Analysis of the factors influencing the private cost of teacher education in South-South Nigeria

Abstract

The study analyzed the factors that influence private cost of teacher education in public tertiary institutions in South-South Nigeria in 2014/2015 academic session. The aim was to determine the actual private unit cost of teacher education as well as the factors influencing it and their level of impact on private cost. The ex-post-facto research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of all federal and state tertiary institutions offering teacher education programme. The sample was 2030 respondents drawn from twelve out of the twenty such institutions in the South-South Nigeria using the purposive and proportional stratified random sampling techniques. The instrument used was an inventory titled (PCTEI) which was duly validated. The research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while the hypotheses were analyzed using the z-test for independent samples and multiple regression statistics at 0.05 level of significance. It was discovered that private cost of teacher education was higher in state tertiary institutions than their federal counterparts, while the private cost of university students was higher than the college of education counterparts. The study also revealed that factors such as type of institutions, gender, programme of study, level of study, place of students’ residence and ownership status of institutions influence private cost. The study further revealed that the type of programme had a greater influence on the private cost than the other factors, while the programme of study made the least impact. Consequently, it was recommended among others that bursary awards, increased accommodation facilities and functional libraries be provided for students especially in state owned institutions to ameliorate their private cost burden.