THE INFLUENCE OF PRIVATE SECTOR INVOLVEMENT ON ENTREPRENEURIAL EDUCATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN KWARA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The role of entrepreneurship in national development cannot be undermined as it is a panacea for youth development and poverty eradication. Therefore, this study is carried out to investigate the private sector involvement in developing entrepreneurial education of secondary schools in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study is a descriptive survey of correlation type. The population of the study comprised all the 392 secondary schools in Kwara State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select 60 secondary schools in Kwara State. Also 20 respondents were purposively selected in each of the sampled schools comprising the principals, Vice principals, Parent-Teachers Association Chairman, Secretaries, artisan members, technical and vocational teachers and a total of 1200 respondents were used for the study. Four research hypotheses were generated to guide the study. A research instrument tagged Private Sectors Involvement in Entrepreneurial Education Questionnaire (PSIEEQ) was used to collect relevant data. The reliability index of .67 shows that the instrument was reliable. The data collected were statistically analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation statistics and tested at the .05 significance level. The findings of this study revealed that private sector involvement in developing entrepreneurial education is significantly too low in secondary schools in Kwara State and this could have contributed to the poverty level in the state. It is however recommended that financing of entrepreneurial education in secondary schools should be a joint responsibility of all stakeholders. School Management Committees should encourage the private sector such as entrepreneurs, industrialists, and investors, as well as parents, religious bodies, politicians and well-meaning individuals to donate the needed equipment, tools and facilities that could aid entrepreneurial skills development in secondary schools.