COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE ORGANIZATION ON THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out in order to assess the management of human resource towards the achievement of public and private secondary schools comparatively in Niger State. It has been observed by the researcher that, recruitment of teachers for public secondary schools in Niger State happens to be the most suffered area of human resource, which may not be the same case with private secondary schools. Also public secondary schools teachers suffered late implementation of their promotions. Many parents today prefer to have their children schooling in private secondary schools than public ones. In addition to the meager salaries given to private secondary school teachers; yet private school managers do not release their staff for in-service training. The study was guided by six objectives which include: to compare recruitment process, find out staff training methods, assess motivation strategies, and determine staff discipline applied in public and private secondary schools in Niger State. A descriptive research survey design was adopted for the study. The 26,946 population constituted of zonal education officials, principals and teachers of public and private secondary schools out of which 378 was taken as sample size. A set of questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The six formulated hypotheses were tested by ANOVA. The finding revealed that the nature of recruitment for public teacher was influenced by god fatherism when compared with private schools. Private secondary schools authorities found difficulty in releasing their staff for study leave with pay. Public teachers suffered delay for the late implementation of their promotions, while private teachers received meager amount of salaries. Regular internal supervision is what fetches credit to private secondary schools in Niger State. It was therefore, recommended that, recruitment of teachers in public secondary schools should be based on merit without the influence of god fathers. The private secondary schools authorities should be given soft loan to their teachers who wish to go for in service training, distinguished senators and honourable members of Niger State should be encouraged to use 50% of their allowance to pay the outstanding promotions of public secondary schools teachers, people of authority in public sector should be mandated to have their children schooling in public secondary schools.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education stands as a solid foundation to the live of every individual, community and nation as a whole towards successful achievement in all facets of human endeavour. Education is a foundation for attaining economic, political and sustainable development; it therefore deserves effective human resource management as a key factor towards achieving of not only secondary schools objectives, but also including other levels of education in Niger State and Nigeria as a whole. Management entails getting work accomplished through coordinating human efforts. Ogunsaju (2000) in Saheed (2018) opined that, management is the organization and mobilization of all human and material resources in a particular system. This definition pointed out two important aspects which management shows concern upon; human and materials resources. Human Resources are the people who operate within the organization for goals achievement. They are the engine that drives the organization to a higher height. Human resource management is the overall management efforts geared towards deriving the best in people for productivity (Victor 2017).
Human resources play an indisputable significant role in maintaining and promoting quality education in the secondary school system. Teachers constitute not only the largest number of the employee in the education sector, but also stand as the backbone of human resource whose main duty is to facilitate learning in schools, helps learners to acquire knowledge, skills and inspire students to become useful citizens to the society as leaders of tomorrow . Furthermore, it is the management approach exposed to the teachers as human resource that determine their turn-up which pave way to achieving the desired academic performance of students across the subjects taught. These approaches refer to strategies such as recruitment, motivation, training, performance appraisal, discipline and supervision. When these, among others are well executed; there will be effectiveness and efficiency in attaining the objectives of secondary schools. The success of our education depends on trained staff. We cannot replace trained staff with any other type of instructional material (Hanif and Saba 2002) in Nakpodia (2010). The importance of staff in any educational system cannot be over-emphasized. This is because the quality of staff in any educational system determines to a great extent the quality of the system itself, and professional staff in particular is crucial to the formulation and successful implementation of education policies and programmes in any country (Nakpodia, 2010).
According to Alabi (2000), for the attainment of educational objectives in the schools, the right personnel must be secured, retained and developed. For this to happen, certain procedures and steps must be taken to provide the necessary services in the schools. These services include staff recruitment, staff training and development programmes, compensation and staff welfare, performance appraisals which could be used for the promotion, demotion, transfer, discipline, termination, dismissal and retirement of staff. The broad goals of secondary school education as clearly stated in the National Policy on Education, is to prepare the individual for useful living within the society and higher education. The policy also includes the specific eight objectives. These goals and objectives could not be actualized in a vacuum until when there is articulated human resource management. It is also contains in NPE section 12, under planning, administration and supervision of education that, “the success of any system of education hinges on proper planning, efficient administration and adequate financing. Administration is a function of organization and structure, proprietorship and control, inspection and supervision” (FRN 2004:55). This indicated that human resource must function through staff recruitment, motivation, training, performance appraisal, discipline and supervision. When these are put in place then, there will be achievement of secondary school objectives in both public and private education sector. This is exactly the idea of Nwafor and Nwafor (2012) that, the success of any educational programme depends, to a considerable extent on the availability and utilization of skilled manpower of all types and grades in the entire school system. Therefore, all the activities of any school system are initiated and determined by the persons who make-up the school.
Taking a cursory look into the starting point of western education in Nigeria, the system purely began as private enterprises by the Christian Missionaries in the Southern part of the country. Later on the Colonial Masters took over the control and it continuous after the independence. The standard of education of any country in the world largely depends on the standard of public schools. Over the years, public schools in Nigeria had demonstrated important role in providing and developing human resource which the state stands on. Abasi and Christopher (2013) discover that, in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s; public secondary schools were more popular, because they had discipline, good teachers and effective learning facilities. Funding of education by the government was recommendable; as the salaries of teachers were relatively good and paid on time. They were attended by students irrespective of their social class and socio-economic background. It is categorically stated in the NPE
(2004) the permission for the participation of private individuals into education enterprise.
This promulgation stimulated other entrepreneurs towards establishing more private schools comprised of nursery, primary, secondary and higher institutions as government alone cannot provide quantitative and qualitative education for the teeming population of Nigerian citizens to the appreciated level.
Niger State (The Power State) is a forty-five old, created from the defunct NorthWest State during the regime of General Murtala Ramat Muhammed on 3rd February 1976. Presently, the state is made up of twenty-five local government areas within the three senatorial political zones of A, B and C. Niger state is the largest in Nigeria with total land mass of 76,469.903 square kilometers (about 10% of the Nigeria land areas. It shares boarders to the North by Zamfara State, West by Kebbi State, South by Kogi, South-West by Kwara State, North-East by Kaduna, and South-East by Federal Capital Territory. The
State also has an international boundary with the Republic of Benin along Agwara and Borgu Local Government Areas to the North-West of the State.
As for 2006 population census it indicates the total number of 3,950,249. Predominantly, there are three major ethnic groups in the state which include Nupe, Gbagyi and Hausa. Others include Kadara, Koro, Baraba, Kakanda, Gana-Gana, Dibo, Kambari, Kamuku, Pangu, Dukkawa, Gwada, and Igwai. The majority of the people living therein are practicing Christianity and Islam as their major religions. Furthermore, 80% of the population in the state is farmers while 20% were engaged in other occupations such as civil service, business and craft and arts. The State is bearing “Power State ”due to the three hydroelectric power stations for the country at Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro. Some of the natural resources found in the state include gold, copper, iron, columbine, limestone among others. Among the tourist attractions include Zuma rock, Gurara falls, Baro Empire Hill, Lord Lugard Colonial Ruins at Zungeru, Nagwamatse Well and Kainji Lake National Park.
Sourced: www.nigerstate.gov.ng
1.2 Statement of the Problem
It has been observed by the researcher that recruitment of teachers for public secondary schools in Niger State happens to be the most suffered area of human resource. From observation, there is no replacement of the retired and dead teachers for the past ten years. This has resulted to over work load on the few remaining teachers in the service. This may not the same case with private secondary schools. It has been found from the records that as for 2018, total number of public secondary schools teachers reads 7,933, while private is 17,985 teachers (Niger State Ministry of Education, 2018). Furthermore, public secondary schools teachers‟ complaints were heard that, promotions are no longer implemented at regular interval. Many are waiting for double or more promotions they deserved. Annual increment and leave grants have become event of the past. This situation and more of its types had weakened the morale of teachers to discharge their duties. These days, public secondary schools have taken another dimension in such a way that many parents seemed no longer interested in public secondary schools due to their poor condition in terms of teaching and learning. That is why many public officers in the state such as the governor, commissioners, local government chairmen, lecturers, principals among others had their children in private schools.
In recent years, private secondary schools have grown up very fast in providing sound education for the ward and children of their customers. At this juncture, Prince (2009) found out that, the increasing loss of confidence in public education has stimulated the growth of private secondary schools, especially those who can afford to pay for their service. Furthermore, he presented five major strengths in the management of private schools such as academic performance, stability of academic calendar, discipline, students‟ attendance and high degree of efficiency and accountability. It is apparently known that public secondary schools teachers are more qualified than their private counterpart, yet many parents who can afford to pay for school fees prefer to have their children to be educated in private secondary schools.
From the experiences of the researcher, he learned that many public secondary schools teachers who were employed with NCE for ten years in service had their first degree today. Meaning that, they were released for in-service training with pay. On the other hand private secondary schools teachers could not have the opportunity from the private secondary authorities. They rather prefer to suspend the appointment and later on to continue after the completion of the programme if the teacher in question wishes to continue with the job, unlike their public secondary schools counterpart. Why releasing private secondary school teachers for in service training become farfetched?
Another bone of contention in secondary schools in Niger State today is the poor academic performance of students in internal and external examinations; where mass failures were recorded, especially in English and Mathematics and other Science subjects. For example, Saheed (2018) discovered that in 2012, out of 1,672,224 students that registered, only 38.8% (649,156) made five credits. In 2013, there was an increase with 64.26% (1,085,472) who made five credits. In 2014, thing fell apart again as only 529,425 representing 31.28% obtained five credit in English and Mathematics. It was the same story in 2015 as 616,370 candidates, representing 38.68% obtained five credits and above including English and Mathematics. Despite the above weak result, it is generally belief that students in private secondary schools performed better than their public counterpart..
The questions here is that, are there difference in the management of human resource between public and private secondary schools in Niger State? What are the staff recruitment process, motivation, training, performance appraisal, discipline and supervision practice in both public and private towards the achievement of secondary schools objectives in Niger State? In view of the above, this research seeks to examine the Comparative Assessment of Human Resource Management on the achievement of Public and Private Secondary Schools in Niger State Nigeria.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The study was set to achieve the following objectives:
- compare recruitment process in public and private secondary schools in Niger State;
- find out staff training methods in public and private secondary schools in Niger State;
- assess motivation strategies in public and private secondary schools in Niger State;
- determine staff discipline applied in public and private secondary schools in Niger State;
- identify staff supervision strategies maintained in public and private secondary schools in Niger State;
- examine staff performance appraisal strategies in public and private secondary schools in
Niger State;
1.4 Research Questions
The following questions were raised to guide the study:
- what is the recruitment process in public and private secondary schools in Niger
State?
- which are the staff training methods used in public and private secondary schools in
Niger State?
- in what ways are the motivational strategies contribute to job performance in public and private secondary schools in Niger State?
- which staff discipline methods are applied in public and private secondary schools in
Niger State?
- which are the staff supervision strategies maintained in public and private secondary schools in Niger State?
- which are the staff performance appraisal strategies adopted in public and private secondary schools in Niger State?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated in conducting the research:
HO1: There is no significant difference in the opinions of zonal education officials, principals and teachers on staff recruitment process in public and private secondary schools in Niger State.
HO2: There is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on staff training methods used in public and private of secondary schools in Niger State.
HO3: There is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on contributions of motivational strategies used in public and private secondary schools in Niger State.
HO4: There is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on staff discipline methods applied in public and private secondary schools in Niger State.
HO5: There is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on staff supervision strategies maintained in of public and private secondary schools in Niger State.
HO6: There is no significant difference in the opinions of respondents on staff appraisal performance strategies adopted in public and private secondary schools in Niger
State.
1.6 Basic Assumptions
This research work is in tandem with the following basic assumptions:
- It is expected that when recommended due process is followed in both public and private secondary schools for staff recruitment process, there will be qualified teachers in secondary schools in Niger State. It is assumed that if secondary schools teachers receive training at due course, they will do better in their duties which will ensure better students‟ academic performance in secondary schools in Niger State.
- It is basically assumed that when the staff of public and private secondary schools are well motivated there will be better job delivery among the staff of secondary schools in Niger State.
- It is assumed that if staff of secondary schools are well disciplined and toe the laid rules and regulations guiding the schools, there will be achievement of secondary schools objectives in Niger State, Nigeria.
- It is believed that when adequate supervision is paid on the duties of staff in public and private schools, there will be serious commitment of staff in secondary schools in Niger State.
- If the secondary school staff performance will be appraised at regular interval, then it is thought that there will be competition among the secondary schools staff in Niger State to have good record.
1.7 Significance of the Study
The outcome of the research under study is expected to be beneficial to the following stakeholders: Educational administrators and planners such as commissioner for education, who are in better position in making policies which influence both public and private secondary schools in the area of recruitment process, inspections and supervisions on the curriculum implementation. The study will assist state education policy makers and stake holders to restructure some of the existing human resource management especially during recruitment process by selecting the qualified applicants based on merit in both public and private secondary schools in Niger State. The principals of both public and private secondary schools may take the advantages of the identified area of concern in human resource management applicable to schools for better improvement of their duties especially, motivation, supervision and performance appraisal so as to ensure the attainment of secondary schools objectives in Niger State, Nigeria. The major findings and recommendations of the study will serve as reference material to future researchers for further investigation especially in areas of supervision, motivation, and discipline.
The proprietors managing private schools can find the product of this undertaking helpful towards improving their skills on human resource management for the achievement of secondary school objectives. The final approved copy of this research will be of use to quality assurance officers especially on supervision strategies to make sure that effective teaching and learning takes place in order to achieve the secondary school objectives. NonGovernment Organizations and other stake holders such as the parent could also intervene in funding some aspects of human resource management such as organizing symposiums, workshops and other forms of staff development and training.
1.8 Scope of the Study
This research work is geared towards assessing human resource management on the achievement of public and private secondary schools excluding the unity schools in Niger State, Nigeria. Hence, the focus of the study is restricted to educational administrators such as ministry of Education Officials, zonal education officials, principals and teachers as the major respondents. The study is out there to include all the junior and senior secondary schools recognized by the Niger State Ministry of Education and also the secondary schools across the seven educational zones in Niger State. Furthermore, the result of this finding may not be generalize to other public and private secondary schools from other states in terms of human resources management.
COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF HUMAN RESOURCE ORGANIZATION ON THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN NIGER STATE, NIGERIA