Fundamental Problems Faced by the Management of Private Secondary Schools in Enugu Metropolis

This study is an examination of the fundamental problems faced by the management of private secondary schools in Enugu metropolis. The study specifically seeks to; determine whether funding constitutes a problem to the management of private secondary schools in Enugu Metropolis, and to determine whether the lack of physical facilities contribute to the problems of the management of private secondary schools in Enugu metropolis. The population for the study comprised of the two hundred and fifty (250) approved private secondary schools presently in Enugu metropolis with about five thousand and thirty (5030) secondary school teachers and one hundred and four (104) principals currently serving in all private secondary schools; stratified sampling procedures were used in selecting the required sample for this study, purposive sampling was used in this study in selecting ten schools. Simple random sampling using random number tables was then used to select 500 teachers and 10 principals from the schools. As a result, at Enugu east 4 secondary schools comprising of 190 teachers and 4 principals were selected; at Enugu north 3 secondary schools comprising of 165 teachers and 3 principals were selected; at Enugu south, 3 secondary schools 145 teachers and 3 principals were selected. Thus a total of 10 secondary schools, 500 teachers and 10 principals were sampled. Questionnaire which was validated by experts was the instrument used for data collection. Mean scores, grand mean, and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance and appropriate degree of freedom. The study revealed that lack of funds in private secondary schools contribute immensely to the failure of managers, also lack of conducive learning environment due to inadequate physical facilities constitute problems to the administrators in Enugu metropolis, this is due to the increasing population of children in the metropolis and also parents tend to believe that their children are not properly educated in public schools. The study concluded that the inadequate funding of private schools must be handled in order to prevent collapse of the institution and the private schools going out of business, also the essential physical facilities needed for the proper and effective running of private secondary schools in Enugu metropolis must be acquired and properly installed for business to continue.