CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
Education is basically targeted at producing
sensible, reasonable, refined and responsible being or a group of people either
for an individual or group development of either his/her self or the society. All
over the world, education has been discovered and accepted as the bedrock of
all-round developments of both human beings and their society. United Nations
Organization emphasizes the need to train every child in the world. Africa,
being one of the seventh continents in the world is trying her best despite the
facts that she has a lot of challenges everywhere. While Nigeria with the
population of about 170 million people knowing the importance of education, has
been running free education in some parts of the country for a very long time
(Ajodo, 2013). When the country, had regional governments, the western Region,
then governed by the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as the premier, ran free
education. Some states still run it till date. There have been clear dichotomy
between missionary owned/ran/governed/managed schools and the non-missionary
owned schools. A Church-sponsored school has been mainly identified as moral,
religion, intelligent, discipline etc aspects (Jaiye & Alaga, 2005).
However, this study is examining the impact of church administration on
effective management of church-sponsored school with focus on the Convenant
University, Ota.
In
Nigeria, there are Federal, States and privately owned universities. For
example, the first university in Nigeria, University of Ibadan was established
in 1948 by the colonial master. She was recently ranked as the best university,
in the country, followed by University of Lagos, University of Ilorin, Covenant
university and others. The first three are Federal Government owned
Universities, while the other and the fourth one, happens to be Covenant
university, that is owned by a church/ religion leader.
It
is believed by most people, that the involvement of church leaders in the
establishment of universities is basically to assist in the upbringing of
upright children who will be morally fit to live their lives and govern the
society well; help to reduce the observed long queue of students seeking admission,
enforcement of merit in the course of offering admission/employment of
personnel, considerable/moderate/affordable school fees etc simply because the
best hands in all the professional and non -professional careers that the
country had had till date have been products of missionaries schools.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
In Nigeria, Federal, States and Privately owned
institutions have some basic common problems among them, namely: lack of
fear/believe in God, Poor funding, inadequate staff and facilities (glorified
secondary schools), discrimination in the offering of employment of staff and
admission to students, living condition, labour organization, working
condition, wage level, opportunity for further education, deviation from the
norms of those days missionaries established and ownership of schools. Some
church owned schools in Nigeria has out-performed some government owned schools
in an excellent manner. This has increased the awareness and patronage for
church-sponsored schools in Nigeria. In the light of this, the researcher will
examine the impact of church administration on the effective management of
church-sponsored schools.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The following are the objectives of this study:
1. To
determine the prevalence of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.
2. To
examine the impact of church administration on the effective management of
church-sponsored schools.
3. To
examine the administrative performance of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. What
is the prevalence of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria?
2. What
is the impact of church administration on the effective management of
church-sponsored schools?
3. What
is the administrative performance of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria?
1.5 HYPOTHESIS
HO:
There is no significant impact of church administration on effective management
of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.
HA:
There is significant impact of church administration and effective management
of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The following are the significance of this study:
1. The
outcome of this study will educate the policy makers on education on the
effective management qualities of church management as demonstrated by the
performance of church-sponsored schools.
2. This
research will be a contribution to the body of literature in the area of the
effect of personality trait on student’s academic performance, thereby
constituting the empirical literature for future research in the subject area.
1.7 SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY
This study is limited to Covenant University, Ota.
This study will also cover the impact of church administration on the effective
management of church-sponsored schools
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the
efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature
or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire
and interview).
Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously
engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down
on the time devoted for the research work