Institutional resilience and school sustainability: The roles of crisis management and corporate social responsibility in private secondary education

Sustainable education systems depend on institutional resilience, supported by effective governance structures and socially responsible practices that sustain continuity of teaching and learning. This study examined whether crisis management and corporate social responsibility predict the sustainability of private secondary schools in the Ikom Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. A correlational research design was adopted. The study involved a census of 457 school administrators, comprising 172 principals and 285 vice principals. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire that measured crisis management practices, corporate social responsibility, and private school sustainability. The instrument demonstrated acceptable validity and internal consistency. Data were analysed using multiple linear regression at the 0.05 level of significance with IBM SPSS version 27. The results indicated that crisis management and corporate social responsibility jointly predicted private school sustainability (R = .71, R² = .50, F(2,454) = 224.46, p < .001). Both predictors also made significant individual contributions to the prediction of private school sustainability, with crisis management (β = .42, p < .001) and corporate social responsibility (β = .38, p < .001) showing positive associations. The findings suggest that crisis management and corporate social responsibility may be understood as practices linked to institutional resilience, continuity of teaching and learning, and long-term school sustainability. The study recommends that private school administrators strengthen crisis management strategies and institutional CSR initiatives to support sustainable school governance and long-term school operations.