Private Ownership and Educational Management In Nigeria: Issues and Challenges

Abstract

Management and administration of education in Nigeria by law is vested under the stable of the three tiers of government namely, federal, state and local governments on the concurrent list. Under both federal and state governments, respective ministries of education discharge administrative and professional duties while local governments oversee elementary education through the local government education authorities. Apart from the contributions of various tiers of government, the educational system has an ongoing boost arising from the efforts of entrepreneurs, teacher professional associations, governing councils of schools, advisory and consultative councils, publishers, manufacturers and community members at large. Even though the Nigerian educational system had experienced tremendous growth since independence, there has been a quantum leap in proprietorship of educational institutions in the past two decades. This paper, among other things, examines the antecedents of the Nigerian educational system with particular reference to the role of private ownership of educational institutions. Inhibiting factors against the health of human capacity efforts and suggestions for successful private initiatives in educational are also proffered. It is the thesis of this paper that since antecedentally, education has been privately initiated, government should concentrate more on providing requisite infrastructure and physical plant, while encouraging the private proprietors with less stringent registration conditions.

Keywords: Private ownership, educational management, entrepreneurship