A Survey of Entrepreneurship Education in Three Colleges of Education in Nigeria
Chapter One
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to investigate entrepreneurship education In Three Colleges Of Education in the North Central State of Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to:
- Ascertain the weaknesses of Entrepreneurship Education In Three Colleges Of Education in the North Central State of Nigeria
- Determine the opportunities for Entrepreneurship Education In Three Colleges Of Education in the North Central State of Nigeria.
- Investigate the strengths of Entrepreneurship Education In Three Colleges Of Education in the North Central State of Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
Concept of Management
Every functional higher education system must strive to harness its human and non-human material resources towards the realization of its goals and objectives. In Nigeria, the need to refocus on resource management for effective instruction at the tertiary education level has become inevitable. Ogbonnaya (2003) argues that, the concept of management has pluralistic connotations. Some people refer to it as a group of people in an organization. Others see it as a process demanding the performance of a specific function. According to Ajayi and Ayodele (2004), it is the process of using a company’s resources in the most efficient way possible. These resources include tangible resources such as goods and equipment, financial resources, and labour resources such as employees.
Management as a social or interactional process, for Peretomode (1991) involves a sequence of coordinated events – planning, organizing, coordinating and controlling or leading – in order to use available resources to achieve a desired outcome in the fastest and most efficient way. Ogunu and Mwadiani (2005) also sees it as the coordination of all the resources of an organization through the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling in order to attain organizational objectives. Mgbekem (2004) sees it as the guidance, leadership and control of the efforts of people toward some common objectives.
Ibukun (1997) thus, present management as a set of activities which is primarily concerned with planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and coordinating. It connotes a form of human engineering crucially concerned with leadership, capacity to produce and nourish ideas, to stimulate thought, motivate action, introduce and manage resources and change in any sector. Resser (as cited in Babalola, 2004) opines that management is the utilization of physical and human resources through cooperative efforts and it is accomplished by performing the function of planning, organizing, staffing directing and controlling on the other hand.
It can be deduced from the above definition that, management is very germane to any organization or institution. For this reason, Obi (2003) defined management as the universal process of efficiently getting activities completed with and through other people. This process involves planning, organizing, leading and controlling activities that take place in order to accomplish objectives. Management is therefore, a universal practice, and is also of universal importance. It is said to commence immediately two people agree to cooperate to undertake a task. It is for this reason that Oboegbulem (2004, p.67) posits that:
Management is inevitable in any given situation where a piece of work has to be done, and this piece of work needs more than one person to accomplish it. We are involved in management behaviour when we co-operate with other people to accomplish such objectives as erecting a community town hall, constructing and managing schools, churches, hospitals, vehicles and assembling plants.
The above idea clearly points out the fact that, when two or more people cooperate to achieve a particular objective, the rudiments of management must be brought to bear. In this regard, Oboegulem and Onwurah (2007, p.1) defines management as “the organization and direction of persons in order to accomplish a specified end.” This implies that, administration must exist in any organization set up for a defined purpose or objective. It could be a church, the army, a university, an individual or business, but there has to be administration because each one consists of human beings brought together in a hierarchical set-up, making use of tools, equipment, human and material resources, all in the quest to attain the objective for which the organization is established.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHOD
Design of the Study
This study adopts a descriptive survey design. According to Ali (2006, p.21) descriptive survey studies are mainly concerned with describing events as they are without any manipulation of what is being observed. For Ali, any study which seeks merely to find out “what is” and describes it is a descriptive study. Such studies use questionnaire as an instrument for data collection. The above design was considered appropriate for the study because the challenges affecting the implementation of entrepreneurship education programme In Three Colleges Of Education in North Central states of Nigeria was studied and described using a self-report questionnaire.
Population of the Study
The population of the study is 149 respondents, comprising of 136 EEd lecturers, thirteen (13) EEd coordinators in the thirteen Colleges Of Education. The use of the coordinators and lecturers is due to the fact that they have direct relationship with the management of Colleges Of Education.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS
This chapter shows the results of data analysis for the study based on the research questions and hypotheses that guided the study.
CHAPTER FIVE
DISCUSSION OF RESULT, IMPLICATION, RECOMMENDATIONS, CONCLUSION
In this chapter, the discussion of major findings of the study, the education implications, recommendations, suggestions for further study and summary of the study are presented.
Discussion of the Findings
The weaknesses of Entrepreneurship Education In Three Colleges Of Education in North Central State of Nigeria
Research question 2 sought to find out the weaknesses of entrepreneurship education In Three Colleges Of Education in North Central State of Nigeria. The analysis of data generated revealed equipped entrepreneurial centres are not enough, lack of exposure to practical, lack of information on existing opportunities, lack of capital to finance acquired skills, lack of involvement of staff in the practical aspect of EED programme, lack of workshops for the teaching of EED practical programme, lack of constant power supply, lack of interest from students, and most of the works on entrepreneurships education in the library are outdated. The study confirms that there is significant difference between the mean responses of lecturers and coordinators on the weaknesses to entrepreneurship education challenges in Colleges Of Education. In other words, lecturers and coordinators have similar views on the weaknesses to entrepreneurship education challenges in Colleges Of Education.
The present finding supports earlier findings of scholars like Puyate (2008), Ugwoke, Basake, Daria and Chukwuma (2013) and Ofoha (2011), which for instance, revealed a dearth of professional and qualified teachers for the teaching of vocational/technical subjects; inadequate infrastructure and equipment in schools; insufficient instructional materials and books in schools; and that schools are generally poorly financed. While Ugwoke et al (2013) revealed that, there were inadequate provision of funds, facilities and personal; Ofoha (2011) unveil the fact that, out of the sampled students, some have learnt significant self-employable entrepreneurial skills in 6 out of 36 vocational areas. Also, their entrepreneurial capability was found low, as there were no significant production of marketable goods and services to show for their practical knowledge.
Conclusion
From the findings obtained from the study, the following conclusions were made:
The entrepreneurship education programme in operation is a worldwide programme which is providing a solid foundation for lifelong learning, self-awareness, and citizenship and life skills. In order to ensure the effective achievement by substring of the entrepreneurship education programme in Nigeria Colleges Of Education, University authorities would need to adopt strategic management techniques, which will enable them build on their strength which includes; the making funds available and encouraging high enrolment of students for the programme.
The entrepreneurship education programme holds viable prospect and opportunities which includes amongst others, that the course involve hand-on learningby-doing activities; the courses encourage creative thinking; and students from all backgrounds are enrolled into EED programme and that Colleges Of Education management should work on overcoming the threats and weaknesses while vigilant should be kept on Staff attendance to workshops and seminars; cost of university education; lecturers workload and budgeting allocation to Colleges Of Education ,as well as exposure to practical; funding; acquired skills; and power supply.
Educational Implications of the Findings
From the findings of this study one can deduce some far-reaching educational implications for Colleges Of Education authorities, government, policy makers and Nigeria University Commission (NUC), lecturers and students. The study provides empirical evidence on the strength of entrepreneurship education In Three Colleges Of Education which includes: provision of funds for the procurement of instructional materials; availability of fund for in-service training; the existence of relative peace among the host communities and Colleges Of Education and high enrolment of students for EED programme. These findings have implications for firms and industries within the states to make themselves readily available to accept students of EED programme for industrial attachments.
The finding on opportunities of entrepreneurship education In Three Colleges Of Education includes that, the course involves hand-on learning-by-doing activities; the courses encourage creative thinking; and students from all backgrounds are enrolled into EED programme. The implications are that if really the objectives of the programme are to be actualized, sufficient resources have to be deployed. The finding also shows to a large extent that Colleges Of Education face some threats to entrepreneurship education programmes. This implies that, there is the need for the government to make it possible for staff to attend workshops and seminars; decrease the cost of university education; recruit more lecturers to avoid excess workload and to increase budgeting allocation to Colleges Of Education to enhance their performance.
Finally, the findings revealed that there are weaknesses of entrepreneurship education challenges facing Colleges Of Education. Here, the implication is that, there is the need for the university authorities and government to expose students to practical works; provide fund to finance acquired skills; and provide opportunities for constant power supply.
Recommendations
The following recommendations have been proffered based on the findings and implications of the study:
- Colleges Of Education authorities should make provision for lecturers to go for workshops or seminars so as to be exposed to current trends in EED programme.
- The Federal government of Nigeria should maintain a policy aimed at provide adequate funding for entrepreneurship education in Colleges Of Education
- A supervisory team are to be set to take the responsibility of maintaining a judicious expenditure of such funds. In light of this, government should set up a blueprint on punishment to offenders on misappropriation of entrepreneurship education fund.
- University authorities should equipped entrepreneurial centres to expose lecturers and students to practical aspects of EED.
- Firms and industries should be more willing to accept students for industrial training as this will strengthen the students’ interest in entrepreneurship education programme.
- Additional qualified lecturers should be employed In Three Colleges Of Education for the EED programme so as to reduce the workload of the lecturers.
- There should be intensified efforts in the effective supervision, monitoring and evaluation of the EED programme across Colleges Of Education to ensure high performance and productivity.
REFERENCES
- Abraham, N. M. & Nwogu, U. J. (2009). Involvement: Key to entrepreneurship programme success in Nigerian Colleges Of Education. African Journal of Educational Research and Development, 3(2):122-132.
- Adebisi, T. A., & Oni, C. S. (2012). Assessment of relevance of the national directorate of employment (NDE) training programs to the needs of the trainees in Southwestern Nigeria. International Journal of Vocational and Technical Education, 4(3), 29-37.
- Adegbite, J.G.O. (2007). The education reform agenda: Challenges for tertiary education administration in Nigeria. A paper presented at the sixth annual seminar of the Conference of Registrars of Colleges of Education in Nigeria (South West Zone) at the College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
- Adejimale, A.S. & Olufumilayo, T. (2009). Spinning off an entrepreneurship culture among Nigerian University student: Prospect and challenges. African Journal of business Management, 1(33):80-88.
- Agu, R. A., Ikeme, A. I., & Chiaha, G.T.U. (2013). A paradigm shift in entrepreneurship education pedagogy in Nigeria: Issues that must be confronted to evolve best practice. A Paper presented at Entrepreneurship Directors’ Conference, Kwara State University, Ilorin, Nigeria, June 10 – 14.
- Aina, O.I. (2007). Alternative modes of financing higher education in Nigeria and implications for university governance. In J. B. Babalola, & B.O. Emunemu (eds.), Issues in higher education: Research evidence from Sub-Sahara Africa. Lagos: Bolabay Publications.
- Ajayi, I.A. & Ayodele, J.B. (2004). Fundamentals of educational management. AdoEkiti: Green Line Publishers.
- Akintunde, I.O. (2004). Administration of higher education. Lagos: Sunray
