Abstract

This paper examined private sector participation in the provision of school facilities as predictor of quality education delivery in public secondary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria. The study was guided by three objectives, with corresponding research questions and null hypotheses. The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of this study comprised all the 6,893 teachers (i.e. 3,490 male and 3,403 female) of 291 public senior secondary schools in Rivers State. A proportionate stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select 1,378 teachers representing 20% of the entire population. Two instruments titled: Private Sector Participation in the Provision of School Facilities Scale (PSPPSFS) and Quality Education Delivery Scale (QEDS) were used for this study. Cronbach alpha reliability test was conducted to ascertain the reliability of the instruments, of which the reliability coefficients of Private Sector Participation in the Provision of School facilities Scale and Quality Education Delivery Scale were 0.87 and 0.81 respectively. The research question one and two were answered using simple regression, while research question three was answered with multiple regression. Consequently, t-test associated with simple regression was used to test hypotheses one and two, while ANOVA associated with multiple regression was used to test hypothesis three at 0.05 level of significance. The finding of the study showed that private sector participation in the provision of library and ICT facilities significantly predicted quality education delivery in public senior secondary schools in Rivers State to a low extent. Based on the finding, it was recommended among others that the government should create an enabling business environment for the smooth running of business for private sectors to produce optimally so as to facilitate the funding and provision of library facilities to schools for quality education delivery. Also, school management should solicit the help of the host community with a good conscience of education to seek funds and support from private sectors regarding the provision of ICT facilities.