ABSTRACT
This research work was
conducted to examine the Respondents’ responses on the assessment of the
relationship between educational funding and Economic Growth in Nigeria. The
survey research design was used in carrying out the study since it required the
collection of data from a large number of respondents within the limited time
scheduled for the completion of the project. Relevant research questions to
show the findings of the study. A questionnaire was designed by the researcher
and validated by the supervisor which was administered to the respondents for
the generation of data. However, a total number of 100 respondents comprising
male and female staff and non teaching staff were selected through simple
random sampling method to generate the sample size. The sample size was
considered adequate and representative because, all the respondents were people
of the same profession and had similar orientation, though they were drawn from
different department and faculties. The analysis of the data collected from respondents
was carried out with the use of percentage and frequency distribution tables.
In line with the findings made from this investigation. It is recommends that adequate funding for the provision/upgrading of necessary
teaching aids, laboratory materials and other tools. In terms of teaching methods and improvement; steps
should be taken for continuous teaching methods review/improvement to make the
teaching methods current and relevant to contemporary needs.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title page i
Certification ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
Table of content vi
CHAPTER
ONE - INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to
the Study
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1.3 Purpose of the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Research Question
1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study
1.7 Definition of Terms
CHAPTER
TWO - LITERATURE
REVIEW
2.1 Conceptual Perspectives
2.2 Secondary Educational Expenditure
2.3 Issues of Funding Education in Nigeria
2.4 Secondary Education Reform Agenda.
2.5 Funding formula Options
2.6 Funding Model of Secondary Education in Nigeria.
2.7 Impact of the Funding Secondary School
2.8 Benefits of Education
2.9 Cost of Education
2.10 Formula Funding Criteria for sustainable Funding of Nigeria Secondary Education
2.11 Problems in the Secondary School System in
Nigeria
2.12 Teacher
Training
2.13 Summary of the Review
CHAPTER
THREE - RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research Design
3.3 Population of Study
3.4 Sample size and Sampling Technique
3.5 Research Instrument
3.6 Validity of the Instruments
3.7 Reliability of the Instrument
3.8 Procedure for Data Collection
3.9 Data Analysis
CHAPTER FOUR - DATA
PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS
4.0
Introduction
4.1 Data Presentation and Analysis
CHAPTER FIVE - SUMMARY, CONCLUSION
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1
Introduction
5.2 Summary of the Study
5.3 Conclusion
5.4 Recommendations
References
Questionnaire
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The researcher considers the
relation that is established between education and economic growth in Nigeria. Education, as a key component of human capital formation is
recognized as being vital in increasing the productive capacity of people.
Education, especially at the higher level, contributes directly to economic
growth by making individual workers more productive and leading to the creation
of knowledge, ideas, and technological innovation (Odeleye, 2012).
The effect of education on technological
innovation is direct following the Romer/Solow growth theory framework. An
investment in education is beneficial to the society, both at micro and macro
levels and affects the system both directly and indirectly. Education is basic
to development and is also regarded as an instrument through which the society
can be transformed. As a salient factor in transition programme, education
equips human resources with the needed knowledge, skills and competencies,
which would make them functional, and contribute to the all-round development
of the nation. It does not only help to supply the essential human capital
which is a necessary condition for sustainable economic growth but it is also a
key to poverty reduction and a major vehicle for promoting equity, fairness and
social justice (Todaro, 2007).
Education is seen here as
representing one of the primary components of human capital formation, which is
an important factor in modelling the endogenous growth. Human capital is
essentially important in achieving a sustainable economic growth; however, the
greatest contribution is accomplished through investment in the quality and
quantity of education.
Economists, since the time of Adam Smith and David Ricardo
have been interested in the issue of economic growth and its causes. It was not
until the 1950s and 1960s, however, that the first set of theories of economic
growth were formalised. These early theories, known as the neoclassical
approach to growth theory, had a number of weaknesses. One of the key ones was
that they assumed that technological change (and hence productivity growth) was
driven entirely by factors beyond our control. Clearly, these models did not provide
a good representation of the real world. Beginning in the 1980s, a series of
more sophisticated models appeared based on so called New Growth theories.
These models are not uniform. One strand emphasis the stock of human capital as
an important determinant of economic growth. A second strand places more
emphasis on the incentives that firms have to generate new ideas. Without going
into technical detail, Kerr (2001) identified a couple of points worth noting
up front:
Firstly, specifically recognized that the growth rate of
the economy is not driven solely by outside factors; and second, shown that
government policies have an important role to play in determining the long- run
growth rate of a country's economy.
These models are clearly more realistic in their portrayal
of the economy with consumers, firms and governments all having an impact. They
also provide a much more useful benchmark for thinking about the role of
education in economic growth and the design of education policies. In these recent
models, unlike the earlier ones, education is seen as contributing to economic
growth in two ways:
It directly affects economic growth by making individual
workers more productive; and indirectly affects economic growth by leading to
the creation of knowledge, ideas and technological innovation – either through
the process of acquiring education itself or because education is a key input
into the development of a research sector that produces new knowledge and
ideas.
Education is important not only because educated people
engage in university research. Education is also important because it generates
new ideas in the private sector. Knowledge creation is not a monopoly of either
the public or private sectors. A number of studies have confirmed the
importance of education in explaining growth. The consensus view on the direct
effects of education is that the private rate of return to an individual from
an additional year of schooling is anywhere from 5 to 15 percent. This must, to
some extent, reflect the fact that employers see educated workers as more
productive.
Similarly, Odeleye, (2012) find that increases in
educational attainment account for around 20 percent of growth in output per
worker. Education also has indirect effects and studies have shown that higher
levels of human capital are associated with significantly larger physical
investments, higher rates of technology transfer and longer life expectancy.
However, remains to be done in measuring the exact impact of education on
economic growth.
Education is the most important instrument to enhance
human capabilities and to achieve the desired objectives of socio and economic
development. Education enables individuals to make informed choices, broaden
their horizons and opportunities and to have a voice in public decision making.
At the macro level, education means strong and sustainable economic growth due
to productive and skilled labour force. At the micro level however, education
is strongly correlated to higher income generating opportunities and a more
informed and aware existence. Emerging globalisation offers immense
opportunities and challenges in a competitive environment, and only those
nations can benefit from it, which has acquired the required knowledge base and
skills. (Akram, 2007). It is typically on this basis that governments
expend substantial amount of money in the financing of education with or
without considering the economic returns to such investment.
Human capital is a broad and multifaceted concept
encompassing many different types of investment in people. Health and nutrition
are certainly an important aspect of such investment, particularly in
developing countries where deficiencies in these respects may severely limit
the population's ability to engage in productive activities. In advanced
countries, however, the key aspect of human capital has to do with the
cognitive and non-cognitive abilities that are acquired at home, in the work
place and in formal and informal training and are useful in the production of
goods, services and further knowledge (Fuente, 2006). Human resource
development relates to the education, training and utilisation of human
potentials for social and economic progress. Hallak, 1990 identified five
energy boost of human resource development: education; health and nutrition;
the environment; employment; and political and economic freedom. These
energisers are interlinked and interdependent, but education is the basis of
all the others, an essential factor in the improvement of health and nutrition,
for maintaining a high- quality environment, for expanding and improving labour
pools, and for sustaining political and economic responsibility.
For the attainment of economic growth and development in
an economy, there is a serious need to develop human resources in that economy.
Schultz (1961) as quoted in Adamu (2003) identified five ways of developing
human resources, out of these, education of different form accounted for the
highest number of ways of developing human resources.
Investment in health facilities and services, broadly
conceived to include all expenditures that affect the life expectancy, strength
and stamina, and the vigour and vitality of the people. On-the-job training,
old-type apprenticeships organized by firms. Formally organised education at
the elementary, secondary and higher levels. Study programme for adults that
are not organized by firms, including extension programmes notably in
agriculture, Migration of individuals and families to adjust to changing job
opportunities. Human capital is a broad and multifaceted concept encompassing
many different types of investment in people. Health and nutrition are
certainly an important aspect of such investment, particularly in developing
countries where deficiencies in these respects may severely limit the
population's ability to engage in productive activities.
There are good reasons to expect that human capital should
be an important determinant of productivity, both at the individual and at the
aggregate level, and that its role should be particularly crucial in today's
globalized knowledge economy. Workers with greater problem-solving and
communications abilities should perform better than their less skilled
counterparts at any task that requires more than the routine application of
physical labour and will also learn faster and adapt better to changing
circumstances. Hence, skilled workers can be expected to be more productive
than unskilled ones for any given production process, and should be able to operate
more sophisticated technologies that place greater demands on their capacities.
If skill does carry with it a greater ability to learn, produce new knowledge
and adapt to change, moreover, a more educated labour force will also be able
to achieve faster productivity growth, both through gradual improvements in
existing production processes and through the adoption and development of more
advanced technologies, and should be in a better position to respond flexibly
to rising worldwide competition. These considerations suggest that the
importance of human capital as an input has grown over time as production
processes have become increasingly knowledge intensive and footloose.
Today, relatively few occupations involve only mechanical
physical tasks, and a large and growing fraction of jobs either reduce to the
processing of information or require the application of specialized knowledge
and skills to the production of increasingly sophisticated goods and services.
Education remains the most effective instrument through which the society can
be transformed. The extent to which a country invests in education, among other
sectors, will determine the level and rate of its transformation. Education
does not only make use of physical materials but also human resources to make
up for the resources needed for transformation. As a stringent and unique
factor in transition programmes, education equips human resources with the
needed knowledge, skills and competencies which would make them functional, and
contribute to the all round development of the nation.
The structure of the formal education consists of six
years primary education, three years of junior secondary, three years of senior
secondary education and four years at the tertiary school (the 6-3-3-4 system).
This replaced the old system of 6-5-2-4 system inherited from the colonial
masters in 1984. The attendance of primary and junior secondary schools, which
is also called basic education, is compulsory and free. However, in practice,
basic education is not truly free because all schools collect obligatory
contributions from students to supplement the government subsidies. The
collection of fees is mainly feasible in secondary and post secondary levels.
At the secondary level, it came as a disguise of Parents Teachers Association
(PTA) fees, Development fees, Computer fees to mention but a few. At the post
secondary levels however, it is broadly called school fees. Although both the
local and state governments mainly finance basic education, there are also a significant
number of private schools, especially at the primary and JSS levels. However,
higher education is composed of three levels namely collegiate from colleges of
educations, diplomas from Polytechnics and degrees from Universities in various
disciplines. In addition, the University degrees are in three phases, they are
bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in various areas.
The National Policy on Education assured nine years of
free and compulsory basic education for all Nigerian children. The scheme
failed for inadequate planning and lack of resources, but resulted in doubling
primary education enrolment in a decade. The new democratic Government
responded to the crisis in the education sector with the launch of Universal
Basic Education (UBE) in 1999, but it was not passed into law until 2003. Not
unlike the defunct UPE, emerging statistics show evidence of an increase in
enrolment.
Some tiers of government capitalize on the aspect of the
UBE law that gives a grace period of five years before the full implementation
of the bill, to charge fees. Also interestingly, since Nigeria operates a
federal system of government, the state government owned the UBE and Child
Rights Act, passed in the federal legislative house, do not bind schools. As a
signatory to the 2000 World Education Conference, and the 6 Dakar Goals towards
achieving Education for All (EFA), Government has also established a National
EFA Coordination unit under the Federal Ministry of Education mandated to
prepare a National Action Plan for the delivery of EFA in Nigeria. Perhaps the
greatest challenge facing government is the inadequate spending on education.
The Federal Government also established the Education Trust Fund (ETF) with the
aim of assisting the education sector. However, as at April 2009 about ₦22.6
billion Education Trust Fund money lies unutilized in the Central Bank of
Nigeria1. The scenario is dismay in the face of glaring financial inadequacies
due to serious under funding, poor or/and dilapidated facilities and other degrading
features in education, sector. Nonetheless, the ETF still assist largely in
rebuilding the already dilapidated education sector.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
Of all the problems
plaguing schools in Nigeria today, the financial state of the schools is the
key focal point of interest to the nation and administration in process of
attaining the goals of education.
The main problem faced by governments is allocating scarce
resources across competing activities and sectors. The choice between alternative
investments such as investment in education versus investment in physical
infrastructure depends on society's objectives, which are represented by
governmental decisions, and on the analysis between costs of the investment
versus the future benefit to be derived from that investment. Since economists
see education as an investment, therefore, it is important to estimate its
contribution to economic growth and/or its rate of return. Education represents
both consumption and investment items in an economy. Education is valued for
its immediate as well as its future benefits. This means that the distribution
of educational investment affects future income distribution, thus, equity
plays an important role in educational investment decisions. Different societies
give different weight between the objectives of efficiency and equity in
defining an educational investment. In general, centrally planned economies
placed a higher weight on equity grounds in defining their educational policy
investment than capitalist economies (Manuel Madrid-Aris, 2000).
Inadequate funding of
schools has had a lot of effects on the schools and education as a whole which
include fall in the standard of education, indiscipline, examination
malpractice, secret cults, and teachers’ commitment to their job, bribery and
corruption in the school to mention few. All these shall be looked at as the
research work continues. In view of this study aims at finding out how educational
funding can promote economic growth in Nigeria.
1.3 Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of
this study is to carry out an assessment of the relationship between
educational funding and economic growth in Nigeria.
Other purpose of study
include the following:
i.
To determine the relationship between
educations and economic growth
in Nigeria
ii.
To examine how inadequacy of funding affects
secondary school effectiveness.
iii.
To find out government’s provision of
instructional materials for teachers.
iv.
To investigate the effects of inadequate
funding on teachers commitment to their duties.
v.
To examine the extent to which lack of funding
has affect the standard of education.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The study would help
to update information about the effect of funding in the secondary schools,
adequacy and their relationship to education growth.
The information thus
discovered would be an eye-opener to the parents and guardian on the effects of
funding on secondary school effectiveness.
It would help to
improve the quality of education in the state and it is hoped that the funding
would further reveal more areas for possible research studies.
It is hoped that the
result of this study will undoubtedly fully be valuable for teachers,
administrators and the government because it would expose and also provide them
with useful information on the area in which effect of funds on secondary
school effectiveness.
1.5 Research Question
The study intends to
provide answers to the following questions:
i.
Is there any relationship between educations
and economic growth in Nigeria?
ii.
To what extent does inadequacy of funding on
education lead to secondary school effectiveness?
iii.
Does the government provide enough
instructional materials for the teachers?
iv.
Is inadequate funding of education by
government responsible for teachers less commitment to their duties?
v.
To what extent does lack of funding affect
standard of education?
1.6 Scope and Limitation of the Study
This study is limited
to Lagos State. It does not intend to go beyond this zone because of financial
and time constraint.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Effective:
Producing the result that was wanted or intended, impressive or interesting
enough to notice.
Fund:
Amount of money that has been made available for a particular purpose.
Secondary
School: It is the post-primary institutions where students are
prepared for the West African School Certificate (WASC) Examination for a
minimum period of six years.
Teaching: it
is the act of engaging in interactive behaviour with one or more students for
the purpose of affecting a change in the students attitudinal, cognitive or
psychomotor thereby promoting the psycho-social development and growth of the
students.
Learning: Is
a relatively permanent change in an individual’s behaviour as a result of
experience of training.
Academic
Performance: This is how well or how bad an educational
work or activity is done.
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