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AN ASSESSMENT OF PRIMARY SCHOOL MANAGEMENT IN
OBIO AKPOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF RIVERS STATE
ABSTRACT
This study
investigated the management of education in primary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria.
As a correlation research, the study population comprised all the 694 primary
schools in the State. Out of this, a sample of 320 schools was selected through
the process of purposive and stratified random sampling. The instrument used to
collect data for the study was a questionnaire which consisted of questions
pertinent to the study. The data collected were analyzed using the t-test,
correlation analysis and multiple regression. The findings show that the level
of management of primary schools in the State was low and ineffective. Human
resources were better managed than physical resources in the schools while
small schools were found to be more effectively managed than large schools.
Rural schools were also more effectively managed than urban schools while years
of teaching experience show significant relationship with effective management
of schools. It was however, found that there was a low level usage of certain
management tools by school head teachers. Based on these finding, it was
recommended that head teachers should be exposed to seminars and workshops to
equip them with modern tools and techniques of management while the State
Ministry of Education and the State Primary Education Board should intensify
more efforts at regular supervision and monitoring of schools for effective
management.
Education
in Nigeria is overseen by the Ministry of Education. And the local authorities
take responsibility for implementing policy for state-controlled public
education and state schools at a regional level. The education system is
divided into Kindergarten, primary education, primary education and tertiary
education.
This paper highlights some crucial issues that could
affect the effectiveness of the management of primary education in Nigeria. The
issues among other raised include, policy, funding, data and institutional
capacity building gaps. The paper concludes by making some possible suggestions
on how to tackle these issues and problems both in the far and near future.
Primary
education, in the geographical entity that is referred to presently as Nigeria,
was 164 years old early this year. Before independence, the system was
administered by different sets of managers including the Christian missionaries
(1843-1882), the colonial government (1882-1940’s) and the regional governments
(1950’s). Since, independence in 1960, the federal, state and local governments
have played significant role in the administration of primary education. Poor
administration has been the bane of the education system since inception. It is
displayed in different ugly forms including poor timing of policy inauguration
and programme implementation and pupil population explosion with the attendant
result of dearth of educational resources. Statistical constraint, financial constraint
and political constraint have contributed to the problem of poor management.
For the system to survive, there is the need on the part of the nation to
ensure political stability. It is only, when the polity is stable and all the
tiers of government display the necessary political will that all the 3
constraints will be taken care of once and for all. The system will thus be
invigorated and made fully prepared for the challenges in the future.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
There is no gainsaying the fact that education is very
vital to the pace of social, political and economic development of any nation.
This is why most nations of the world strive to devote a sizeable proportion of
their Gross National Income to develop the educational sector. In Nigeria,
between 7.6% and 9.9% of our annual expenditure is devoted to education.
Management of primary education refers to the process of planning, organizing,
directing, staffing, coordinating, budgeting for and reporting on primary
education system.
Primary
education in Nigeria refers to the education which children receive from the
age of 6 years to 11 years plus. It is the foundation level of the educational
system which runs for six years, and it is aimed at developing basic literacy,
numeracy, communication skills and transmission of the culture of the people to
younger generations. Information gathered through the education data bank shows
that as at 1998, there were 41,814 primary schools with an enrolment of 16,348,324
(13.75% of these were females) and 468,770 teachers (26.45%) of these were
non-qualified teachers). The teacher/pupil ratio at the level was 1:38 while
the completion rate was 64.1 percent and the
transition rate of products to Junior Primary Education level was 39.1
percent. The structure of our population in Nigeria is such that about 45% of
the people are within the age bracket of six to twelve years. According to the
provisions of National Policy on Education, this is the corresponding age group
for primary education.
Obviously,
the enrolment pattern in the educational system follows the pyramidal structure
of the nation's population distribution. The primary level has the largest
enrolment, followed by the primary level and then the tertiary level. This
enrolment structure, no doubt, depicts the structure of our social demand for
the various levels of education. The primary education level, being the bedrock
of the child's basic education, is a very vital aspect of the nation's
educational system that deserves to be handled with great care and caution. Any
error committed in the organization and management of this level of education
may reverberate on other levels and thus seriously mar the lives of the people
and indeed the overall development of the nation. This is one good reason why
all the stakeholders must show enough concern for those issues that concern the
organizing and managing of our primary education system.
This
paper presents a humble attempt to highlight some contemporary issues and problems
facing the organization and management of primary education in Nigeria with a
view to proffering possible solutions to them.
Primary education is very important in the
Nigerian education system. It is the oldest system. Its history, in the
geographical entity that is now known as Nigeria, dates back to 164 years ago,
precisely 1843. It is 16 years, about 9 decades and at least a century older
than primary education, the Higher College, Yaba, the first known institution
of higher learning, whose all departments were sited at one location and
pre-primary education, respectively. Also, no other level comes close to
primary education in terms of clientele. As at December 1996, there were 48,242
primary schools. Total 16,761,591 pupils attended these. Total 14,796,074 of
them were in government or public institutions and the rest, 1,965,517, were in
private schools (Gidado, 1997). By 2003, the number of primary schools had
increased to 74,982 (The Universal Basic Education Commission, 2004).
In addition,
primary education is the only link between pre-primary education and primary
education systems. It takes in successful beneficiaries of the former and
supplies entrants into the latter. But more importantly, it is generally
regarded as the very foundation upon which the other strata of the educational
edifice are built. Granted that pre-primary education is a level below primary
education, it is not considered as the foundation. This is because pre-primary
education is available only in big towns and enjoyed by few children whose
parents could afford the high fees and other charges demanded by the private
proprietors. Besides, primary education is the first level of the nation
6-3-3-4 education system i.e., 6, 3, 3 and 4 years of primary education, junior
primary education, senior primary education and university education,
respectively.
Primary education, in the Nigerian education system,
is very old, has the highest patronage and occupies a very important position.
Uninterestingly, however, it is a weak system resulting from poor
administration.
Primary
education is very important in the Nigerian education system. It is the oldest
system. Its history, in the geographical entity that is now known as Nigeria,
dates back to 164 years ago, precisely 1843. It is 16 years, about 9 decades
and at least a century older than primary education, the Higher College, Yaba,
the first known institution of higher learning, whose all departments were
sited at one location and pre-primary education, respectively. Also, no other
level comes close to primary education in terms of clientele. As at December
1996, there were 48,242 primary schools. Total 16,761,591 pupils attended
these. Total 14,796,074 of them were in government or public institutions and
the rest, 1,965,517, were in private schools (Gidado, 1997). By 2003, the
number of primary schools had increased to 74,982 (The Universal Basic Education
Commission, 2004).
In addition,
primary education is the only link between pre-primary education and primary
education systems. It takes in successful beneficiaries of the former and
supplies entrants into the latter. But more importantly, it is generally
regarded as the very foundation upon which the other strata of the educational
edifice are built. Granted that pre-primary education is a level below primary
education, it is not considered as the foundation. This is because pre-primary
education is available only in big towns and enjoyed by few children whose
parents could afford the high fees and other charges demanded by the private
proprietors. Besides, primary education is the first level of the nation’s
6-3-3-4 education system i.e., 6, 3, 3 and 4 years of primary education, junior
primary education, senior primary education and university education,
respectively. Primary education, in the Nigerian education system, is very old,
has the highest patronage and occupies a very important position. Uninterestingly,
however, it is a weak system resulting from poor administration.
1.2 PROBLEM OF
THE STUDY
Management
of primary education in Nigeria can hardly be given a pass mark is spite of all
the efforts put up all these long decades. The first set of managers, the
missionaries, could not accomplish much as evangelization was their goal.
During the time, the management of the system was rather shoddy with the
attendant result of poor quality of education.
Uninterestingly, however, poor administration
is still a problem. This fact has been acknowledged openly by the nation rulers during their tenure in office. While,
inaugurating the National Primary Education Commission in 1989, General Ibrahim
Babangida agreed that poor management was part of what led to the collapse of
the 1976 free Universal Primary Education scheme (The Guardian, 1989). In the
same vein, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo remarked, at the launching of the Universal
Basic Education, that a number of unexpected and preventable problems made the
Universal Primary Education of 1976 a programme that could not continue or last
for a long time (The Guardian, 1999).
Poor
administration is noticed in different ways. One of them is poor timing of
policy inauguration and programme implementation. A case that readily comes to
mind is that of the timing of the implementation of the free Universal Primary
Education programme and the National Policy on Education. Ideally, a policy
should first be in place before the implementation of an educational programme.
But this was not the case as regards the inauguration of the UPE, a scheme
believed to be the biggest of its kind in the continent and the launching of
the National Policy on Education through which the scheme was managed. The
exercise was carried out anti-clockwise, so to say. The policy came out in
1977, whereas, the UPE programme was launched in a hurry a year earlier.
Pupil population explosion is another way of
showing poor administration. The free Universal Primary Education scheme
launched by the regional governments, for instance, was not a story of full
success. In Western Region, 547,760 pupils showed up to be taught in class I
whereas the government planned for just 170,000 persons. The situation was even
worse in the Eastern Region. The same experience was had during the launching
of the UPE scheme in 1976. Whereas, it was projected that 2,300,000 6 years old
would be admitted to primary class I at the commencement of the programme,
3,000,000 children actually appeared. This was 30% underestimation.
Naturally, the attendant result of pupil
population explosion is inadequacy of educational resources. A decade after the
federal government started the free UPE scheme and the full involvement of the
local government in its administration; a one-time Minister of Education and
Youth Development, Aminu (1986), presented this deeply shocking picture:
The problem was compounded the more by the
inadequacy in quantity and quality of the most important resource-teachers. The
number available was grossly insufficient to cope with the myriads of pupils.
Besides, the quality of the teaching workforce on ground was poor outright. The
government herself admitted, in 1977, that … a large number of our primary
school teachers are below Grade II certificate or are untrained (Federal
Republic of Nigeria, 1978). The case of most of the teachers, who were ignorant
as to the objectives of the system let alone knowing how to assist their pupils
to achieve them, was like that of a blind leading the blind.
Many of the teachers
in the system presently have Teachers’ Grade II Certificate through the
distance-learning programme provided by the National Teachers’ Institute.
According to Oni (1995) Anyone who has participated in the grading of the
examination scripts of this crop of teachers will sympathize with the primary
education system. . . . In not too distant future, all . . . will acquire the
Nigeria Certificate in Education but whether they have benefited from the
teacher education programme or not is another thing entirely.
Pupil population explosion is as a result of
poor projection. Poor projection again, is caused by statistical deficiency.
This is a major constraint.
There can be no doubt that when policy
decisions are based on Incorrect figures, the anticipated quantitative targets
can never be attained. For years, conduct of census has not been regular.
Besides, on a number of occasions, the exercise had suffered from different
difficulties including inadequate funds, manpower and uncooperative attitude of
the citizenry when, they thought that it was a method devised by the government
to have information for the purpose of taxation or they entertained the phobia
of domination. Educational planners are thus handicapped when it comes to
answering questions such as the number of children in the country presently or
the number that will likely be each year in the years of the planning period.
Another major constraint is financial
constraint. Inadequate financial resources had affected the supply of competent
personnel and the provision of physical/material resources for the system
almost since inception.
The
missionaries could not accomplish much because the funds available to them were
limited. Understandably, the colonial government introduced grants-in-aid system
to assist any mission that applied. The 8-year free Universal Primary Education
programme of the Eastern Regional Government in the 50’s failed due partly to
inadequate financing. In the early part of 80’s, global oil crisis resulted
in drop in national revenue and again took toll on the educational system. The
Universal Primary Education scheme launched in 1976 too suffered major setback
because the policy was conceived at a time Nigeria was a land flowing with milk
and honey, but born during the period of serious economic recession.
The problem of funding the educational system
in Rivers State, Nigeria has been a matter of concern to stakeholders in
education[22,33]. The problem of pupils’ repeating a class for 1 or 2 years
tends to constitute wastage in the system. This is in view of the fact that the
space which could have been occupied by a new pupil would have to be retained
for a repeater thereby siphoning more funds from government in terms of the
continued teaching of the repeater in the same class for more than one year.
Many reasons perhaps could be responsible for this development. Prominent among
these reasons was perhaps the quality of teachers’ in the school system. The
problem of this study therefore was to determine what influence teacher quality
had on internal efficiency of primary schools in Rivers State, Nigeria?
1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
1. To evaluate the management of primary schools
in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state.
2. To know the strategies of managing primary
schools in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state.
3. To assess the effort of government and community involvement in the
management of primary schools in Nigeria.
4. To evaluate Nigeria primary education
policy and its implication and efficiency in the management of primary schools
in Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state.
5. To challenges and problems in the
management of primary schools in Nigeria.
6. To recommend possible solution to the challenges and
problems in the management of primary schools in Nigeria.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTION
1. How can one evaluate the management of primary schools in
Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state?
2. What are the strategies of managing
primary schools in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers
state?
3. What are
the effort of government and
community involvement in the management of primary schools in Nigeria?
4.Is Nigeria primary education policies
efficiency in the management of primary schools in Obio/Akpor local government
of Rivers state?
What are the challenges and problems in the
management of primary schools in Nigeria?
6. Are there possible solution to the
challenges and problems in the management of primary schools in Nigeria?
1.5 RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
H0: One cannot evaluate the management of
primary schools in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers
state.
H1: One can evaluate the management of
primary schools in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers
state.
H0: There is no strategies of managing
primary schools in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers
state.
H1: There is strategies of managing primary
schools in Nigeria especially Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state.
H0: There are no efforts of government and community involvement in the
management of primary schools in Nigeria.
H1: There are efforts of government and
community involvement in the management of primary schools in Nigeria.
H0: There is no significant relationship
between Nigeria primary education policies efficiency in the management of
primary schools in Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state.
H1: There is a significant relationship
between Nigeria primary education policies efficiency in the management of
primary schools in Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Some of the objective of
primary education in Nigeria as stated in the National Policy of
Education (NPE, 1998: 17) are: Development and
promotion of Nigerian languages, art and culture in the context of world cultural
heritage. Inspire students with a desire for self improvement and achievement
of excellence. Raise a generation of people who can think for themselves,
respect the views and feelings of others, respect the dignity of labour,
appreciate those values specified under our broad national goals and live as
good citizens. Amongst such national goals is the full integration of the individual into the community; and
better
human relationship, national unity as well as
towards social, cultural, economic, political.
Scientific and technological development. These well
stated objectives if achieved could
lead to scientific and technological development.
Forty years after independent, Nigeria is in the
group of under-developed countries, characterized by
increase in dropout rate from school at
all levels of the education system, rural urban
migration, teenage girl involving themselves in
international prostitution, lack of respect for
elders, teachers and school authority by studentss.
In assessing principals administrative effectiveness
Oghuvbu (2000), focused on leadership,
supervision of institution and relationship with
community, based on male and female teacher
perception. Also in assessing teachers effectiveness
in Nigeria primary school Akpotu and
Oghuvbu (2004) focused on teachers, classroom
attendance, competency in content and
pedagogy, relationship with students and
disciplinary qualities based on primary school
students perception. A large percentage of the
population that complains about poor quality of primary education is residents
in various communities. These residents are the producers of school raw
materials (children) and the consumers of the products of the schools. Since
community residents are the immediate users and those who bear the positive and
negative consequences of ineffective and inefficient primary school
administration, this study is deigned to identify the significant role which
community leaders can play in assisting
school administration in addressing this problem.
Specially, the purpose of this paper is to
empirically test community’s assessment of primary
school administration to ascertain the
perception of the general public on the quality of
primary education in terms of production of
good quality, disciplined and skilled manpower for
the labour market and students for tertiary
institutions.
1.7 SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
This reseach work is on assessment of primary
school management in Obio/Akpor local government area of Rivers state. The
researchers limited this work to Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers state as
the geographical limitation and have its content limitation .
1.8
LIMITATION OF STUDY
Despite the
limited scope of this study certain constraints were encountered during the
research of this project. Some of the
constraints experienced by the researcher were given below:
i. TIME: This was a
major constraint on the researcher during the period of the work. Considering
the limited time given for this study, there was not much time to give this
research the needed attention.
ii. FINANCE: Owing to
the financial difficulty prevalent in the country and it’s resultant prices of
commodities, transportation fares, research materials etc. The researcher did
not find it easy meeting all his financial obligations.
iii. INFORMATION CONSTRAINTS: Nigerian
researchers have never had it easy when it comes to obtaining necessary
information relevant to their area of study from private business organization
and even government agencies. Teachers in Obio/Akpor local government of Rivers
state find it difficult to reveal their internal operations. The primary information
was collected through face-to-face interview getting the published materials on
this topic meant going from one library to other which was not easy.
1.9 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Effective Management: Effective
Management’’ as an effective control of any organisation or system. It is a
judicious means to accomplish an end i.e. management is taken an effective
control of an existing situation and the effective maintenance of the same.
Education has existed long before the
establishment of organised schools. Even in primitive societies, there was
education of a kind. Therefore, education itself is life and life is education,
for it is a process of learning to live a meaningful, acceptable and successful
life with any given society. Education is therefore usually supported by the
community when set up by individuals, groups or religious establishments.
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