Disparities in public and private pre-primary and primary schools’ enrolments, classrooms and teachers in Nigeria: Implications for access and educational management

Abstract

School enrolment figures, number of classrooms and teachers are important statistical data essential for educational planning; their disparities in public and private pre-primary and primary schools should be equally reflected in the plan. Moreover, experience of educational sector and operational planning just concluded in Bauchi, Jigawa and Niger states of Nigeria with 2005/2006 as baseline academic year gave impetus to the study. Three research questions guided the study. A pool of secondary source data from the Federal Ministry of Education (FME) was organized and analyzed using descriptive statistics. Among other things, the private sector contributed 7.71% of total enrolments for pre-primary and primary  schools; gender disparity in enrolments between public and private schools was not so pronounced at both levels; pupil class ratio (pcr) was 112.50 for public schools and 43.27 for private schools; there was not much disparity between number of male and female teachers in public schools (52.20% male and 47.80 female); but there was wide disparity between number of male and female teachers in private schools (35. 19% male and 64.81% female) . It was recommended that the private sector be encouraged to establish more schools to increase access to education; more incentives to be provided for school age girls especially in the North to increase their enrolments; more classroom blocks should be built -247- in public schools to reduce the high pcr, and male teachers to be encouraged to take up teaching as a career especially in the private schools where they constitute only 35. 19% of the teaching force.

Keywords: Public, Private, Schools, Disparities, Enrolment, Teachers.