Department of Guidance and Counseling

EFFECT OF PUBLIC POLICY IMPLEMENTATION ON COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT IN NIGERIA (A CASE STUDY OF SOME SELECTED SCHOOLS IN ESAN WEST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA)

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the study

The British officially introduced western Education into Nigeria in the 1840s through the Christian Missionaries. The aims of education as given by the missionaries were to enable recipients to learn to read the bible in English and the local languages. Education in Africa generally had not been adapted to the needs and aspirations of the people. Consequently, it failed to satisfy the educational national aspirations of Nigerians (Eneh, 2015). In a quest for a better and indigenous education, in 1971 a National Curriculum Conference (NCC) was organized, and the report of the conference led to the first 1977 a National Policy on Education was initiated.

The importance of education cannot be over-emphasized; as nations who prioritize education progress by leaps and bounds. Global educational policy as the UN Human Rights declared access and participation of education as a fundamental human right for all global citizens of the world. To this effect, the greatest investment a nation can make for the development of its economic, sociological and human resources is that of education (Odukoya, 2009). Furthermore, one of the founding fathers of Nigeria’s educational policy framework defines education as the “aggregate of all the processes by which a child or an adult develops the abilities, attitudes and other forms of behavior which are of positive value to the society in which he lives, that is to say, it is a process of disseminating knowledge either to ensure social control or to guarantee rational direction of the society or both”. That is to say that every child regardless of tribe, race or family background has a right to sound and quality education; as education contributes to the growth and development of societies in Nigeria (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2007). Additionally, Odukoya (2009) states, “the relationship between education and development has been established, such that education is now internationally accepted as a key development index and it is in recognition of this importance that governments all over the world have made commitments in their countries’ educational policies for their citizens to have access to education”.

Consequently, the education sector suffers from a number of challenges at different levels with an ultimate bearing on populations who are unable to have their basic right to education. The countries in the African region particularly face challenges in meeting the basic needs of education due to multiple socio-economic and political problems. With this background, this paper concerns the challenges to Nigerian education policy.

Nigerian education policy has assumed central importance for the country. It is one of the social policies of the government used in strengthening and improving the wellbeing of its citizens (Federal Ministry of Education, 2008). Over the years, Nigeria has expressed a commitment to education, with the idea that reducing illiteracy and ignorance will form the foundation for accelerated national development. With this context, Nigerian government has revised and upheld education policies for three times. The Education sector is overseen at three levels of government: Ministry of Education, state governments and local education authorities (Imam, 2012). The Federal government mainly with the state governments formulates the education policy, manage the education sector and authorize the state and local governments to act according to regulations set by the federal government (Imam, 2012).

As part of constitutional provisions of education in Nigeria, the post-primary, professional, technical and university level education is directly under the control of federal government, and early childhood education and primary schools are under the responsibility of the local authorities while adhering to the education policy designed by the federal government. However, in practice, the federal government controls the financial management of primary school education. In the Nigerian constitution, the federal government can formulate the policy, maintain the education standards and allocate the resources, and the implementation of the education policy is responsibility of the State government and local authorities (World Data on Education, 2015).

The current education policy was devised in 2010 with three tiers of education. It works on the principle of 9-3-4, that is, the primary and junior schools are completed in 9 years, the senior school in 3 years; and university in 4 years. The children start school at the age of 4 years and graduate from primary school with a primary school certificate. Although Nigerians speak native and regional languages, the official language is English and medium of instruction in schools is also English. Similarly, learners use English language to write, speak and read. Nigerian government has also set specific education goals in its document embodying the strategic vision for education, under the title of Nigeria Vision 20:2020 (Federal Ministry of Education, 2008). These strategies have been designed to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for education in Nigeria. The spirit of these goals is to make education accessible for every child in Nigeria and to equip every Nigerian with necessary skills, abilities and knowledge to make them useful members of the society.

However, regardless of the incontrovertible evidence that education is crucial to the development of the nation and its realization by the Nigerian government, there remain inequalities and distortions in access to education in Nigeria (Odukoya, 2009). A number of challenges are associated with this which is pertinent to both the formulation and implementation of the educational policy. Additionally, the socio-economic and political fabric in Nigeria has been facing wear and tear for decades which is affecting many factors related to education such as, policies regarding the teachers’ practice and payments, infrastructure of the schools, poor classroom environment and inadequate schools. (Odia and Omonmwan , 2007) have discussed the poor state of education in Nigeria by stating that;

Education in Nigeria is bisected with myriads of problems. These includes; poor funding and thus poor educational infrastructures, inadequate classrooms, teaching aids (projectors, 10  computers, laboratories and libraries), paucity of quality teachers and poor, polluted learning environment. In addition to these inadequacies, Nigeria’s school system is plagued with numerous social vices such as examination malpractices, cultism, hooliganism and corruption. After careful considerations, it can be gauged from the facts presented above that education policy in letter embodies high ambitions catering to the educational needs of every Nigerian, however, in practice, the Nigerian educational policy is either not being implemented or not implemented in its true spirit.

The case of federal deficiency of allocation and management of educational resources even at primary school level is an example of not meeting the 2020 educational vision of the nation. This proves a gap between policy formulation and policy implementation. Moreover, there is an urgent need for an educational policy which is designed with the peoples input, that emerges from their own root and cultural experience and where their diversity is an asset not a source for prejudice. In this 21st century therefore, there is a need to educate all-round students who can deal with interdisciplinary issues, emphasize the importance of lifelong learning, effective communication and innovation, social responsibilities, strong collaboration, problem solving skills, and increase their ability to adjust to rapidly changing times. Lastly, an effective and strict policy implementation plan is also the need of time which would ensure that Nigerian people receive what they have been promised.

Statement of the problem

Regrettably, there are increasing complaints about the poor state of education in Nigeria. It was observed that “although there have been changes that resulted in three revised editions of the national educational policy; there is still a widened western educational gap between the north and south of Nigeria with the predominantly Muslim areas of the north lagging”. While the South is making a lot of progress in education, education in the Northern part of the country has been slow and retrogressive due to religious and cultural issues. There also appears to be a gap in policy formulation and implementation. Odukoya (2009) posits, “For thirty years the nation has been unable to successfully implement the National Policy on Education (NPE). The policy which 12 came into existence in 1997 after over four years of deliberations at various levels appeared to have solutions to virtually all core educational problems. However, there are apparent serious problems in the area of implementation”.

Education in Nigeria is bisected with myriads of problems. These includes; poor funding and thus poor educational infrastructures, inadequate classrooms, teaching aids (projectors, 10  computers, laboratories and libraries), paucity of quality teachers and poor, polluted learning environment. In addition to these inadequacies, Nigeria’s school system is plagued with numerous social vices such as examination malpractices, cultism, hooliganism and corruption. After careful considerations, it can be gauged from the facts presented above that education policy in letter embodies high ambitions catering to the educational needs of every Nigerian, however, in practice, the Nigerian.

Educational policy is either not being implemented or not implemented in its true spirit. The case of federal deficiency of allocation and management of educational resources even at primary school level is an example of not meeting the 2020. Hence this research study will be used to evaluate the effect of public policy implementation on educational development in Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose study is to address the issue of public policy implementation and to look into the issues of underfunding of the educational sector, neglect of the maintenance of the physical facilities and a deteriorating condition of instruction which in my opinion has led to the decline in academic standards. The total collapse of the infrastructure, poor learning environment, insufficient classrooms, and neglect and social abuse of the students. There were also incessant strikes embarked upon by teachers which routinely disrupted the school calendar which affected academic needs of every learner in schools.

Research Questions

1.     What are the instructional challenges confronting rural public school teachers in the implementation of mother tongue language policy required by the National Educational Policy document? How do teachers remedy such teaching and learning challenges?      

2.     How are rural school teachers and principals augmenting instructional resources as a result of administrative financial corruption of local school boards mandated to fund schools as prescribed by National Policy on Education (NPE)

What are the roles of Parent-Teachers Association of rural public schools in supporting curriculum policies and process stated in the National Policy of Education