Abstract
In every economic recession administrators of schools try to find ways to manage schooling, while teachers and facilitators make efforts to teach effectively while minimizing costs of teaching and learning materials. Managing education in a recessed economy needs a concentration on resourcefulness and flexibility of curriculum and instruction. This study assessed management of secondary education and the role of curriculum and instruction during economic recession and the role of curriculum and instruction in Anambra State. Two (2) research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. One hundred and thirty (130) principals from 263 public secondary schools in Anambra State were randomly selected for the study as the sample. An instrument ‘Education and Curriculum in Recessed Economy Questionnaire’ (ECREQ) in two sections was used for data collection, and consisted of twenty-four (24) items in modified Likert four point scale strongly agree (SA), agree (A), disagree (D) and strongly disagree (SD) valued 4, 3, 2, 1. Its reliability coefficient was computed at 0.80. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while Z-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses. Findings reveal that inadequate funding and rigid curriculum are the major challenges of managing secondary schools in Anambra State in a period of recession. It was recommended that curriculum should be flexible and adaptable, while private participation should be involved in funding the schools during economic recession.