Internal Efficiency of Public and Private Junior Secondary Schools in Ekiti State

Abstract

This study investigated the internal efficiency of private and public secondary schools in Ekiti State from 2005/2006 to 2007/2008 academic session. The objective of the study was to identify the relationship between internal efficiency of Junior Secondary Schools in Ekiti State and variables like class size, school size, teachers’ qualification and student-teacher ratio (STR). The ex-post factor research design was used for the study. The sample size consisted of 30 public and 20 private schools in the state selected through purposive and proportional stratified random sampling techniques. The research instrument used to collect data was a validated inventory titled “Data on School Records and Students”. True cohort method was used to determine the wastage ratio and consequently the coefficient of efficiency of 30 public and 20 private secondary schools in Ekiti State. T-test and Multiple Regression Statistic were used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was discovered that private junior secondary schools have higher wastage rates than public secondary schools in Ekiti State. Specifically, the findings showed a higher percentage of dropouts in private junior secondary schools during the period of study. The coefficient of efficiency for public schools was therefore 90% while it was 73% in the private secondary schools in Ekiti State. This shows that both public and private secondary schools in Ekiti State were fairly internally efficient. However, public schools were more internally efficient than private schools. In the light of the findings, it was recommended that both private and public schools in Ekiti State should improve in the areas that constituted to high wastage rates, especially in private schools that had higher wastage ratio and work towards a perfect internal efficiency. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n5s1p154