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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1.            BACKGROUND OF STUDY

There is a rising awareness that Education (Western Education) has come to occupy a strong position in Nigerian daily life; as quite a lot depends on the quality of education that an individual receives. The type or extent of one’s education, many a time, determines the difference between success and failure in life, poverty and affluence and generally the opportunities and quality of life. According to Ekundayo (2010) a very special level of education which requires much attention is the Secondary level education. He defined it as the bridge between the primary and tertiary levels of education. It is a time when children are transacting from childhood to adulthood- often known as adolescence. This makes this period very important in child psychology because this level is seen as the cradle for youth empowerment and development (who are the future of any nation). According to Holsinger and Cowell (2000), without requisite education to guide the development of the adolescents, not only would they be ill- prepared for tertiary education or the workplace, but most importantly, they would be susceptible to juvenile delinquencies like cultism, militancy, teenage pregnancy, etc- thereby, exacting a high social cost. This as we can already see is not too far from what obtains with this section of the population in Nigeria today. The importance of secondary level education was also emphasized in the Nigerian National policy on Education (2004) by the federal government’s statement on the broad aims of secondary education as- preparation for useful living within the society and for higher education. The underline principle here is that aside from just preparing individuals for transition to higher education; for every Nigerian to be prepared for a “useful life within the society”, acquisition of secondary school education is a necessity.  It must be stressed that education cannot be an instrument par excellence for achieving national development if the rate of acquisition of secondary education by her citizens is not given due attention.

On the world stage, this level of education is usually provided by public and or private owned schools that are patronized by the public. Patronage here refers to the choice of persons to enroll with a school. The level of student patronage a school gets determines the population and invariably, the size of the school. In turn, the total student population of these schools determine the number of ‘secondary-level literate persons’ within the country; therefore, this makes the issue of secondary school patronage important to any society.

In Nigeria, secondary school education was provided by both the private and public sector till the 1970’s oil-boom era when all private schools were taken over by the government. . In 1979, according to Sanni (2009) “Free Education At All Level” was declared first in Southwestern Nigeria by its government which was later tried out in other parts of the country at various levels. The strategy adopted for secondary schools then, was ensuring that each student was posted to a school closest to his or her place of residence (Sanni, 2009). Determinants of patronage of these secondary school facilities in Nigeria then were therefore not given much attention in literature, as proximity to home formed the major criteria for student patronage. By the 1980s’ private investors were allowed back into the sector. According to the authority, the move was necessitated by three things: (i) the introduction of the World Bank induced Structural Adjustment program (SAP); (ii) the realization that the government does not have the wherewithal to provide quality education and (iii) the perceived falling standard of education provided in the public schools. Thus, we now have two types of secondary schools in Nigeria: public tuition-free and private fee-paying. Unlike the public secondary schools which are provided as public goods with emphasis on locating close to the expected catchment area, private secondary schools are  in most cases founded as economic ventures with the aim of maximizing economic returns to the proprietors. Some authorities have applauded the introduction of private schools alongside public schools as they say “competition is healthy” (Adebayo, 2009). Proponents of ‘school choice’ stress that the revitalization of education necessitates the creation of private alternatives alongside public schools,

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