Assessment of Deterioration of Quality Western Education in Selected Senior Secondary Schools in MMC; A Case Study of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-kami College of Islamic Theology

Chapter One

Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to determine the emerging causes of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology. Specifically, the objectives of this study are to find out;

The perception of male and female students on the determinants of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of male and female teachers on the determinants of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of rural and urban students on the determinants of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of less experienced and experienced teachers on the determinants of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of male and female students on ways to improve the quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of male and female teachers on ways to improve the quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of rural and urban students on ways to improve the quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The perception of less experienced and experienced teachers on ways to improve quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.

CHAPTER TWO

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

Conceptual Clarifications: Quality of Education

According to Webster’s Seventh Collegiate Dictionary, quality is defined as a peculiar and essential character of an inherent feature; a degree of excellence; a distinguish attribute. Quality is concerned with how good or bad a product is. It is about the standard of something when compared with other things. It therefore presupposes that there is a standard set against which the outcome is compared. Jaiyeoba and Atanda (2005) posited that quality is synonymous with standard, efficiency, excellence, relevance and worthiness. When applied to education, it is the success with which an institution provides educational environment which enables students to effectively achieve worthwhile learning goals including appropriate academic standard. Still linking quality to education, Aigboje (2007) refers quality to excellence or more of societal values embodied in the school curricula. This involves stages and activities that take place until certificates are issued.

The concept of quality has attracted many definitions from several scholars. Kalusi, (2001) argued that quality is a complex concept and there is hardly any consensus. According to DuBrin, (1997) quality is a desirable attribute of a product or service that distinguishes it for the person seeking the attribute. Viewed from this definition, quality could be said to have the attribute of worth and acceptance. Nevertheless, DuBrin maintained that good quality should possess the characteristics of conformance to expectation, conformance to requirement, excellence and value and loss of avoidance. Asiyai and Oghuvbu (2009) defined quality as a measure of how good or bad the products of higher education institutions in Nigeria are in terms of their academic performance and meeting established standards. World Organization of Standardization, (1994) defined quality as the totality of features and characteristics of a product of services that bear on its ability to satisfy stated needs. Article 11 of the World Declaration on Education, (2003) sees quality as a multi-dimensional concept which should encompass all the functions and activities in schools. Such activities of higher educational institutions has been highlighted as teaching, research and scholarship, community service, staffing, students, infrastructures and educational facilities, equipment and the academic environment (World Conference on Higher Education, 1998). High quality delivery is a prerequisite for effective productivity in education industry and hence quality education is an instrument for effecting national development. According to Ekong (2006), quality builds knowledge, live skills, perspectives, attitudes and values. When quality education is delivered high enough to meet set standards, the products of education should be able to perform well in the world of work in real life situation. When quality is low, performance cannot meet the set standards. Hence one can say that the quality of education has deteriorationd below set standard. Quality according to Babalola (2007) is most often defined as “fitness to purpose in relation to the user and customer needs. It can also be taken to mean that the product conforms to standards, specifications or requirements”.

For the past number of years, quality has continued to be a dominating and challenging notion in different fields of research. The term has been used in the commercial field and is increasing growing in the field of education. Throughout its history, the notion has remained a discussion agenda and varying definitions can be found, depending on the way the notion has being used. Quality has been defined as; a high degree of goodness or excellence (Mosha, 2000), a degree of fitness to what the customer wants (Lomas, 2002) and the level of satisfaction with effectiveness in the service offered (Manyanga, 2007). The term quality therefore means the extent to which customers are satisfied with a product or service. Furthermore, from its relativity the notion is perceived from different perspectives such as excellence, perfection and consistency, value for money, transformation, enhancement, empowerment and fitness for purpose (Lomas, 2002: Parri, 2006; Weir, 2009). The present investigation adopts the perspectives fitness for purpose, excellence and transformation. Terms like effectiveness, enhancement and empowerment are also used interchangeably as they are closely linked to topic of study. Altogether, the perspectives are employed as a framework in the description of the notion quality and the way it is used in education in general and secondary school education in particular.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHOD AND PROCEDURE

This chapter addresses the design, population, sample and sampling technique as well as the research instruments. It also addresses validity of the instrument, reliability of the instrument, method of data collection and method of data analysis.

Research Design

The researcher employed the descriptive survey. A survey design involves asking a large group of respondents’ questions about a particular issue (Mugenda, 1999).The researcher then use statistical techniques to make conclusion about the population based on the sample, especially if the population is too large. Also, this design was most appropriate and suitable for the study since questionnaire was the major instrument used for collection of data from the sampled schools.

Population of the study

The population of this study comprised the entire 200,289 students and 13,081 teachers in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology in Borno State.

CHAPTER FOUR

PRESENTATION OF RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the data collected were analyzed, result presented and discussed.

Presentation of results

To answer the research questions and test the hypotheses stated for this study, the analysis of the data collected and results are therefore presented below.

CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter presents the summary of the study and findings, conclusion and recommendation based on the findings of the study.

Summary

This study is a descriptive research carried out to determine the determinants of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology. The study draws extensive information from a sample of four hundred and fifty (1200) secondary school students and two hundred and twenty-five (600) secondary school teachers selected from twelve

(12) Local Government Area of Borno State. Eight hypotheses were stated and these were tested using t-test statistical tool.

The results from the data analyses had shown that:

Male and female students do not significantly differ in their perception of the determinants of deterioration in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
Male and female teachers do not significantly differ in their perception of the determinants of deterioration in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.

Rural and urban students significantly differ in their perception of the determinants of deterioration in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.

Less experienced and experienced teachers significantly differ in their perception of the determinants of deterioration in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
Students and teachers irrespective of gender, location of school and experience of teacher do not significantly differ in their perception on ways to improve the quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.

Conclusion

This study explored the determinants of deterioration in quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology. The results clearly showed that school deterioration is caused by complex factors. While this study identified a number of factors as causes of secondary education deterioration, ineffective administration and leadership, inadequate funding, imperfect supervision and inspection and curriculum not meeting the needs of the society were prominent among these factors.

Recommendations

Based on the findings from this study, it is recommended as follows:

High quality employment procedure for secondary level teachers should be introduced. The administration of school should be effective and efficient. The evaluation system at secondary level should be organized and modern techniques must be used to evaluate the abilities of a child.

Also, secondary school teachers should use modern teaching methods according to the age and psychological requirements of students. There should be opportunities provided to the students for participating in different co-curricular activities.

The process of inspection should be done in proper and democratic way and the concept of favours should be out of this process. Scholarships should be provided to deserving and intelligent students at secondary level in schools.

Contribution to knowledge

This study has contributed to knowledge in the following areas;

The study has identified defective administration/poor leadership, curriculum not meeting with the needs of the society, ineffective evaluation system, imperfect inspections and supervisions system, use of outdated teaching methods in teaching, inadequate funding of secondary education by the Government, poor students attitudes towards learning, among others as the determinants of deterioration in Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.

The study has identified teamwork approach, proper funding, parental involvement, proper supervision and inspection, effective and efficient school administration, organized evaluation system among others as the ways to improve the quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.
The study revealed that students and teachers irrespective of gender, location of school and experience of teacher do not significantly differ on ways to improve the quality of Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Yerwa and El-Kanemi College of Islamic Theology.

REFERENCES

Achimugu, L. (2005). The agonies of Nigeria teachers. Ibadan: Heinemann Education Publishers Limited. Adesoji, F.A. and Olatunbosun, S.M. (2011). Student, teacher and school environment factors as determinants of achievement in senior secondary school chemistry in Oyo State, Nigeria. The Journal of International Social Research, 1(2): 14-33.
Adeyegbe, S.O. (2002). How students, examiners perform at WAEC examinations. Vanguard, Thursday, 19^th December, pp: 22.
Adeyemi, J.A. and Ige, A.M. (2002). Examination malpractices in Nigeria educational system: Causes, effects and way out. J. Clin. Couns. Psychol. 8(1):59.
Adeyemi, J.K. and Ajayi, I.A. (2006). Analysis of cost of spillover students’ wastage in a Nigeria university. Int. Stud. Educ. Admin. 34(1): 34-45.
Adeyemi, T.O. (2012). School variables and internal efficiency of secondary schools in Ondo State. Nigeria J. Educ. Soc. Res. 2(3): 204-214.
Afolabi, E.R. and Adewolu, B.R. (2003). The predictive validity of Osun State junior secondary school examination. Nigerian J. Soc. Edu. Res., 1(1): 35-42.
Ahmed, T.M. (2003). Education and national development in Nigeria. J. Stud. Educ. 10:35-46.
Aigboje, C.D. (2007). Strategies for improving the quality of academic staff in Nigerian universities for quality assurance. In J. B. Babalola, G. O. Akpa, A. O. Ayeni and S. O. Adedeji (eds) Access, equity and quality in higher education. A publication of National Association for Educational Administration and Planning. 455-461.
Alaba S.O. (2010). Improving the standard and quality of primary education in Nigeria: A case study of Oyo and Osun States. International Journal for Cross- Disciplinary Subjects in Education, 1(3): 156-160
Angrist, J.D. (2002). Vouchers for private schooling in Columbia: Evidence from a randomized natural experiment. America Economic Review, 92: 1535-1558.

Related Topics:

Other Topics