A Boom in Private Secondary Education in Cross River State, Nigeria: Causes and Consequences on the Education System

This study investigated the causes and consequences of a boom in private secondary education in cross river state, Nigeria, in the first decade of the 21st millennium. A 30 item research instrument was designed by the researchers based on the four null hypotheses that guided the research. The hypotheses were based on the social, political and economic factors during the period that could give rise to the establishment of private secondary schools as well as the consequences of such a development on the education system. Result from the samples of two hundred school managers from both public and private secondary schools showed that hypotheses one and four were retained, while two and three were rejected. This implied that managers of both public and private secondary schools do not differ significantly on the social factors that gave rise to a boom in private secondary schools as well as the consequences of the development on the education system. School managers of the two divide however differ significantly on their perception of the political and economic factors that gave rise to the proliferation of private secondary schools during the period