Management of Primary and Secondary

Education in Nigeria

Edited byE.O. FagbamiyeJ.B. BabalolaM. FabunmiA.O. Ayeni

NAEAP Publication

Table of Contents

` PageTable of Contents:……………………………………………………… ivOpening Address:Professor Ayodele Falase ……….……… viiiWelcome Address: Professor D.F. Elaturoti…………………… xGoodwill Address: Professor E.G. Fagbamiye …………………xiiGoodwill Address: J.B. Babalola ……………………………….xviManagement of Secondary School Education in Nigeria: Problems and Challenges — W.O. Ibukun .........………………………………….. 1The Organization and Management of Primary and Secondary Education in Nigeria — N.A. Nwagwu ........…………………………………………..17Public Perception on Funding and Management of Primary Education in Nigeria: A Case Study of Benue and Nassarawa State— B.O. Ker & A. Okwori ......………………………………….. 27Provision and Management of School Facilities for the Implementation of Universal Basic Education (UBE) the Ogun State Experience— K. A. Salami...…………………………………………………. 41Crisis in Primary Education Management in Nigeria: The Need for Urgent Reforms — J.K. Adeyemi & V.O. Igbineweka………………………….. 51Managing Libraries for Effective Services in Nigerian Schools— Ayodeji B. Fabunmi..………………………………………… 63Crucial Issues in the Management of Primary Education in Nigeria— D. O. Durosaro ……………………………………………… 73Harnessing the Potentials of Stakeholders in the Development of Nigerian Educational System — O.A. Famade………………………………. 81The Role of the Head Teachers in School Plant Management and Maintenance— J.B. Ayodele ………………………………………………… 93Provision and Management of Facilities for Primary Education in Nigeria— A. O. Akinsolu..........……………………………………….. 101Provision and Management of Facilities in Primary Schools in Nigeria Implications for Policy Formulation — U.G. Emetarom............…….. 111Providing Cost - Effective Education for Nigerians in the 21st Century— E. O. Fagbamiye ..……………………………………………. 121Government Take-Over of Schools from Voluntary Agencies and Moves to Return the Schools - A Critical Appraisal — M.A. Ogunu...........…….. 137The Contribution of NGOs Towards Female Vocational Education in Nigeria— E.E. Uko-Aviomoh.........………………………………………. 157Voluntary Agency Participation in Funding Secondary Education in a Period

of Socio-Economic and Political Stress in Nigeria— F.O. Afolabi......…………………………………………….. 173Organization and Administration of Adult Literacy Centres— M. Borode......………………………………………………… 185Open and Distance Learning: A Strategy for the Development of Human Resources in Nigeria — Y. A. Fasasi........……………………………. 193National Open University of Nigeria: A Wasteful or Worthwhile Venture— C. I. Imhabekhai....………………………………………….. 205 Organization and Management of Nomadic Education in Nigeria— C.A. Ahmed & I. O. Osokoya...………………………………. 217Planning a Distance Education Programme (DEP): A Proposal— A. O. U. Onuka.........……………………………………... 227Distance Education in Nigeria: Strategies for Teaching at a Distance— B.O. Emunemu.........………………………………………. 243The Role of Libraries and Information Centres in Distance and Open Learning in the Development of Nigeria Education— F.A. Fabunmi .........…………………………………………… 255Community Participation in the Provision of Facilities in Secondary Schools in Nigeria — Adebola O. Jaiyeoba & A. I. Atanda...…………………. 263Systemic Participation in the Management of Primary and Secondary Education in the Nigeria Plural Democracy— A. Ajewumi .........…………………………………………… 271Decentralization as a Panacea for Nigeria's Education Misadventure— A. Ejiogu.…………………………………………………….. 291Quality Assurance and Child-Friendly Strategies for Improving Public School Effectiveness and Teacher Performance in a Democratic Nigeria— J. B. Babalola....………………………………………………. 303Public Participation in Educational Policy-Making in Nigeria: Trends, Issues and Prospects — P. O. Okunola........……………………………. 313Effective School - Community Relations for Enhanced Community Participation in Nigerian Schools— Rosemond B. Ayanniyi......…………………………………….. 325Challenges of Managers in the Management of Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme in Nigeria — Elizabeth Y. Obasa..……………….. 335Implementing Universal Basic Education in Nigeria: The Distance Learning Option — R. A. Alani.…………………………………………………. 341The Relevance of Universal Basic Education to National Development: A Planner's Perspective — M. Fabunmi........……………………… 351Maintaining School Facilities for Achievement of Universal Basic Education (UBE) Objectives — A. O. Ayeni & A.I. Atanda.....…………………… 361

The Role of Local Government Education Secretary in the Management of Primary Education Under Universal Basic Education Programme— S. A. Adewumi....……………………………………………. 373Towards the Enthronement of Conducive Learning Environment for a Successful UBE in a Federal State — M.E. Ijeoma .........………….. 381The Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme in Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects — S. O. Igwe............……………………………………. 397Planning and Management of Universal Basic Education (UBE) “Towards Effective and Efficient Programme Delivery”— S. O. Adedeji.........…………………………………………. 415Provision of Basic Education in a Federal State: A Search for an Efficient Path for Nigeria — I. A. Raji............………………………………… 427Universal Basic Education: Towards a Functional Development of Nigerian Education System — E. O. Adu ............……………………………….. 439Facilities Provision and Management for the Successful Implementation of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) Programme in Nigeria— P. K. Ojedele .........…………………………………………. 447Index: ..............…………………………………………………….. 456

Crucial Issues in the Management of Primary Education in Nigeria

ByD. O. Durosaro,

Department of Educational Management, University of Ilorin, Ilorin.

Abstract

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.

IntroductionThere 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

Crucial Issues in the Management of Primary Education in Nigeria 74

transition rate of products to Junior Secondary 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 secondary 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.

Contemporary Issues in Primary Education ManagementNo doubt, there are numerous issues and problems involved in the management of primary education system in Nigeria. However, this paper would simply highlight some of the crucial ones. Some of such issues include:a. Policy gap in the management of primary education in Nigeria,b. Data gaps,c. Funding gaps,d. Institutional capacity gaps,e. Expansion of the curriculum to cater for early childhood care,f. Gender balancing in enrolment,g. Quality assurance in Primary Education, h. Improved nutrition/Health of learners and i. Issues of HIV/AIDS pandemic

75 D. O. Durosaro

Over the last two decades, the management of primary education had been experiencing some problems as a result of policy gaps. Teachers salaries were not paid adequately, schools were not well-maintained and facilities were not adequately provided owing to the fact that management of primary education had to be oscillating among State Government, Local Government and Federal Government. At a time, State Government took control, later it was handed over to the Local Government and then to a Federal Commission. Moreover, it was just until lately that a concrete legislation was passed on primary education in Nigeria - the UBE Bill.

Lack of accurate and timely data has long been the bane of policy formulation and management of our primary education system in Nigeria. To obtain accurate data on enrolment, teachers, non-teaching staff and even facilities appears to be a difficult task for the school managers. The school managers and teachers appear to lack adequate cognitive development in the areas of data collection, analysis and storage. Apart from this lack of capacity of the school managers, school data collection and analysis seem to be marred by other socio-politico-economic factors such as fraud, politics of national resource allocation and social apathy.

Another issue of concern in the management of primary education in Nigeria is that of inadequate funding. According to a World Bank survey on Nigeria, the federal expenditure on education seems to be below 10% of its overall expenditures. For instance, between 1997 and 2002, the total share of education in total federal expenditure ranged between 9.9% and 7.6% with the trend showing a downward plunge (World Bank, 2002).Table 1: Federal Government Expenditure on Education as Percentage of total Federal Government Expenditure 1997 - 2002 _________________________________________________________Expenditure 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002Area % % % % % % Recurrent 12.3 12.0 11.7 9.4 9.5 9.1Capital 6.1 7.5 5.0 8.5 6.0 6.0Total 9.9 9.6 9.0 9.0 7.5 8.0 Source: FGN, Annual Budgets 1997-2002

It would have been more interesting to spell out what proportion of this expenditure on education actually goes to primary education but the non

Crucial Issues in the Management of Primary Education in Nigeria 76

availability of accurate data did not permit this. It is even worth mentioning here that the bulk of this meager expenditure shown on Table 1 even goes to recurrent activities. This issue of under-funding of education U so endemic that it has now encompassed series of other problems of shortages of human and material resources (Durosaro, 2000). The current pattern of investment within the education sector is such that the tertiary level gets the lion share while the primary level gets the least. This pattern is inversely related to number of institutions, enrolment and teachers at the different education levels. Table 2 presents the data on the pattern of funding of the educational levels by the Federal government.Table 2: Pattern of Federal Government funding of Education by levels,

more 1996 - 2002______________________________________________________________Educ. 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002Levels % % % % % % % Tertiary 79.9 78.9 68.4 69.1 75.8 68.1 76.9Secondary 10.4 11.3 14.6 18.7 15.3 15.5 15.6Primary 9.7 9.8 16.9 12.2 8.9 16.4 7.5Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0

The issue of gaps in the institutional capacity to deliver primary education of a sound quality is also crucial in the management of primary education in Nigeria. It is a known fact that most of our institutions do not have vision whether written or unwritten nor a mission statement to guide their activities. There is widespread shortage of qualified teachers, shortage of even classrooms, shortage of both pupils' and teachers' furniture and a dearth of required fund, teaching materials and textbooks. In a survey conducted on primary education cost, financing and management in Federal Capital Territory, Kogi, Kwara and Niger States, it was discovered that only f9.57% of the schools in Kwara and 27.08% of the schools in FCT had school libraries while none of the schools in both Kogi and Niger States had any school library. It was also found that 24% of schools in Kogi State, 21% of schools in Kwara State, 40.3% of schools in Niger State and 16.75% of schools in FCT were not using any form of wall charts teaching aids (Abdulkareem and Umar, 1997). All these gaps have combined with frequent teachers' strikes and absenteeism in recent years to weaken the capacity of the institutions to deliver sound primary education.

77 D. O. Durosaro

Furthermore, there is an emerging issue of great importance in the management of primary education in Nigeria. This is that of restructuring the level by expanding it to accommodate both the early childhood care and the pre-primary education curriculum. This is now a burning issue in view of the level of social poverty and the need for poverty alleviation by economic empowerment of women. Stakeholders in primary education are now being mobilized towards this direction with a view to encouraging both public and private participation. This issue will however have grave implications for funding, personnel, facilities, curriculum development and monitoring. A related dimension of this issue is that of expanding and restructuring the system to also cater adequately for the almajiris, area boys, street children and disabled school-age populace across the nation.

Furthermore, the issue of poor enrolment in primary schools in some special areas should be of great importance to primary education management in Nigeria. This issue has three major dimensions. The first is that of how to ensure gender balance in enrolment in some parts of the country. Owing to some socio-cultural factors in some parts of the country, female enrolment needs to be improved. In another part, it is the male enrolment that needs improvement. But in majority of cases, the second dimension is that of non-enrolment in public schools. Parents prefer the private school since they appear more effective. The third dimension of this issue is ensuring retention and completion once enrolled. Resolving this issue is closely connected to the next issue of poverty alleviation and provision of good nutrition for children.

The issue of poverty alleviation is more about the parents and the wider social constituency of primary education. This phenomenon impacts greatly on schooling particularly at the primary level. Owing to poverty, parents cannot afford to buy school uniforms, books, pay transportation cost and even provide good nutrition for their children. These impair both teaching and learning. There is no doubt that the primary school management should find a way of intervening in assisting the pupils within the national framework of poverty alleviation scheme. Some States have already introduced free mid-day meal service to primary schools. This meal service has some implications for school management to ensure it is .not counter-productive. Nutritional well-being in childhood has been shown to have large benefit on school performance as well as physical and mental capacity in later life (World Bank, 2003).

Crucial Issues in the Management of Primary Education in Nigeria 78

A similar issue which could also impact seriously on primary education is that of HIV/AIDS pandemic. This could have impact on both teachers and students and its effect on parents or guardians of the pupils could spillover to the school. It was reported in 2001 that the prevalence rate was 5.8% of teachers nationally (World Ban, 2003). Across the federation, it was found to range between 1.8% of teacher population in Jigawa and 13.5% of the teacher population in Benue. This disease was found to be prevalent in the age-group 20 - 24 years which forms the core age group from which primary school teachers are recruited in Nigeria.

Table 3: Projected Teacher Attrition due to HIV/AIDS Pandemic in Selected States of Nigeria, 2003

______________________________________________________________States No. of Teachers Prevalence rate Attrition of % of HIV/A IDS Teachers Benue 13848 13.5 185Lagos 18040 5.5 90Plateau 17526 5.0 98Rivers 8321 5.5 42

Table 3 presents the projected attrition of teachers due to HIV/AIDS disease in some selected States of Nigeria. This projection is based on the rates found for these States in a previous survey reported by the World Bank. Given the clear fact that AIDS is real and the spread is growing, there is the need to estimate its likely impact on the primary education management in Nigeria and ensure the problems are contained. This could be done through creation of HIV/AIDS awareness programmes on the school curriculum for both learners, teacher and even parents. Expert could be invited to assist in enlightening the school community on how to combat the spread of this pandemics.

ConclusionIt is quite clear from the foregoing that for primary education in

Nigeria to achieve its stated objectives, these crucial issues of policy, funding, data, curriculum review and capacity buildings gaps must be squarely addressed by education managers in Nigeria. In addition, the issues of genderization, poverty alleviation, pupils' and teachers' health and nutrition need prompt attention of the stakeholders and managers of

79 D. O. Durosaro

the system.Primary education is central to the achievement of the overall

national educational goals. The primary education managers, in their quest to continue to meet the national demand for primary education quite efficiently and effectively, must constantly device new and improved ways of managing the system. The following recommendations are put forth:

There is need for the creation of more social awareness on the recent Ube Bill to ensure compliance. The various States and Local Governments should also back this up with edicts and byelaws where necessary. Various tiers of government should also formulate clear policies on enrolment of pupils, funding, provision of facilities as well as quality assurance.

There is the urgent need to set a national minimum standard for primary education which must be followed by all providers of primary education in Nigeria whether private or public.

Since the government is still the major source of found to education in Nigeria, there is the need to change the pattern of funding so that provision for primary education should adequately match its needs,

To be able to take sound decisions on the management of primary education in Nigeria, there is the need to ensure availability of accurate data on the system. The present effort of the Federal Ministry of Education in collaboration with both the UNESCO and UNDP on the creation of an Education Data Bank is highly commendable (FGN/UNE SCO/UN DP, 2003). The government should give the data bank all the enabling environment required to generate and analyse and bank the data. The institutional managers and teachers should be constantly trained and retrained in the modern data management techniques.

There is the need to step up the institutional capacity building. The school managers should be mandated to attend training workshops and conferences to improve their managerial skills. Organizations like the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration, which have been set up for capacity building in educational management, should be empowered to start some annual training programmes towards this end.

Concerted efforts by ways of quality control and monitoring would improve the quality of public schools and the drift from them to private schools would be checked.

Effort should also be made to promote gender balance in schools

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through gender sensitivity of the teachers, curriculum and teaching materials. The school environment should be made more child-friendly.

The government needs to step up its poverty alleviation process by rendering assistance to parents indirectly through provision of free books, uniforms and even free mid-day meals to the children of the poor.

There is need to embark more aggressively on the public enlightenment on the HIV/AIDS disease control. This would help reduce both pupil and teacher loss that this disease could cause.

ReferencesAbdulkareem, A. Y. and I.O. Umar (1997) Follow-up Study on Primary

Education Cost, Financing and Management in Kogi, Kwara and Nigeria States and the Federal Capital Territory. National Primary Education Commission Project.

Durosaro, D.O. (2000) Resource Allocation and Utilization for University Education in Nigeria, Trends and Issues in E.G. Fagbamiye and D.O. Durosaro (eds,). Education and Productivity in Nigeria, N AEAP 51-67.

Federal Government of Nigeria (1997 - 2002) Annual BudgetsWorld Bank (2003) School Education in Nigeria: Preparing for Universal

Basic Education., (Human Development II, African Region), September 1.

FGN/UNESCO/UNDP (2003). A Decade of Basic Education Data in Nigeria (1988-1998).