A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF MISSION SCHOOL IN NIGERIA AND ITS PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND SPIRITUAL IMPLICATIONS

This study examined the operations of the past and present mission schools in Nigeria by comparing cost of training to know whether it was cheaper with the past mission schools than the present mission schools. The study further examined variables such as adequacy of infrastructures, quality and quantity of personnel, discipline of staff and students as well as the goals or objectives that were and are the driving forces of these schools in other to determine where and how they differ and the direction of the difference. Two hundred respondents through purpose sampling techniques were used to answer the research questions. The instrument used to collect data was a twenty one (21) item questionnaire divided into five sections, A-E. The instrument was personally administered on the subjects and the return rate was 100 percent. The data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation statistical tools and the results obtained included among the following that: it was cheaper to train in the past mission schools than the present mission schools in Nigeria, that discipline of staff and students were higher in past mission schools than the present mission schools and that the past mission schools had more qualified personnel and produced more qualitative and disciple students than the present. Recommendations that were based on the findings were that the present mission schools particularly, the universities should reduce their fees to allow more accessibility and affordability, increase award of scholarship to the promising and indigent students as well as that mission schools should not lose sight of what they existed for; they should use their benevolence for soul winning rather than driving people away from the Christian faith by being callous and exploitative