HIGH COST OF LIVING AND ITS INCURSIONS IN EDUCATION AS EXCLUSIVE PRESERVE FOR CHILDREN OF RICH FAMILIES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

This paper investigated high cost of living and its incursions in education as exclusive preserve of children of rich families in Nigeria. Imo State University Owerri was chosen as public university in Nigeria. One research question and one hypothesis guided the study. Descriptive survey research design was used for this study. Population of this study comprised of 8,000 students obtained from Imo University Owerri. Sample size of this study is 150, which comprised 6 males and females students obtained from 10 departments from Imo State University Owerri.  Instrument for data collection is a researcher developed questionnaire titled ‘high cost of living and its incursions in education as exclusive preserve of children of rich families in Nigeria was used, and validated by two experts from Imo state University Owerri. Crobach alpha statistical technique was used to ascertain the reliability coefficients at 0.78 and 0.98 which shows that the instrument is reliable to be used for this study. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the data generated, while chi- square statistical tool was used to test the hypothesis. It was recommended from this study that Cost of education especially in public and private universities should be reduced through government intervention. This would enable adults and children of school ages to acquire education from the three tiers of education in Nigeria among others.