Rethinking the Funding Paradigm for Secondary School Education in a Depressed Economy in Anambra State

Abstract

The toll of inflation on the economy with its attendant consequence on the purchasing power and further worsened by poor budgetary allocation to education sector by successive government in Anambra state requires that principals in the state should rethink their funding paradigm for secondary school education. It is for this reason that the researchers embarked on the study christened ‘rethinking the funding paradigm of secondary school education in a depressed economy in Anambra State’. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all the 263 registered public secondary school principals in Anambra state. Simple random sampling technique was used to draw a sample size of 105 respondents. A13-item questionnaire titled ‘’ Rethinking of secondary schools’ Funding Alternatives in a Depressed Economy (RPFADE)’’ was the instrument for data collection. The instrument was subjected to face validation by three experts from Faculty of Education, Delta State University, Abraka. Cronbach alpha method was used to ascertain the reliability of the instrument. The overall coefficient of 0.84 was obtained. The researchers with the help of two research assistants collected the data for the study. Mean was used to answer the research questions, while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that public secondary school Principals do not effectively utilize the non-statutory funding alternatives. Accordingly, it was recommended that principals should be sensitized on the need to be more creative and forward looking; and explore other funding alternatives other than the statutory allocations from the government.