Distribution and utilization of educational resources in two state/federal government owned schools

Thesis Overview

<p> <strong>INTRODUCTION</strong><br><strong>BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY</strong><br>Interest in the study of how resources are allocated at variety of levels within educational system grew rapidly during the 1970’s and 1980’s (Adeleke, 1994). According to Adeleke, the desire to learn more about the internal allocation of resources for education has not been limited to decentralization of the schooling systems such as in the United States, Canada and Nigeria. Even in highly centralized school governance systems, considerable variation exists at local levels on how educational resources are ultimately distributed and utilized. Studies have began to examine these internal distribution practices in wide variety of nations around the world (Allenson, 2000). Otis (1997) states that in Nigeria, the early work on education resources allocation dates back from the early twentieth century and this focused on the availability, apportionment and utilization of the resources among constituent local Education Agencies or Authorities.<br>The distribution and utilization of education resources witness challenges such as how much resources are allocated to various schools, how has the population of the schools commensurate with the resources allocated to them. There is interest on what happens to the resources allocated for distribution to various educational levels of primary, secondary and tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Also, there is an interest on the type of programmes run by the schools and the type of students admitted. These determine to a large extent whether the resources allocated to the schools are well utilized or not (Anyamele, 2001). According to Obadina (1998), there is the desire to learn more about what educational managers do with the resources allocated to their schools. Also there is the desire to learn more about these internal resources allocation.<br>According to Uzoma (1994), the budget allocation for education is nothing to write home about, a situation where less than 10 per cent of fiscal allocation is given to education, a sector that requires enormous or huge expenditure. This has resulted in low salary structure of teachers, lack of full remuneration by teachers and even the standard of education in the country has been affected. Another problem of allocation and utilization of educational resources is the corrupt practices of the managers of the resources and their lack of vision and misplaced priorities they give to certain areas of education sector which ought not to be so. Research examining inequalities within schools is hardly new. Analysis such as Abel (1999), for years have been concerned with the phenomena such as the tracking of students by academic specialization or the grouping of students for instructional purposes. According to them, there have been studies of high school tracking where findings suggest that students assigned to the non-academic track are seriously discriminated against. There has also been studies of instructional grouping where the findings reveal substantial inequalities in the amount and character of the instructional resources that are supplied (Breaben and Oakes, 1991). This study among other things will treat the availability, distribution and utilization of resources to various levels in the state and federal government owned schools.<br><strong>STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM</strong><br>According to Anyanwu (1990), education in Nigeria has not been well treated in terms of location and utilization of resources. For instance, the state and federal government owned schools suffer the problem of low funding which is as a result of low budget allocation of below 10 per cent to the education sector, whereas education ought to be given a lion share of the fiscal allocation from federation account. The inadequate allocation and poor utilization of the education resources has resulted in the low remuneration of the teaching personnel as well as low or poor availability of instructional materials for effective teaching and processes. This has affected the standard of education negatively.<br>Many schools lack current materials in their libraries, poor equipment in science laboratories and poor maintenance of available infrastructure and in some cases even lack of manpower to utilize the scarce material resources that are available in schools. This has been the greatest problem of our school system, and has impacted negatively on our schools generally. The problem of this study therefore, is on poor distribution and utilization of educational resources in Lagos State Secondary Schools and Federal Government Colleges in Lagos State.<br><strong>PURPOSE OF THE STUDY</strong><br>This study examines the distribution and utilization of education resources in two state schools and two federal government owned schools in Lagos State. The specific objectives of this study are:<br>i. To determine whether education resources have been distributed well in Nigerian schools.<br>ii. To determine whether the resources allocated to schools are utilized effectively by educational personnel.<br>iii. To compare and contrast between the allocation and distribution of resources to both states and federal government owned schools.<br>iv. To examine the problem of ineffective distribution and utilization of education resources in our schools.<br><strong>RESEARCH QUESTIONS</strong><br>The following research questions will be answered during the course of the study:<br>i. Have education resources been well distributed in Nigerian schools?<br>ii. To what extent is the resources allocated to schools effectively utilized?<br>iii. Does the government allocate adequate resources to the education sector in Lagos State?<br>iv. To what extent can we compare and contrast the allocation and distribution of the resources in both the federal and the state owned schools?<br>v. What are the problems of resource allocation, distribution and utilization in Nigeria schools?<br><strong>RESEARCH HYPOTHESES</strong><br>The following hypotheses will be tested in the course of the study: There is no significant relationship between allocation of resources and educational standard in Nigerian secondary schools (both Lagos State and Federal Schools). There is no significant relationship between distribution and utilization of resources in schools.<br><strong>SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY</strong><br>This study will benefit teachers, principals and school authorities at both the state and the federal levels of our schools system. For instance, teachers would find out this beneficial because it will give them an insight on the low level of funds and other resources allocated to educational sector. Also, the government especially at the federal level will through this study understand that the budgetary allocations given to education is inadequate and may have a change of policy or a rethink on the issue of budgetary allocation to education in Nigeria. the study will be an important reference material to new researchers and students as well as the general public.<br><strong>SCOPE OF THE STUDY</strong><br>The study attempts to investigate the distribution and utilization of educational resources in two state owned schools and two federal government owned schools in Lagos State of Nigeria.<br><strong>DEFINITION OF TERMS</strong><br>The following operational terms have been defined as they will be used in this study:<br>Distribution: This refers to the way and manner in which educational materials (resources) are shared or sent to various arms of our educational system to be utilized in order to sustain growth and educational development.<br>Utilization: This refers to the usage of the shared educational resources for a practical purpose of developing the entire school sector.<br>Resources: This could be human or material resources in education. It is the human or material resources that are needed to enhance the growth and development of a country’s educational system. Human resources are the personnel (principals/teachers/other staff), while material resources are the funds and other educational materials used in schools.<br>Allocation: This is an amount of money and or space that is given to a particular school for a specific purpose. This is the act of giving instructional material to a particular school for the aim of achieving desired goals or objectives. <br></p>