how significant the outcome of this hypothesis is by calculating the effect size for this result which yielded a significant result. Effect size statistic provides an indication of the magnitude of the significant result. The procedure for calculating the effect size is by using the contingency coefficient formula given as

Coefficient Contingency, C =, and from Table 13, N=396 and _cal = 100.000

 So that contingency coefficient =√ (  (100.000)/(100.000 + 396) ) = 0.449= 0.449 and which when expressed in percentage is equal to 44.9%

Hypothesis 2: Public and private partnership initiatives do not have significant positive effect on school management in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools.

To test hypothesis 6, Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis is conducted at 0.05 level of significance and the result obtained is presented in Table 6.

Table 6: Chi-Square test of goodness-of-fit analysis of the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives on school management in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools.

The result presented in Table 6 showed the Chi-square calculated value of 333.677^a, with 3 as the degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance, the asymptotic significance value under Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis yielded a P- value of 0.00. Based on decision rule, it was stated that wherever the p-value is less than -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be rejected whereas whenever the p-value would be greater than the -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be accepted. Since P-value of 0.00 is less than the -value of 0.05, this indicates that the test statistic is significant and hence the null hypothesis is rejected. This therefore implies that public and private partnership initiatives have positive effect on school management in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools. Since Chi-Square by itself provides no answer regarding the magnitude of the relation, there is the need to confirm how significant the outcome of this hypothesis is by calculating the effect size for this result which yielded a significant result. Effect size statistic provides an indication of the magnitude of the significant result. The procedure for calculating the effect size is by using the contingency coefficient formula given as

Contingency Coefficient, C =, and from Table 14, N=396 and _cal = 333.677

 So that contingency coefficient =√ ((333.677 )/(333.677+ 396)) = 0.6762 and which when expressed in percentage is equal to 67.6%

Hypothesis 3: Public and private partnership initiatives do not have significant positive effect on school management in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools.

To test hypothesis 3, Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis is conducted at 0.05 level of significance and the result obtained is presented in Table 7.

Table 7: Chi-Square test of goodness-of-fit analysis of the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives on school management in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools.

The result presented in Table 7 showed the Chi-square calculated value of 1.838^a, with 3 as the degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance, the asymptotic significance value under Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis yielded a P- value of 0.607. Based on decision rule, it was stated that wherever the p-value is less than -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be rejected whereas whenever the p-value would be greater than the -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be accepted. Since P-value of 0.607 is not less than the -value of 0.05, this indicates that the test statistic is not significant and hence the null hypothesis is not rejected. This therefore implies that public and private partnership initiatives have no positive effect on school management in the area of staff motivation in public secondary schools. There is no need to carry out further test by the calculation of effect size statistic to determine the extent of the magnitude of how significant the outcome of this hypothesis is, since the obtained Chi-Square outcome did not produce significant result. Any observed physical difference between the observed frequency and expected frequency must have arisen from sampling error or any other variation in the study.

Hypothesis 4: Public and private partnership initiatives do not have significant positive effect on school management in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools.

To test hypothesis 4, Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis is conducted at 0.05 level of significance and the result obtained is presented in Table 8.

Table 8: Chi-Square test of goodness-of-fit analysis of the effectiveness of public and private partnership initiatives on school management in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools.

The result presented in Table 8 showed the Chi-square calculated value of 247.697^a, with 3 as the degree of freedom and at 0.05 level of significance, the asymptotic significance value under Chi-Square test of goodness- of -fit analysis yielded a P- value of 0.00. Based on decision rule, it was stated that wherever the p-value is less than -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be rejected whereas whenever the p-value would be greater than the -value of 0.05, the null hypothesis would be accepted. Since P-value of 0.00 is less than the -value of 0.05, this indicates that the test statistic is significant and hence the null hypothesis is rejected. This therefore implies that public and private partnership initiatives have positive effect on school management in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools. Since Chi-Square by itself provides no answer regarding the magnitude of the relation, there is the need to confirm how significant the outcome of this hypothesis is by calculating the effect size for this result which yielded a significant result. Effect size statistic provides an indication of the magnitude of the significant result. The procedure for calculating the effect size is by using the contingency coefficient formula given as

Contingency Coefficient, C =, and from Table 8, N=396 and _cal = 247.697

 So that contingency coefficient =√( (247.697)/(247.697+ 396) ) = 0.6203= 0.620 and which when expressed in percentage is equal to 62%.

DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

The outcome of the findings from research question one and hypothesis one indicate that public and private partnership initiatives have statistical significant positive effect on school management in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria with an effect size statistic of 44.9%. It was discovered that local vigilante groups or community organized watches are mobilized by private sector organizations to help in protecting school properties against being stolen; private sector assists the school in providing security to school properties and personnel through information gathering or sharing on security issues; public and private organizations assist in construction of a perimeter fence round the school and this gives protection to school personnel and properties. In addition, private organizations also donate security gadgets for use by the school security personnel and this helps in handling security challenges in the schools. This therefore indicates that public and private partnership initiatives exist and could be effective in school management in the area of provision of security in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. This result therefore supports the earlier findings by Orabueze (2016) who conducted a study on the management of security of human and material resources and the results showed that threats to life and property of staff and students are high and affirmed that since the members of the community are freer and more capable of interacting far and near, partnership with the community members through information gathering and dissemination on security issues could assist in promoting school security. A safe school environment promotes learning towards proper achievement of school set goals.

The outcome of the findings from research question two and hypothesis two indicate that public and private partnership initiatives have statistical significant positive effect on school management in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria with an effect size statistic of 67.6%. It was discovered that students’ indiscipline outside the school are often reported to school by community members for necessary action and this helps in molding students’ behaviour; the public and private sector organizations like PTA  takes the measure of maintaining discipline by supporting disciplinary measures put in place to enhance students’ discipline;  the school and community collaborate to provide technical assistance in dealing with students’ behaviour problems and this leads to students’ discipline; the school community has a formal process of obtaining parental input on policies related to students’ discipline and the input helps  schools in formulating disciplinary policies In addition, community members educate students informally about the values of discipline and this contributes to student’ orderliness in the school. The result therefore indicates that public and private partnership initiatives exist and could be effective in school management in the area of maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. This result therefore supports the earlier findings by Madumere-Obike and Obasi (2019) who conducted a study on community involvement in the management and control of delinquency among adolescents in secondary schools and the findings were that parents are encouraged to visit the schools most of the times to check their children’s activities; school authorities ought to feel free to involve the parents in committees on school discipline, as well as use them as resource persons. It was also discovered that Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) ought to be used in fighting many acts of indiscipline amongst students so that teaching and learning could be enhanced. The result also supports the findings by Ali, Dada, Isiaka, and Salmon (2019) who carried out a study on the types, causes and management of indiscipline acts among secondary school students and revealed that various acts of indiscipline were prevalent among secondary school students. The results equally revealed that the management styles of the school authorities have significant effect on the prevalent acts of indiscipline in the area, this is because the principals and the vice principals who employ a democratic style of leadership whereby other stakeholders were incorporated and co-opted in their management of entire school activities would easily handle disciplinary behaviours of students. The study further revealed that the process of managing students’ acts of indiscipline in schools requires a collaborative effort of private individuals, parents, teachers, security personnel and other stakeholders in the society. Moreover, behaviour modification techniques with public and private partnership initiatives are effective in managing unruly behaviours of the students as alternative to expulsion and corporal punishments.

The outcome of the study agrees with Gutuza and Mapolisa (2020) who carried out a study on the analysis of indiscipline amongst secondary school students in Zimbabwe and it was revealed that indiscipline in secondary schools was largely caused by peer group influence, lack of discipline at home and in school, irresponsible parents and guardians, use of drugs and alcohol, family problems, poor teacher-student relationships and failure of schools to effectively enforce school rules and regulations. The study further revealed that if all secondary schools have qualified guidance counselors to deal with students’ behaviour problems and schools enforce school rules collaboratively and effectively using some critical stakeholders in the community, the issues of disciplinary behaviours would be reduced in public schools. The study agrees partly with Mohammed and Usman (2020) who conducted a study on teachers’ perceptions on prevailing students’ indiscipline and the management techniques used by secondary school principals in handling students’ indiscipline and the findings of the study revealed that corporal punishment, invitation of parents, synergetic approach between teachers and parents through formidable PTA are very effective in dealing with disciplinary problems

The outcome of the findings from research question three and hypothesis three indicate that public and private partnership initiatives have no statistical significant positive effect on school management in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. There are indications that public and private partnership initiatives exist but not very effective in school management in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. This therefore implies that the level of teachers’ motivation is relatively low. This result supports the findings by Akpam (2014) who conducted the study on the influence of motivation of teachers and their incentives on students’ academic performance which revealed that teachers that are motivated teach more effectively in the classroom than those teachers that are not motivated at all. Similarly, supporting the outcome of this study is the report by Mkoga (2013) who carried out a research on the impact of public and private partnership on quality education and the results of the study showed low level of motivation but however, revealed that public and private partnership could contributed to improving education through expansion of students’ access to schooling, delivering education to low-income families and financing school inputs. The study further revealed that salaries, attractive working conditions for teachers such as housing, electricity, water services, and other allowances could serve as a motivation however; these incentives were only visible in private schools where fees charged were very high.

The outcome of the findings from research question four and hypothesis four indicate that public and private partnership initiatives have statistical significant positive effect on school management in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria with an effect size statistic of 62%. It was discovered that through public and private partnership initiatives, Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) donates money to school from time to time to help in payment of temporarily employed staff and this has positive effect on school management;  Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) assists in employing temporary teachers so as to augment the existing teachers; qualified alumni members could be employed to teach and this helps to increase the number of school staff. In addition, Parent-Teachers Association (PTA) levies members to hire teachers in the areas of need as this enhances good school management. The result indicates that public and private partnership initiatives exist and could be effective in school management in the area of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria. This result supports the earlier findings that public and private partnership initiative has significant influence on the enforcement of discipline in secondary schools as reported by Mutinda (2015) who carried out the study on the role of Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) in management of public secondary school in Gatundu, Kenya. The study revealed that the PTA and educational administrators ought to initiate projects and sustain new projects, rehabilitate dilapidated infrastructures and initiate professional development through staff training; it was necessary to create awareness of public and private partnership initiatives in the recruitment of extra staff. This study disagrees with Ekanem and Sule (2013) who conducted a study on public and private partnership strategies in transforming secondary education and the results showed that public and private partnership strategies were not used by principals for the attainment of Nigeria’s vision 20:2020. However, the study identified school-community relations as a strategy to be encouraged by school administrators to promote private participation for improved school support in the area of recruitment of PTA teachers.

CONCLUSION

Based on the findings of this study, it can be concluded that public and private partnership initiatives have significant positive effect on school management in the areas provision of security and maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria with effect size statistic of 44.9% and 67.6% respectively.

Moreover, it can also be concluded that public and private partnership initiatives have no significant positive effect on school management in the areas of teachers’ motivation but have significant positive effect on school management in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria with effect size statistic of 62%.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations are made:

1. Since it has been affirmed that public and private partnership initiatives have significant positive effects on school management in the areas of provision of security and maintenance of students’ discipline in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria, it therefore implies that efforts should continue be made by Governments to reduce the incidence of disciplinary problems of students to the barest minimum and also to enhance the provision of adequate security in public secondary schools. Security should be an issue of concern to every member of the society and the management of school security should not be left to school administrators alone. Community members and other stakeholders should be involved so as to increase staff confidence and students’ morale for optimum productivity in secondary schools.  The involvement could be in the area of information sharing and security-threat alerts in secondary schools in North Central Nigeria.
2. Based on the fact that the use of public and private partnership initiatives have proven not to have positive effect on school management in the areas of teachers’ motivation but have positive effect on school management in the area of staff recruitment in public secondary schools in North Central Nigeria, all public secondary schools should engage the services of public and private partnership initiatives so as to curtail the rising waves of low problem of teachers’ motivation in public secondary schools. The morale of the teachers should be enhanced by government through motivational strategies such as improved welfare, regular promotion, timely payment of salaries and other motivational welfare packages as this will promote better productivity and subsequently improve students’ performance in schools. Also quality teachers should continue to be recruited through the services of public and private partnership initiatives as this will enhance students’ performances in secondary schools in North Central Nigeria.

REFERENCES

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APPENDIX A:

Population Distribution of Secondary Schools According to States and FCT in North Central Nigeria

Source: State’s Ministries of Education, 2022

APPENDIX B:

Taro–Yamane formula given as

 Where n= the sample size required,

N = the population size which is 44342,

E = level of significance which is 0.05

n = 44342/({1+44342(0.05²)})

n = 44342/({1+110.855})

n = 44342/111.855

n = 396.4239

The required sample size from the population of 44342 using Taro-Yamane’s formula is 396

 APPENDIX C:

Disproportionate Sampling Distribution of Public Secondary Schools and Respondents According to 3 States and FCT in North Central Nigeria

Source:  Field work 2022