Environmental Variables And The Implementation Of Free And Compulsory Education
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study:
The device for a drastic reduction of
illiteracy in modern societies is a
basic concern of every society in the world. This is because education is one of the
vital indices used in the measurement and categorization of nations as underdevelopment, developed or
developing. For Nigeria to be categorized are developing the nation, she must enhance the quality of literacy among its citizens by ensuring that every member of the society has access
to western education. Education is an
important key to the development of
any society.
In fact, education is an
instrument a society can use to solve her
problems. Nigeria’s educational system has witnessed a service of amendment in policies and programs.
In fact, many of the changes in educational policies of Nigeria are as a result of poor planning and implementation among other things. (Umoh, 2006).
Universal Basic Education is the
educational activities that children,
youths, and adults participate; it is a rune year free and compulsory education program. It comprises six (6) years of primary education and three years
of junior secondary education. One
of its fundamental principles is that everybody must have access to equivalent education comprehensively and co-educationally.
The objectives of the Universal
Basic Education program is to
develop the entire Nigerian citizen with a
strong consciousness for education and a strong commitment
to its vigorous promotion, provide free Universal
Basic Education for every Nigerian child of school going age and reduce and other out-of-school children or adolescent through the appropriate form of
complementary approaches to the
universal basic education (Akinbiyi, 2010).
According to Aghenta (2008), A free
compulsory school system connotes an educational program that is tuition-free and made obligatory for the
corresponding school-age population in the same vein, the Federal Government of
Nigeria (1998) reiterates that the primary and the Junior Secondary Education
shall be tuition-free, Universal and compulsory. The education is for all
children between the age of six and fifteen years. In effect, it encompasses
education in the primary and Junior Secondary Schools. The intention of this
Universal Basic Education was to make education free and also compulsory for
all Nigerian inspective of age, sex, race, religion, occupation or location. It
this implies that the background of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) has
been constitutionally enunciated as a means of providing access to education
for all. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) would this, lay the foundation for
basic literacy, numeracy and communication in the society (Uyanga, 2012).
This, although the Federal Government of Nigeria
land the foundation of Universal Basic Education in the country in September,
1999, the Akwa Ibom State Government in 2009, extended this program to Senior
Secondary Education in the state by making it be free and compulsory. With
this policy, the state educational sector became rebranded, repositioned and
completely repackaged (AKSG, 2010). Also, with the child’s right act enacted by
the state government just a few months later, education in Akwa Ibom State
became a foundational right for all children residing in the state (AKSG,
2010). To show its commitment to compulsory education, the government
reeled out new monitoring policy on 26th April 2010 to ensure the
full implementation and to the consulate on the gains so far recorded. The
government motoring policy stressed that any child of school age found on the
street during school hours whether in uniform or not will be arrested alongside
with parents or guardian and prosecuted accordingly (AKSG, 2010).
The environment variables that affect teaching and
learning include the following:- science and computer laboratories, library
facilities, adequate classroom facilities, workshop facilities, and playgrounds
to mention but a few. Teachers and other personnel to manage and service the
physical facilities are the teaching, non-teaching, and the administrative staff
of the school.
The availability of those resources and
facilities in a given school
environment influence the teaching, learning and the performance of both the teachers and the students (Nsa, 2012)
The menace of academic failure among young people in our secondary schools has staved both
the government and stave holders
in the face. The environmental of free/compulsory education in junior secondary
schools in Abak Local Government include overcrowded classroom (Class size),
this is seen as an upsurge in the school population. This means that the number of
school enrollment in the state public secondary schools has increased
tremendously. With the growth in student’s population and subsequent increase
in teaching staff, the effectiveness of the school administration may be faced with
several challenges.
The relationship between school population and
administrative effectiveness has been a perplexing one for educators. Studies
have found that the physical environment, class overcrowding, and teaching
methods are all environmental variables that affect teaching and learning (Zockoff,
2012). Consequently, an overcrowded classroom is suspected to increase the
possibilities for mass failure and make students lose interest in school.
This is because overpopulated classes do not allow an individual student to
get adequate attention from teachers, which invariably, leads to low reading
scores, frustration and poor academic performance (Zockoff, 2012).
Supply of school facilities is another the environmental variable that may positively or negatively affect the effective
implementation of free/compulsory education, because when the school is said to
be tuition-free, the population the explosion should go along with the
various facilities to meet with the explosion, when there is an absence of this, the efficiency
of free/compulsory education may be hampered.
Hence, this study seeks to investigate
environmental variables and how they relate to the effective implementation of
free and compulsory education in Abak Local Government area.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
There has been an upsurge in the number of
secondary school students as a consequence of free and compulsory education
policy by the State Government. On the contrary, there seems to be an increasing rate of administrative laxity in the area where administrators are
not to be found to be lax. The issue is that education has been made free and
compulsory in the state and there is a subsequent upsurge of student’s intake
in schools. This has expectedly brought about challenges and pressures on all facts
of public secondary schools administration, including among other things, the dearth of statistic on student’s enrolment, the paucity of qualified teachers
inadequate supply of school facilities, poor school supervision, and poor
managing school budgets or funds. In line with the problems, there arises
the need to empirically assess the environmental variables that could
positively or negatively affect the implementation of free /compulsory
education in junior secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area.
1.3 Objectives of the Study:
The main objective of this study was to determine
the relationship of mental variables to implementation of free /compulsory
education in junior secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area
specifically, the study sought to determine;
1. The
influence of overcrowded classroom on the implantation of free/compulsory
education in junior secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area.
2. The
influence of school facilities on the implementation of free /compulsory
education in junior secondary schools in Abak Local Government Area.
1.4 Significance of the Study:
The study will be of immense significance to the following;
1.The
school administrators: it will proper solution to the problems associated
with free and compulsory education. This will help the
administrators to think of how to
manage population explosion in school.
2. It
will also make parents and guardians be aware that it is
important for them to send their children to school,
and that it is free.
3. It
will also be of immense help to the Government to increase the number
of the classroom to accommodate the population
increase or explosion in our school.
1.5 Research Question:
The following research question was to
give the study a direction
1. Is there any significant influence of
overcrowded classroom on the
implementation of free/compulsory education
in junior secondary schools in Abak Local Government
Area?
2. Is there any significant influence of
specify which on
the
implementation of free/compulsory education in junior
secondary schools in Abak Local Government area?
1.4 Delimitation of the Study:
The study is delimited to Abak Local Government Area
and the various junior public secondary schools students who directly benefit
from free and compulsory education.
1.5 Limitation of the Study:
The study experienced various limitations
such as:-
Finance:
Inadequate finance to gather the necessary materials for the study.
Time
frame: The frame for the study was short.
1.6 Operational definition of terms:
Free/compulsory education: A tuition the free educational system in which all
children of school age must be attending school
at the lead up to junior secondary school level.
Overcrowded Classroom:
The classroom situation in which the total number of students is too large for
the teacher to control and also the schools are unable to control.
School
Facilities: The availability of school items such
as classroom, laboratories, library
which makes learning to be interesting.
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