IMPACT OF CHURCH ADMINISTRATION ON EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF CHURCH SPONSORED SCHOOLS (A case study of Covenant University, Ota)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1   BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Education is basically targeted at producing sensible, reasonable, refined and responsible being or a group of people either for an individual or group development of either his/her self or the society. All over the world, education has been discovered and accepted as the bedrock of all-round developments of both human beings and their society. United Nations Organization emphasizes the need to train every child in the world. Africa, being one of the seventh continents in the world is trying her best despite the facts that she has a lot of challenges everywhere.While Nigeria with the population of about 170 million people knowing the importance of education, has been running free education in some parts of the country for a very long time (Ajodo, 2013). When the country, had regional governments, the western Region, then governed by the late sage Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as the premier, ran free education. Some states still run it till date. There have been clear dichotomy between missionary owned/ran/governed/managed schools and the non-missionary owned schools. A Church-sponsored school has been mainly identified as moral, religion, intelligent, discipline etc aspects (Jaiye & Alaga, 2005). However, this study is examining the impact of church administration on effective management of church-sponsored school with focus on the Convenant University, Ota.

In Nigeria, there are Federal, States and privately owned universities. For example, the first university in Nigeria, University of Ibadan was established in 1948 by the colonial master. She was recently ranked as the best university, in the country, followed by University of Lagos, University of Ilorin,Covenant university and others. The first three are Federal Government owned Universities, while the other and the fourth one, happens to be Covenant university, that is owned by a church/ religion leader.

It is believed by most people, that the involvement of church leaders in the establishment of universities is basically to assist in the upbringing of upright children who will be morally fit to live their lives and govern the society well; help to reduce the observed long queue of students seeking admission, enforcement of merit in the course of offering admission/employment of personnel, considerable/moderate/affordable school fees etc simply because the best hands in all the professional and non -professional careers that the country had had till date have been products of missionaries schools.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In Nigeria, Federal, States and Privately owned institutions have some basic common problems among them, namely: lack of fear/believe in God, Poor funding, inadequate staff and facilities (glorified secondary schools), discrimination in the offering of employment of staff and admission to students,living condition, labour organization, working condition, wage level, opportunity for further education, deviation from the norms of those days missionaries established and ownership of schools. Some church owned schools in Nigeria has out-performed some government owned schools in an excellent manner. This has increased the awareness and patronage for church-sponsored schools in Nigeria. In the light of this, the researcher will examine the impact of church administration on the effective management of church-sponsored schools.

1.3   OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The following are the objectives of this study:

1. To determine the prevalence of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.
2. To examine the impact of church administration on the effective management of church-sponsored schools.
3. To examine the administrative performance of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.

1.4   RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What is the prevalence of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria?
2. What is the impact of church administration on the effective management of church-sponsored schools?
3. What is the administrative performance of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria?

1.5   HYPOTHESIS

HO: There is no significant impact of church administration on effective management of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.

HA: There is significant impact of church administration and effective management of church-sponsored schools in Nigeria.

1.6   SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The following are the significance of this study:

1. The outcome of this study will educate the policy makers on education on the effective management qualities of church management as demonstrated by the performance of church-sponsored schools.
2. This research will be a contribution to the body of literature in the area of the effect of personality trait on student’s academic performance, thereby constituting the empirical literature for future research in the subject area.

1.7   SCOPE/LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study is limited to Covenant University, Ota. This study will also cover the impact of church administration on the effective management of church-sponsored schools

LIMITATION OF STUDY

Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work