A STUDY ON THE PARENTS REASONS FOR SENDING THEIR CHILDREN TO LOWEST PERFORMING SECONDARY SCHOOLS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0     INTRODUCTION        

1.1     BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 

1.2     STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

1.3     OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY     

1.4     RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1.5     RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

1.6     SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

1.7     SCOPE OF THE STUDY

1.8     DELIMITATION OF THE STUDY

1.9     DEFINITION OF TERMS     

CHAPTER TWO

2.0     LITERATURE REVIEW

CHAPTER THREE

3.0     RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1     RESEARCH DESIGN

3.2     AREA OF STUDY

3.3     POPULATION OF THE STUDY

3.4     RESEARCH SAMPLE AND SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

3.5     INSTRUMENT FOR DATA COLLECTION

3.6     VALIDITY OF THE INSTRUMENT

3.7     METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION

3.8     METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0     DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0     SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION5.1     SUMMARY

5.2     CONCLUSION

5.3     RECOMMENDATIONS

REFRENCE

APPENDIX

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1     Background to the Study

The private education sector comprises of a great diversity of schools whose unifying feature is that all depend almost exclusively on school fees and private contribution to defray both recurrent and capital costs. History of education shows that to a large degree private schools have contributed to the common good of Nigeria society. The Nigerian economy cannot provide secondary school education to all of its qualified children/people. Without private schools there would be a heavy financial burden on tax payers to provide ample schools for all students (Davis 1999).

There are different conditions of enrolling for government secondary schools and private secondary schools in Nigeria, some parents decline the chance and instead register their children with private secondary schools. The academic performance of public secondary school varies very much i.e. some schools perform very well, some in the middle while others perform very poorly. Regulations for joining private secondary schools vary although most demand the completion of Primary School education.

Some of the schools use self-made tests and/or interviews as a mechanism of selecting students. The quality of the tests varies. Some schools have high quality tests that are intentionally geared towards identifying students with high mental ability and academic performance, thus selecting only the best students among those who attempted the test. The other condition that applies in most of these schools is the parents’ ability for payment required by school owners. Some schools owned by religious organization accept only students of their respective faiths while others accept students from other faiths. Some private schools are established for making profit while the vast majority of them are not – profit institutions (Davis 1999).  So, we can say that for most private secondary schools in Nigeria the main conditions for a student to be accepted are his/her academic ability and parents’ economic power. Academic performance of private schools and that of public schools is measured by West African Examination Council, The National Examination Council Ordinary/Advanced Level. Normally “O” Level examinations are attempted after three years of senior secondary school education and “A” Level examinations two years after “O” Level education.

Parents have chance of selecting private secondary school that is appropriate to their children. Rational choice theory which is also known as choice theory or rational action theory is a frame work for understanding and often formally, modeling, social and economic behavior. Rational choice theory informs most school choice plans. This theory suggests that parents are Utility maximizer who make decisions from clear value preferences based on calculations of the costs, benefits and probabilities of success of various options, that they are able to demand action effectively from local schools and teachers, and that they can be relied upon to pursue the best interests of their children (Fuller, 1996.,& Hatcher, 1998) The reasons for parents selecting a particular private school for their respective children are numerous. However one can conclude that most parents want their children to perform well at the end of respective level i.e. “O” Level or “A” Level. This being the case and the fact that secondary school overall examination performance is public knowledge one is perplexed on why parents send their children to very poorly performing private secondary schools, therefore this study intends to study the reasons why parents send their children to the lowest performing secondary.

1.2     Statement of the Problem

Parents choose to send their children to private schools for a variety of reasons, including the quality of education anticipated and their children’s preparation for the future (CAPE, 2008). While several quantitative researchers have noted the parents’ desire for a well-rounded education, to include academics, sports and social life, what has not yet been investigated are the reasons given by parents in qualitative studies (Kennedy, 2008). Private schools are fulfilling this desire by making every effort to ensure that their student population is racially, ethnically, and economically diverse (Kennedy, 2008). Although the financial requirements can be burdensome, private school parents make the commitment and sacrifices to provide the best possible education for their children. Researchers have noted that it was fairly common for families to make holiday and other luxury sacrifices to afford a private school education (Kennedy, 2008). There are numerous studies that cited parent satisfaction for choosing a private school education (CAPE, 2008). However, the research is less clear on detailing how and why parents chose private schools. Research has shown that parents want the opportunity to choose the schools that their children attend (Moe, 2001). This investigation explained why parents chose private schools and also understand the reasons parents chose to send their children to the lowest performing private schools.

1.3     Objectives of the Study

The main objectives of this study is to find out the why parents chose private schools. The purpose of this study is to understand the reasons parents chose to send their children to private schools, specifically the study intends to:

1.     Investigate the reasons for the parents sending their children to lowest performing private secondary schools.

2.     Find out the parents’ expectations on children’s academic performance in the lowest Performing private secondary schools

3.     Examine the effect of school type on the academic performance of student’s

1.4     Research Questions

1.     What are the reasons for the parents sending their children to lowest performing private secondary schools?

2.     What are parents’ expectations on children’s academic performance in the lowest Performing private secondary schools?

3.     Is there any effect of school type on the academic performance of student’s?

1.5     Research Hypothesis

Ho: there is no significant effect of school type on the academic performance of students

Hi: there is no significant effect of school type on the academic performance of students

1.6     Significance of the Study

The findings of this study is expected to find out reasons and expectation of parents sending their children to the lowest performing private secondary schools in which it fill the gap found from literature reviewed whereby many of these studies tried to explain the private secondary school in terms of their performance, way of enrollment and school fees. Also the finding from this study will help researchers in future to identify viable areas for further studies on the issue.

1.7     Scope of the Study

This research work will be conducted in Ogun state, Parents of private school students in Ado-Odo LGA will be sampled for this research.

1.8     Delimitation of the Study

Finance for the general research work will be a challenge during the course of study. Correspondents also might not be able to complete or willing to submit the questionnaires given to them.

However, it is believed that these constraints will be worked on by making the best use of the available materials and spending more than the necessary time in the research work. Therefore, it is strongly believed that despite these constraint, its effect on this research report will be minimal, thus, making the objective and significance of the study achievable.

1.9     Definition of Terms

Private schools: are secondary schools that are not administered by local state or national government thus they retain the right to select their students and are funded in whole or in partial by charging their student tuition rather than relying on mandatory taxation through public (government) funding.

School Academic performance: is the outcome of education, the extent to which a student, teacher or institution has achieved their educational goals and it is measured by examination or continues assessment (Annie,.Horward,.Stoker,& Mildred. 1996). In this study is the overall performance based on the certificate of secondary examination education result.

Lowest performing private secondary: school are those with poor performance in their certificate of secondary examination education (SSCE). In this study they refer to secondary schools that rank low compared to other schools

Parent: father or mother, one who begets or one who gives birth to or nurtures and raises a child. In this study parents have being characterized as guardian, single, or married couples.