IMPROVING INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCES PROVISION IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL BUSINESS STUDIES THROUGH PUPLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the improvement of instructional resources provision in junior secondary school business studies through public private partnerships in Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The descriptive survey design was adopted for the study and the population of the study comprised 658 business studies teachers from the 258 public junior secondary schools in the State. Through simple random sampling technique the researcher sampled 30% of the total population of 658 business studies teachers in the State. This amounted to 197 business studies teachers. The instrument for data collection was a validated four point rating scale questionnaire developed by the researcher. The data collected from the respondents were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test. Findings on show that the areas in which public private partnerships could be utilized in improving the provision of instructional resources in business studies in junior secondary schools in Nigeria include provision of physical facilities like classroom blocks, tables and chairs, recruitment of qualified business studies teachers, providing ICT hardware and software to meet the objectives of business studies curriculum, professional development and training of business studies teachers and repair of physical facilities among others. Further findings reveal that government constructing a business studies laboratory in junior secondary schools, individuals providing maintenance for buildings in junior secondary schools, engaging private ICT firms in the integration of information and communication technology in business studies and Involving privately owned educational consultancy firms in the provision of teaching aids for business studies are some of the PPP strategies for improving the provision of instructional resources  in junior secondary school business studies in Nigeria. The location of respondents did not significantly affect business studies teachers’ opinions. Based on these findings, the researchers recommends among others that Federal and State government in conjunction with the private sector should organize training programmes like conferences, seminars and workshops where  administrators of business studies in junior secondary school would be trained on best practices in PPP for instructional resources provisions

Key words: Instructional Resources, Provision, Business Studies, Public Private Partnerships