Impact of Government Expenditure on Standard of Education in Junior Secondary Schools

Impact of Government Expenditure on Standard of Education in Junior Secondary Schools

CHAPTER ONE

Research Objectives

To determine the relationship between federal expenditure on education and standard ofjunior secondary
To determine the relationship between macroeconomic variables such as per capita income, population growth, workers‟ remittances and standard of junior secondary

NIGERIA’S EDUCATION SECTOR

Introduction

Nigeria has a population estimated at 160 million people, and with an annual growth rate of 2.8 percent (National Bureau of Statistics, 2011). The country is the second-largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa and the most populous in Africa (World Bank, 2014). There are thirty- six states, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and seven hundred and seventy-four local government areas. The Nigerian economy relies on oil for 75 percent of its revenue and 95 percent of its export before the fall of oil prices in 2014 (The Economist, 2014). The recent hit on revenue as a result of the decline in oil prices coupled with insecurity in the Northern and Niger Delta regions of Nigeria has worsened the economic situation. With such declining government revenue, social services (one of which is education) spending is likely to be affected.

Education is seen as an important tool to achieve national development in the country. As a result, it is a sector requiring huge government spending but the current decline in revenue for the government will raise challenges around the effort to sustain the provision of education to Nigeria‟s teeming population.

After achieving independence in 1960, the realization of the need for federal expenditure on education was forefront in policy making discussions. Since independence, there has been a major need to restructure the education system passed down by the colonial governments (Moja, 2009). This drive led to the first National Curriculum Conference of 1969 and the institutionalization of the National Policy on Education in 1977 (Akudolu, 2012). A number of reforms beyond the National Policy on Education of 1977 have come to define what the education sector is in Nigeria today and the major concern of every reform is the financing of the sector to achieve the set goals of ensuring a highly educated populace which will drive the national development plan of the country.

Thus, it is evident that Nigeria has always considered education as an important social service but frequent review of reforms show that the government has not been consistent in its effort to provide adequate funding from the national budget. The funding provided also has not been able to sufficiently increase standard of view of the high population. Understanding the history of the country‟s education sector will explain some of the complexities involved in the relationship between financing and the standard of junior secondary school.

Developmental Phases in the Education Sector

The Nigerian education sector has been through two major phases regarding development. The first stage between 1950 and 1980 witnessed significant expansion regarding government spending, standard rates and the number of school buildings. The second phase was one of reduced spending and rise of private involvement in the provision of education, and this was between the year 1981 and 2009.

1950-1980 Period

Rapid access to education was one of the most significant aspects of the initial stage of development in Nigeria’s education sector. Primary school attendance increased from 626,000 to 2,912,619 between 1954 and 1960 (Aigbokhan, 2005). Government education policies during this period enabled the increase in school building projects and grant-in-aids to schools owned by churches thereby increasing access to education. At this phase, churches were actively involved in the education sector before the earlier years of independence when government‟s commitment to education increased with the aim of fading out the colonial master’s system to achieve a self-sustaining education system focused on providing the expertise required to nurture the newly independent Nigeria.

At the initial stage of educational development, a particular emphasis was placed on structuring curriculum with the objective of achieving long-term development of the country. The curriculum during the colonial government administration placed emphasis on numerical skills development and general knowledge building. The only University before independence, University College, Ibadan, at this time, lacked the human resource and facilities for technical skills acquisition. Post-independence regional governments established and funded the University of Nigeria, the University of Lagos, University of Ife, the University of Benin and Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria between 1960 and 1970. These led to a significant rise in access to tertiary education and simultaneously an improvement in the junior secondary education which are pre-requisite to tertiary education.

CHAPTER THREE

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Approach and Strategy

The research method used is the case study approach. This approach allows for the exploration and understanding of particular complex issues, particularly when a holistic and in-depth investigation is required. Through analysis of cases under investigation, reconstruction, and keen observation we explain the outcome and process of education issues as regards all other variables like standard rate, per capital income, inflation, urban population that is affecting it. This research strategy adopts a regression analysis approach utilizing time series data collected on a yearly basis over a thirty-two year period, 1981 and 2013. The use of yearly data helps estimate dynamic causal effects and a period of thirty-two years is in line with the use of regression analysis which requires that the number of observations is many to produce reliable results.

Model Specification

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The model is an improvement of Anyanwu and Erhjiakhor (2007)‟s model which did not account for population growth rate and workers‟ remittances in Nigeria. The introduction of these variables is applicable in the case of Nigeria given the high number of Nigerians in diaspora, volume of remittances received annually and the population of the country as the large.

E_r = f ( G_s, GDPPCI, WR, P)

Where E_r is the gross standard rates of secondary and primary schools (dependent variable), G_s is government spending on education as a percentage of GDP (independent variables). Control variables are GDPPCI is gross domestic product per capita income, WR is workers‟ remittances and P is population growth rate.

CHAPTER FOUR

RESEARCH FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

Introduction

Using econometric methodology, this chapter discusses the findings of whether government expenditure on education influences the human capital development in Nigeria. To achieve these objectives, section 5.1 of this chapter focuses on the descriptive statistics of data employed in this study. In section 5.1 the descriptive statistics results are interpreted, 5.2 and

5.3 present diagnostic tests, correlation analysis is carried out to examine the degree of association among the variables. The econometric analysis and interpretation of the result are carried out in section 5.5, is the last section, summarizes the main findings of this study.

CHAPTER FIVE

RESEARCH CONCLUSIONS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Research Conclusions

Increasing government expenditure on education is a major discussion amongst policy makers and stakeholders in Nigeria‟s education sector. The empirical literature on this subject is not comprehensive enough to justify actions required and the expected impact. This paper conducted a quantitative research and provides further clarification on the relationship between government spending and standard rates considering other explanatory variables such as per capita income, workers‟ remittances, and population growth. It supports government increasing spending on education. The evidence is stronger in the case of primary education.

The study reveals that education funding in Nigeria experienced a significant increase at the transition to democratic government and during past civilian rule before 1999. The result of empirical analysis conducted supports literature that there is a statistically significant positive relationship between government spending on education and primary school standard rate. A negative relationship exists between federal expenditure and secondary school standard rate. This is explained for by the government‟s emphasis on the free primary education program and lower conversion rate into secondary schools due to higher interest in informal education and apprentice over continuing education. Beyond the interest in apprenticeship, secondary school standard rates decline with increasing government spending as a result of the fee- paying system. The increase in government spending on education majorly goes towards higher salaries as more qualified staff is required in secondary schools over primary schools and as a result, fees are collected to support federal expenditure.

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