POOR UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES AND SERVICES IS THE MAJOR DECLINE OF THE QUALITY OF EDUCATION IN NIGERIA TERTIARY EDUCATION

By: Kherlyddone

INTRODUCTION

The Nigerian tertiary school system is increasingly challenged with many complex problems. There is a general outcry that the standards of education are falling and morals flagging. Some blame pupils for this apparent decline in quality of education and moral values. A thoughtful few think that they are due to the nature of changes in all directions. Majority blame the teachers for the woes in our schools. They are not as devoted and dedicated to the cause of education as their predecessors. Teachers as a group blame parents and the children. They also blame government for unattractive condition of service and poor physical facilities in some parts of the educational system. This topic intends to focus on how poor utilization of the resources and services turns to be the major decline of the quality of education in Nigeria tertiary education. So, there is no doubt that the quality of our education has evidently fallen generally.

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DISCUSSION

The primary purpose of education is to bring about desirable change in behaviour through acquisition of skills, attitudes, competencies, critical and creative thinking. Teaching is a complex and demanding task that requires highly specialized skills, knowledge and resources to impact significantly on student learning. Availability and utilization of resources in an organization is important in achievement of its goals and objectives. Students learning outcome is influenced by appropriate utilization of school resources. Investing in educational resources is the key to ensuring that schools become institutions where students‟ work together, learn from each other and benefit from a supportive school environment, and consequently maximize student learning so that all students achieve their full learning potential.

The physical, human and financial resources invested in schools influence not only the education provided to students but also aspects of teachers and student motivation and consequently the educational outcomes. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) shows that resource shortages hinder instruction and lower student performance (OECD, 2007). In addition, inequalities in student‟s educational performance often reflect disparities in in the resources invested in schools (OECD, 2008). In some education systems, there are concerns that schools not only lack the resources to meet the educational requirements of their students, but that schools may have fewer resources with which to provide instruction to their students (OECD, 2008). In schools, there are a wide variety of resources that are directly or indirectly related to educational outcomes.

The quality of the products bears a direct relationship with the qualities of the facilities deployed in the process of production. Provision and utilization of facilities is a responsibility of stake holders in education. The government ensures the implementation of the national policy on education by providing the enabling environment. In 2003 the government came up with various requirements for every school in order to qualify for the funds popularly known as Tuition Waiver (TW). These funds provided by the government are supposed to be utilized in purchasing resources such as textbooks, exercise books, laboratory equipment and chemicals, teaching and learning aids reference materials, teacher‟s guides, chalk, dusters, registers and internal examinations. When targets are reached in the purchase of the above resources, funds can be allocated to purchase of items in other categories (Ministry of Education, 2003).

Tuition Waiver Management Training (TWMT), central province (2009) ascertains that government, parents are also involved in purchase of resources in schools and more so in putting up physical facilities through what is popularly referred to as parents teachers association (PTA) projects. The ministry of education has approved that every parent contributes Ksh. 2000 every year for P.T.A project. Provision of resources in secondary schools is also facilitated by the private sector, the non-governmental organizations and community. With availability of extrafunds over-crowding in classrooms can be reduced through provision of adequate furniture and equipment to improve teaching and learning environments. This will entail building of new classrooms and rehabilitation and maintenance of existing ones.

Empirical studies done in relation to resource utilization in education have revealed that essential facilities are not always available in schools. This inadequacy of teaching resources has been of serious concern to educators. Lyons (2012), states that learning is a complex activity that involves interplay of students‟ motivation, physical facilities, teaching resources, skills of teaching and curriculum demands. The process of managing and organizing resources is called resource utilization. The utilization of resources in education brings about fruitful learning outcomes since resources stimulate students learning as well as motivating them. A common way to examine the utilization of education resources is to analyze school spending. School expenditures are important to examine because they generally constitute the bulk of all resources devoted to schooling and they are tractable instruments of education policy (Meghir, 2002). Availability of school resources enhances the effectiveness of schools as these are basic things that can bring about good academic performance in the students. Maicibi (2003) observed that when the right quantity and quality of human resources is brought together, it can manipulate other resources towards realizing institutional goals and objectives. According to Raw (2003) appropriate utilization of resources in schools controls dropout rates, maintains student discipline and makes students remain motivated for longer a period. School resources including classrooms, desks, chairs, computers, textbooks, teachers, principals, school operating expenses and other instructional equipment/materials are critical in making teaching-learning more effective. They help improve access and educational outcomes since students are less likely to be absent from schools that provide interesting, meaningful and relevant experiences to them. These resources should be provided in quality and quantity in schools for effective teaching-learning process.

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CONCLUSION

While policies and funding are resisting creating smaller learning communities, educational leaders are still faced with the task of identifying physical environmental factors that impact academic achievement of their students. Within any size of school setting, it is important that students are given a clean and bright surrounding so that learning can take place in an optimal setting.

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