A Statistical Relationship Between Students’ Course of Study and Their Attitude Towards Educational Development in Nigeria (a Case Study of Final Year Students of the University of Ibadan)
Chapter One
Objectives of the study
The following are the objectives of this study:
- To know the relationship between students course of study and their attitude towards educational development in Nigeria.
- To know the real issues militating against educational development in Nigeria.
- To suggest ways of improving educational development in Nigeria.
- To know the mindset of the youths towards the nature of the educational sector in Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
INTRODUCTION
There is a growing awareness that research reports on educational development in Nigeria has traditionally focused on studies carried out in the cities. Statistics available on educational development are mainly on enrolment in schools in the urban centers. A substantial literature focuses on the nature of educational provisions in the urban towns in the country. It is easy to talk of the number of primary and secondary schools in towns like Yenegoa, Calabar, Benin city, Kaduna and Kano, to mention but a few. Such statistics are hardly available about educational development in the rural areas. In contrast to the traditional approach of using the provided educational statistics about schools located in the urban centers in Nigeria to generalize for the urban and rural areas, whose figures are never really available, there has arisen therefore the need for a broader conceptualization of educational development in Nigeria to incorporate the much neglected rural areas. This, too, has necessitated the prescription of multilevel analysis and micro approach as more comprehensive models of research that can integrate insights gleaned from macro approaches to the educational development in Nigeria (Bray and Thomas, 1995). Consequently, there is a growing awareness of the importance of having an understanding of the differences within territories, since only an analysis of these differences will allow for an understanding of the inequalities in educational development between the urban towns and the rural areas, which do not show up in national statistics and analysis.
Just as the physical and social development of the average child is beset with many problems, so the development of education in any given society is hampered by a variety of problems, some of which are associated with the responsibility for and control of the society’s education, the diversification of the educational system, the need to relate the schools’ curricula to national man-power needs, and the society’s economy. All these problems are retarding the pace of educational development in Nigeria today hence been seen in different light by undergraduates of Nigeria.
THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK
The stage theory of higher education development
The stage theory of higher education development is proposed by Professor Martin Trow at the University of California. He describes the transition in higher education from elite to mass to universal student access.
Professor Martin Trow points out that there is a fundamental change from elite to mass, which doesn’t only mean a sharp increase in the number of people who can receive higher education, but a change in quality which plays an important role in the transition from elite to mass. The quality refers to the change of education concept, expansion of the function of education, diversity of teaching purposes and forms of Education, and the change of curriculum set-up, the way of teaching, entrance requirement and management. In China, the quantity of graduation has been paid more attention, while the quality of graduate education is ignored, which is harmful to the development of graduate education; and thus, in the process of inspecting postgraduate education, it is necessary to pay more attention to the aspect of quality(Shi, 2010,pp.34-35).
Theories of the inner and outer law of education
As a social activity, education must follow the law. Among all laws, there are two most basic laws. One is the law of relationship between education and social development, which is called the inner law of education. This law holds the idea that education is a subsystem in the whole social system, which has an inevitable connection with other subsystems, like economy, politics and culture. Therefore, this kind of law can be further explained in the following way: education is limited by social economy, politics and culture; in turn, education can stimulate development in education, culture and economy. The other law is about the relationship between education and human beings, which is called outer law of education. This law believes that many factors will affect the learners during the process of education. Two points should be noted in the relation between education and the development of human beings: the first one is that the relation of each composing part in the comprehensive development of human being should be noted, and the second points out that among all composing parts, the relations between educators, educational objects and related influencing factors are the most basic.
The relation between the inner and outer law of education is that the inner law of education is limited by the outer law, while outer law of education can only be done through inner law. Graduate education must follow the inner and outer of education. In other words, social background must be taken into account in understanding the quality of graduate education. It is necessary to measure the quality of graduate education from the aspects of social background, economy, politics, culture and other specific environment. Besides, social factors, such as population, resources, geography and ecology, all need to be taken into consideration. The large-scale development of graduate education is to meet the need of high-level personnel from society, economy, technology and education. To explore the problems of quality in graduate education cannot be isolated. Based on the outer law of education, it has to be researched under the historical background of society, economy, technology and education. Similarly, graduate education must follow the law of self-development. By means of a variety of training objectives, the social demand for talents can be met. Besides, following the law of personnel training can promote the comprehensive development of individual student. This is another important theoretical basis that the graduate education must follow.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
This chapter covers the description and discussion on the various techniques and procedures used in the study to collect and analyze the data as it is deemed appropriate.
It is organized under the following sub-headings:
- Research Design
- Area of the Study
- Population of the study
- Sample and sampling procedure
- Instrument of Data Collection
- Validation of the Instrument
- Reliability of the Instrument
- Method of Data Collection
- Method of Data Analysis
RESEARCH DESIGN
According to Asika (2009), research designs are often referred to as the structuring of investigation aimed at identifying variables and their relationships to one another. In this study, questionnaire serves as useful guide to the effort of generating data for this study. The survey research design through the administration of questionnaires was used for the study.
AREA OF THE STUDY
The study will be conducted in AkwaIbom State, Nigeria. AkwaIbomstate isone of the states in the south-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The population of Uyourban area, according to the AkwaIbomState Government is 7.5 million, a number disputed by the Nigerian Government and judged unreliable by the National Population Commission of Nigeria. Uyo was reported in 2014 to have a metropolitan population of 12 million, making Uyoone of the growing state capitals in Nigeria.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
The population of study consists of students of University of Uyo. According to Wikipedia, 2015 61,000 enrolled for full time and part time programs in the school.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION
INTRODUCTION
This chapter deals with the presentation and analysis of the result obtained through questionnaires. The data gathered were presented according to the order in which they were arranged in the research questions, simple percentage and pie graphs were used to analyze the demographic information of the respondents while Pearson correlation was adopted to test the research hypotheses.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
The objectives of the study were as follows:
- To know the relationship between students course of study and their attitude towards educational development in Nigeria.
- To know the real issues militating against educational development in Nigeria.
- To suggest ways of improving educational development in Nigeria.
- To know the mindset of the youths towards the nature of the educational sector in Nigeria.
Findings from the study revealed the following
- There is no significant relationship between the course of study of students and their perception towards educational development in Nigeria.
- The poor educational development influences the general economy of Nigeria.
- The quality of education in Nigeria is on the decline.
- The educational sector is one of the most important sectors in Nigeria.
- Students generally would not want to be employed into the educational sector in Nigeria.
- The educational secotr in Nigeria has not improved overtime in Nigeria.
REFERENCES
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