ABSTRACT
This study
explored the situation of educational resources in public junior secondary
schools in Delta State. To guide the study, ten research questions were raised
and answered. The study covered all junior secondary schools in Delta State. A
sample size of two hundred and fifty-five (255) representing 60% of all the
junior secondary schools was used. The respondents were the sampled 255 public
junior secondary school principals in Delta State. The instrument used in the
study was the “Education Resources Availability and Utilization Checklist”
(ERAUC). The data collected were analyzed using percentages and ratios. From the
analysis of data, it was found among others that the physical and instructional
materials in the public junior secondary schools in Delta State were
inadequate. There is full and proper utilization of available educational
resources in Junior Secondary Schools in the State. The teachers in different
subject areas were not evenly distributed within the Public Junior Secondary
Schools; and there is difference in educational resources between Public Junior
Secondary Schools in urban and rural areas of Delta State. Based on these
findings, it was recommended among others that the government of Delta State
particularly the Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education should endeavour to
make educational resources, both physical, instructional and teacher personnel
adequately available in all schools so as to ensure standards are maintained.
Teacher personnel should be evenly distributed to all schools; education policy
makers should employ ways of improving the working environments of teaching and
also increase the welfare package of teachers so as to attract and retain
teachers. The conditions in the rural and riverine areas should be made
conductive to encourage teachers to stay and perform their duties effectively.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to
the Study
The goal of secondary education in Nigeria is to
prepare the individual for useful living within the society and for higher
education. According to the Federal Republic of Nigeria(2004), secondary
education is the education children receive after primary school and before the
tertiary stage. The secondary education is of two levels, the junior secondary
level and the senior secondary level. The policy document states that the
Junior Secondary School (JSS) shall be both pre-vocational and academic in
nature, and shall aim at preparing students for useful living within the
society, providing high quality education to primary school graduates,
equipping students to live effectively in this modern age of science and
technology, raising a generation of people who can think for themselves,
respect the view and feelings of others and dignity of labour and inspiring
students with a desire for achievement and self-improvement both at school and
in later life (FRN, 2004).
In order to
achieve the above stated objectives, a conducive teaching and learning
environment is indispensable. Teaching and learning environment include
educational facilities and equipment, infrastructure, class size, teachers and
other environmental factors. The importance of educational facilities in the
accomplishment of desired educational goals cannot be overemphasized. No matter
the efforts expended in the pursuance of desired educational goals, whether
through improved funding or qualified and professionally trained teachers,
little or nothing may be achieved in the absence of essential school
facilities. School facilities are the material resources that facilitate
effective teaching and learning in the school. They include school buildings
such as classrooms, assembly halls, laboratories and workshops, libraries,
textbooks, desks and chairs. Others include teaching aids and devices such as
modern educational hardware and software in the form of magnetic tapes, films
and transparencies. Costald (1977) describes educational facilities as those
things of education which enable a skillful teacher to achieve a level of
instructional effectiveness that far exceeds what is possible when they are not
provided.
School resources are of two major
categories, namely, direct teaching facilities and non-direct teaching
facilities. Direct teaching facilities are facilities that have direct
relevance to the educative process while non-direct teaching facilities are
those that have an indirect relevance to the educative process. Special record books like diaries, log books,
admission and attendance registers and tangible structures which serve as
shelter for educational activities and furniture and equipment are all
essential ingredients of school facilities. The availability, adequacy and
utilization of school facilities contribute to the effectiveness of the
teaching and learning process. A study by Oni (1992) found out that there was a
relationship between utilization of school facilities and academic performance in
the Junior Secondary School Certificate Examinations (JSSCE) in three
pre-vocational subjects, namely:
Introductory Technology, Business Studies and Home Economics.
Availability and
effective utilization of school resources are essential to the achievement of
school goals. As a social system engaged in production, schools need adequate
facilities, equipment, materials, education personnel, finance and students to
function effectively. Invariably, adequate provision and effective utilization
of educational facilities play a vital role in enhancing the achievement of
educational objectives. School facilities are the operational inputs of every
instructional programme. More than anything else, school facilities are
necessary for utmost learning achievement. Every Instructional programme has
its specific demands of facilities. As a result, the educational process
requires facilities that are at their utmost workable state in order to achieve
quality output production.
Availability of
school resources and their effective utilization are important factors that
cannot be undermined if the desired educational output is to be achieved. In
educational production, facilities are elements that are necessary for
effective teaching and learning. They are required by the system for effective
and efficient delivery of educational services. As observed by Mgbodile and
Onuorah (2000), physical appearance and adequacy of school facilities are
striking bases upon which stakeholders of any educational institution make
their initial judgment about the quality of what goes on in a school. This they
say is not to underplay the paramount role of the human factor in properly
harnessing and manipulating these facilities in order to bring about effective
learning in schools.
Resources
utilization is a measure of the extent to which allocated resources (inputs)
are being processed through school production mechanism to ensure optimum
performance by reducing wastage to the barest minimum. It is the relationship
between the learning inputs and the learning achievement (outputs) of the
school system. As a production function, the quality and quantity of inputs as
well as ability and capability of the school system to comply with the set
standard would to a large extent determine its outputs and the efficiency of
the production process.
Adequate resources provision is a
precursor to effective utilization as there cannot be utilization without
availability of resources. There are expectations of adequate resource
provision to schools because resources are inevitable component of the teaching
– learning process, like is popularly acclaimed that the benefits of providing
functional education far outweigh the investment in the sector. The World Bank
(1999) stated that the stakes of providing functional education are high and
the choices nations make will lead to divergent outcomes. Thus, countries that
respond positively to the provision of functional education would experience
progress while those who treat functional education with levity would risk
stagnation and even slip backwards, widening the already existing
socio-economic gaps, and consequently sowing the seeds of unrest.
Schools require adequate and standard
materials demanded by the school curriculum for effective teaching and learning
to take place. This is necessary because the present secondary school
curriculum is comprehensive and diversified, catering for individual interests
and talents, covering an array of arts, social science, science and vocational
subjects, that require varying materials. Where the recommended school resources
are not adequately provided, the teaching – learning environment will not be
conducive and students’ interest may not be sufficiently aroused. This could
lead to low rate of attainment of educational objectives and high rate of
educational wastage.
The success of any education system
depends largely on effective utilization of available resources. Central to
effective resource utilization is adequate provision of teachers both in
quantity and quality. This is particularly crucial in secondary schools because
each subject in the system requires a qualified and specialized teacher. As an
important variable in education production, the teacher factor transcends mere
availability; it includes adequate quality distribution, utilization and
retention. Teacher retention is a crucial factor in effective utilization of
teacher resources. However, teacher retention is faced with different problems
that lead to constant teacher attrition. Some of these problems include
retrenchments, forced or voluntary retirements, deaths, teachers proceeding on
further studies, and teachers changing jobs. These problems make the available
stock of teachers to vary constantly in number, quality, subject specialty and
experience. The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, (SEDL, 2009) said
that although placement of effective and high quality teachers in every school
is a critical factor in improving student learning, educational authorities
must also focus on supporting and retaining these teachers so that they stay
motivated and committed.
Closely related to teacher utilization
is effective teacher distribution to schools based on qualification, subject
specialization and experience. Achieving effective teacher distribution is often
made difficult because many teachers prefer postings and transfers to schools
in urban locations at the detriment and neglect of schools in rural locations.
The refusal to accept postings to schools in rural areas is often attributed to
lack of basic social amenities in rural areas and the request of female
teachers that they want to be with their husbands who work in urban towns.
Another important determinant in the
ability to provide educational resources is finance. Going by the present 13%
derivation formula for revenue allocation in Nigeria, Delta State is thought to
be rich being an oil producing state. Ordinarily, the expectation will be that
education will have reasonable budgetary allocation, especially secondary
education, which is a major responsibility of State governments. The
expectations are that increased education funding would positively impact on
the resources situation in secondary schools, but it is known that funds
allocated to education are redistributed to education sub-sectors such as the
Ministry of Education, Basic Education Board, Scholarship Board, Library Board,
Agency for Adult/Non-formal Education, Education for Migrant Fishermen, Higher
Education, among others. As posited by the World Bank (2003), lack of
accountability, arbitrary allocation of education resources and limited and
inaccurate data for decision making are major problems hindering education
resources situation in Nigeria.
The assessment of educational resources
situation in secondary schools in Delta State was based on recommended
standards in order to make the results of this investigation relevant for
decision making. The recommended standards are based on the Federal Ministry of
Education (2002) guidelines on minimum standards in schools nationwide as accepted
standards for establishment and operation of secondary schools. Areas, such as
quantity of each piece of science equipment needed in a standard secondary
school laboratory, not explicitly spelt out in the prescribed national minimum
standards are spelt out by the appropriate departments of the Delta State
Ministry of Education, and are by implication adopted as the recommended
standards. This investigation relied on these set standards as the basis for
assessment of the educational resources situation in secondary schools in Delta
State.
Statement
of the Problem
The issue of falling standards of
education, at all levels, has been a source of concern to Nigerians. Schools
are faced with the challenges of providing functional and qualitative education
that will prepare students for useful living in a rapidly changing world of
science and technology. Presently, secondary schools in Nigeria seem to exist
in the shadow of their glorious past. The secondary school system is
characterized by inadequacies in funding, manpower, facilities and equipment
and a general decline in standards and quality. The system is plagued by
inadequate infrastructural resources, overcrowded classrooms, obsolete
equipment, enrolment explosion, shortage of personnel, gross under funding and
general neglect. This has manifested in the poor academic performance of
students at both internal and external examinations. (Source: Delta State
Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education manual 2004)
Education in
Nigeria seems not to be receiving enough attention. Although efforts have been made to improve
the quality of education in Nigeria since independence, yet the system seems
not to have been able to achieve its goal of providing functional education for
Nigerian citizens (Bajah, 2001). Secondary
schools in Nigeria, especially public secondary schools, have the problem of
inadequate and decaying facilities, as well as high rate of student drop out.
The situation is even more pathetic as some few schools that have sizable
number of facilities seem not to be putting them into effective use due to insufficient
teachers in some subject areas, to take the students through the process of
learning. This could account for the reason why many school children are seen
roaming the streets during school hours. There seems to be a high rate of
repetitions and dropouts in public secondary schools. This may be attributed to
ineffective utilization of available educational resources.
There have been
outcries by parents, media and all stakeholders in the educational sector over
the decline in standards of operation of the educational system in the country
and the quality of the products. For
quite some times now, the performance of students in West African School
Certificate Examination (WASCE) and the National Examination Council (NECO)
examination in Delta State has not been encouraging (Statistics from PRS
Department, Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education, Delta State). This has
created lots of fears in the minds of stakeholders in the education sector especially
the government, parents, school authorities and educational managers. As the downward slide seems to continue
unabated, reasons have been advanced by stakeholders on what could possibly be
responsible for this decline, which to many has nosedived to a pathetic level.
While some are of the opinion that the slide may not be unconnected with
inadequate or non-availability of learning facilities, ineffectiveness and unqualified
teachers, others are of the view that the reading habits of students have
declined considerably. This situation is even made worse by the ever increasing
students’ population which makes available learning facilities over stretched
thereby putting teachers and students under stress (Utulu 2012). It is against this backdrop that this study gives
the situation analysis of the educational resources availability, adequacy and
utilization in public junior secondary schools in Delta State, Nigeria.
Research
Questions
The following
research questions guided the study:
1. What
is the level of availability of educational resources in public junior
secondary schools in Delta State?
2. What
is the level of adequacy of physical resources in public Junior Secondary
Schools in Delta State?
3. What
is the level of adequacy of instructional material resources in public Junior
Secondary Schools in Delta State?
4. What
is the state of teachingpersonnel in public Junior Secondary Schools in Delta
State?
5. What
is the state of academic qualification of teaching personnel in Junior
Secondary Schools in Delta State?
6. What
is the distribution pattern of teaching personnel in public Junior Secondary
Schools in Delta State?
7. What
is the experience of teaching personnel in public Junior Secondary Schools in
Delta State?
8. What
is the level of adequacy of teachers in public Junior Secondary Schools in
Delta State?
9. What
is the level of utilization of physical resources in public junior Secondary
Schools in Delta State?
10. What
the level of utilization of teachers resources in public junior Secondary
Schools in Delta State?
11. What
is the situation of education resources in public junior Secondary Schools in rural
areas and those in urban areas in Delta State?
Purpose
of the Study
The
purpose of the study was to assess the state of material and human resources in
public Junior Secondary Schools in Delta State, Nigeria. Specifically, the
study sought to:
i.
ascertain the situation of education
resources in public Junior Secondary Schools in Delta State;
ii.
ascertain the adequacy of physical
facilities in public Junior Secondary Schools in Delta State;
iii.
ascertain the adequacy of material
resources in public Junior Secondary Schools in Delta State;
iv.
ascertain the state of teacher resources
(qualification, distribution and experience) in public Junior Secondary Schools
in Delta State;
v.
ascertain the rate of utilization of
physical facilities in Junior Secondary Schools in Delta State;
vi.
ascertain the level of utilization of
teaching/learning material resources in Junior Secondary Schools in Delta
State;
vii.
determine the level of utilization of
teacher resources in Junior Secondary Schools in Delta State; and
viii.
find the difference in the situation of
education resources between schools in rural areas and schools in urban areas
in Delta State.
Significance
of the Study
The findings of
this study in addition to contributing to the body of literature on education
facilities availability and utilization, would benefit government, school
management agencies, school heads and parents.
Ultimately, the students would benefit from the research especially when
the findings are implemented
The result of
the findings would provide the government and school management agencies with
information on resource availability,adequacy and utilization in schools, as
well as internal efficiency and how these affect the academic achievement of
students. This would help them to
provide the needed resources for schools with dearth of infrastructure with a
view to shore up students performance in such schools.
Also, the finding
would be beneficial to parents of secondary school students in Delta State as
the study would make parents understand the situation of educational facilities
in secondary schools, and this can assists them in choice of school for their
children. Apart from this, the wealthy
parents could also assist some schools in some areas of needs
The findings of
the study would provide relevant information to school heads on facilities
availability and utilization so that they can make decisions on how best to put
into use available education resources in their schools. It would also contribute to the existing body
of theoretical knowledge on the availability, adequacy and utilization of
material and human resources in the junior secondary schools and finally, the
study would serve as a reservoir of information to future researchers in the
area of educational resources availability and utilization in public junior
secondary schools in Delta State, in particular, and Nigeria in general.
Scope
of the Study
The study covered
the situation analysis of educational resources in public junior secondary
schools in Delta State.
The study was
limited to the availability, adequacy and utilization of resources in junior
secondary schools because this particular level of education is jointly funded
by the three tiers of government, that is, local government, State government
and Federal government. Therefore, the expectations were that educational
resources would be adequately provided and utilized in junior secondary
schools. It also compared educational
resources in schools located in rural areas with that of schools located in
urban areas.
Operational
Definition of Terms
The following
terms are operationally defined as used in the study: -
1. Education Resources: These
are the physical, material and human assets required to achieve education
production function. In this study, education resources are limited to physical
facilities such as school buildings, classrooms, library, playfields, toilets;
material resources such as tables and chairs, students’ desks and chairs,
laboratory equipment, other teaching and learning aids and teacher resource.
2. Education Resources Situation: This
refers to the state or position of the physical and human assets required to
achieve education production function. In this study, education resources are
limited to physical resources and teacher resources as these form the major
determinant of the output in education
3. Distribution: This
refers to the posting of the teachers between the schools and between the rural
and urban locations.
4. Physical resources: These
are the materials that actually exist or are present or seen in the school.
They include classrooms, chairs, tables, library, laboratory/workshops etc.
5. Teacher Resources: As
used in this study, teacher resources include number of teachers, their
academic and professional qualification, specialization, teaching experience
and distribution in schools.
6. Resource Availability: This
refers to the differences between the expected and the available facilities
7.
Resource
Adequacy: This
refers to the provision of the required
educational resources in the standard quantity and quality in relation to
Federal Ministry of Education minimum standard
8. Resources Utilization: This
refers to the application of the resources provided for schools in teaching
learning process.
9. Material Resources Utilization: As
used in this study, material resource utilization refers to the practical use
of available instructional materials and equipment by students and teachers in
the teaching learning process. Teachers’ tables and chairs, student desk and
chairs, library equipment, etc
10. Physical Resources Utilization: In
this sense, physical resources utilization is the putting to use of available
physical facilities in the teaching learning process. i.e, building,
classrooms, library, etc, whether they are optimally utilized.
11. Human Resources Utilization: This
is the assignment of duties to teachers to execute the school programmes. It include teacher workload which is number
of teaching periods per week, number of classes taught and number of subjects
taught
12. Experience:
This implies the number of years the individual/teacher has spent in the
teaching profession. Experienced (0-5)
years, moderate experienced 6 – 10 years, Highly experienced 10 years an above
13. Qualification: This
is the academic attainment of the teacher.
They include National Diploma, Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE),
BA(Ed), B.Sc (Ed), B.Ed and Post Graduate Degrees without specialization in
education, Degrees or Post graduate degrees with specialization in Education.
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