Influence of Location on Efficiency of Secondary Schools in Ondo State, Nigeria

One major problem confronting secondary education in Ondo State, Nigeria is that total number of students enrolled in secondary school one for the academic session does not usually graduate from the secondary school at the specific period. Casual observation shows that there are cases of repetition of classes and withdrawal from schools. Many concerned citizens over the years have been crying over the low level of students’ performance in the final Senior School Certificate Examination despite the commitment of both government and private resources. It seems as if the secondary school system is probably not in the best level of efficiency. Therefore, this study investigated the internal efficiency of secondary schools in Ondo State. 100 secondary schools constituted the sample. The schools were selected by stratified random sampling technique to include those in Rural and Urban areas. A proforma on enrolments and progressions through the classes was used for data collection. Two research questions and one hypothesis tested at 0.05 level of significance guided the study. Frequencies, simple percentages and means were employed to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypothesis. The results from the studies showed that the secondary schools in Ondo State were internally inefficient. The level of efficiency of secondary schools in the State was 32.8 percent. The study further revealed that the contribution of location could be effective in determining the level of efficiency of secondary schools. The level of efficiency of schools in urban areas was found to be higher than those in rural areas. Recommendations to stem the wastage incidence include provision of remedial teaching for weak students, improvement in the general supervision and inspection of secondary schools.