Abstract
The thrust of this paper was to examine the alternative sources of funding for the Secondary Education policy in public schools in enugu state. It is concerned with one main question: How adequate is the current government funding mechanism? To answer the question, the paper sets out to achieve three objectives: i) To profile the current trends in unit funding of all levels of education in the country, and ii) to examine the alternative funding strategy for public secondary. The source of data for the paper was a combination of secondary data through desk literature review and primary data from a sample of 148 respondents drawn across various education stakeholders in the study locale. The major finding was that while on the one hand the Government through the Ministry of Education was implementing the free education policy; on the other hand , the education sector in the study locale was still fraught with myriad of finance related challenges.. It is recommended that secondary schools in Nigeria should device more user-friendly modes of generating extra funds from income generating activities that do not burden parents of children from poor socio-economic backgrounds.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Provision of public education involves mobilization and consumption of resources. The act of resource mobilization can be seen as a concerted effort to generate resources for a specified entity to fulfil a planned purpose. Such resources include, finance, human, material, machines, time, and nature itself (Ngware, 2007). Financial capital is a significant resource often assumed to be a part of physical capital. It is actually the basis for procurement, utilization, and maintenance of all types of resources. Without a strong financial base, it will be difficult to produce the right types of goods and services in desirable quantity and quality. Since the human economy is monetary, the availability of funds in any organization or institution is vital to its productive process and quality of its products and services. Specifically, resources are mobilized to achieve sustainability, non-dependency on single sources of funding, supplementary sources to existing funding, support to institutional overheads, alternative resources for new projects and to build reserve within the organization to allow for long-term investments such as infrastructure equipment or purchase of land (Omukoba et al, 2011).
An appraisal of Nigerian government funding indicates s that a significant portion is appropriated to funding education including secondary schools. However due to increasing cost of educational funding there has been calls to cut cost to reduce the overall cost of government spending in the educational sector. (Otieno & Colclough, 2009).But in view of the significance of the educational sector it is not proper to cut cost so as to avert the Damaging consequences. (Go, 2005).Therefore due to greater demand for education because the increased public demand for education and training has stretched the government budget so much, the government has, in response, had to intensify partnerships in educational funding with parents and communities, individual investors, civil society and donors. The education sector in Kenya, therefore, is financed from different sources depending on the categories of schools. Mainly public resources and grants from donors and bilateral loans fund the public education sector. Private investors, religious, charitable and other Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) also play a major role in financing education programs in various parts of the country (MOEST, 2001).Provision of quality secondary education is important in generating the opportunities and benefits of social and economic development as envisaged in vision 2030. The educational needs for secondary education have increased due to the introduction of Free Primary Education in 2003 and the increased transition rate. Secondary enrolment has grown from 0.9 million in 2004 and is expected to reach 2.7 million by 2015. This requires that the government commits more resources towards secondary education subsector in recurrent and physical infrastructure expansion. Currently the government faces budgetary constraints with the treasury claiming that there are no funds to employ more teachers and meet physical infrastructural development. With the implementation of the devolved administrative systems, government expenditure on education is likely to increase even more. This therefore casts doubt on the sustainability of government funding. There is need for school managements to explore other alternative sources of financing secondary education in Nigeria especially in the rural areas with an aim of achieving educational development goals, hence need for the study.
Sources of Financing Education
Various countries that are on track in achieving UPE are now looking for innovative strategies and financing options for expanding secondary education, consistent with national human capital development goals. However, fiscal constraints prevent many, especially lowincome countries, from relying solely on government revenue to finance desired educational expansion. To solve these problems, most countries have adopted policies to (a) charge tuition fees to recoup part of the cost of providing public education services; and/or (b) encourage development of private schools to handle at least part of the expansion. Assie Lumumba (2005) identifies five sources of financing education: the state, local communities, families, businesses and external sources. In general, for children from rural communities to access education at 17 lower costs, there is a tendency for the most broadbased contribution of rural communities to the costs of education to be situated in the framework of investment costs. The construction of school buildings is a significant area in which community participation is most visible and widespread mortality by about 8% (World Bank, 2005).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Provision of good quality secondary education is a critical tool in generating opportunities and benefits of social and economic development (World Bank Report, 2005). Educating people means putting opportunities into their hands and it is recognized as one of the best antipoverty strategies. It is also one of the best ways of ensuring a country’s economic prosperity and competiveness. It is estimated that average earnings increase by 11% with each additional year of education (Ndichu, 2003). A critical analysis of the Public and Private expenditure in education, however, indicates that the public and households are not getting their money’s worth in education (MOEST, 2001). This is because the country does not enjoy enrolment and participation rates consistent with its high level of public spending in education. As indicated in the sectoral analysis, the entire education system faces problems of access, equity, completion, equality and regional and gender disparities. As the government and other players in education therefore, find alternative viable strategies in pursuit of quality education for all, there are major challenges in the cost and financing of education that need to be addressed. The Facilities Development Unit of the Ministry of Higher Education also grants funds for specific development projects in schools identified for the development of certain facilities.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
To determine the strategies mobilized for alternative sources of funding secondary schools in Enugu State.
Specifically, The study
- profile the current public spending on education by level of education in Nigeria
- To examine the alternative funding of public secondary schools in Enugu state, Nigeria
- Research Questions
The following research questions were raised to guide the study:
- What is the current public spending on education by level of education in Nigeria
- What is the alternative funding of public secondary schools in Enugu state, Nigeria?
- What are the problems encountered in the operation of these ventures?
Significance of the study
This research work on the alternative source of funding for secondary schools in Nigeria is very important with respect to:
The researcher embarking on the study serves not only as challenge to the academic pursuit of the researcher but also as a source of widening the educational horizon of the researcher.
The government and policy makers will have an insight on the relationship between human capital development and economic development
For future study and knowledge: The research work will serve as a stimulant to other thesis for other researchers.
