A SURVEY OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE FREE AND COMPULSORY BASIC EDUCATION IN AKWA IBOM STATE

A SURVEY OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE FREE AND COMPULSORY BASIC EDUCATION IN AKWA IBOM STATE

ABSTRACT

The study explores the Survey of the Problems Mitigating against the Free and Compulsory Basic Education Programme in Akwa Ibom State. It identifies among others inadequate funding, the issue of population explosion, dearth of qualified teachers and infrastructural deficit and supervisory ineffectiveness as the major problems facing the implementation of the free and compulsory basic education scheme. The study employs Expost Facto research design. A simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 300 teachers which constituted the sample size. A reliability coefficient of 0.84 was obtained showing a high reliability of instrument. The study uses chi-square (c²) to test hypothesis, the result thereof reveals that, there is a significant impact of inadequate funding on the free and compulsory basic education in Akwa Ibom State hence, the study recommends that government should strengthen the scheme by increasing its funding capacity, employ more teachers and build more classroom blocks. The study suggests that other studies be conducted on related areas like community mobilization and the role of parents in the free and compulsory basic education programme in Akwa Ibom State.  

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

In every human endeavour, Education has been regarded as the foundation to human development hence; the United Nations (UN) sees it as a right to which all human beings are entitled. Over the years, the UN and its special agencies have been promoting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) especially to achieve free universal basic education for all children. Lee (2013) reported that most children in Africa have failed to have access to basic education. Against this backdrop, the provision of basic education has become an increasing concern of government at all levels. Attempt to implement basic education is in recognition of the fact that basic education is the first pillar of formal education in the educational system of any nation. Often times, the concern of government towards basic education have been followed by uncommitted zeal thereby making its implementation a haphazard exercise, Ekanem (2016).

According to Babatunde (2012), the UNESCO defines basic education as all forms of organized education and training that meet the basic learning needs of adults including literacy and numeracy, as well as the general knowledge, skills, values, and attitude that they require to survive, develop their capacities, live and work in dignify, improve the quality of their lives, make informed decisions and continue learning. In order to achieve basic education programme, the National Policy on Education NPE 2008 states that such education shall be free and compulsory. It shall also include adult and non-formal education programmes at primary and junior Secondary Education levels for the adults and out of school youths.

In Nigeria, the idea of free universal basic education was practically experimented in the western region of Nigeria under the premiership of late Obafemi Owolowo in 1955. Equally, the free universal primary education was lunched in the Eastern region in 1957 however; the first national universal primary education programme was introduced in 1976. According to Eddy and Akpan (2009) the packages associated with the UPE were among others, abolishment of school fees, reduction of the duration of study in the primary school from eight to six years, and an increased in funding to the tune of about 60% of the total budget. The era also witnessed a great influx of pupils in the primary school system.

The compulsory free education Bill which was passed into law in 2004 stipulates that basic education means early childhood care education and nine years of formal schooling, Onwubiko (2012). Therefore, basic education embraces formal schooling and a variety of formal and informal public and private educational programmes designed to meet the learning needs of people irrespective of age. Basic education also, within the framework of UBE Comprises of early childhood and pre-primary education, primary education, the first three years of secondary education, basic and functional literacy for school children, youths and adult nomadic education among others.

Anaduaka and Okafor (2013) argued that, the national objectives with which the free universal basic education scheme seeks to achieve include among others developing in the entire citizenry a strong consciousness for education and a strong commitment to its vigorous promotion. Besides this, it is to ensure the acquisition of the appropriate level of literacy, numeracy manipulation, communication and life skills as well as the ethics, morals and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning.

Consequently, Akwa Ibom State likes other states in the federation had established the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) to assist in the translation of the UBE national objectives into concrete actions to achieve policy outcomes at the state and local government levels. Following the declaration of free and compulsory education in the state by the Chief Godswill Akpabio’s led administration in 2008, the scope of responsibility of SUBEB in the state has expanded correspondingly. Apart from the fact that SUBEB is responsible for ensuring effective implementation of the UBE programme, it is also expected to plan, ensure compliance with the programme guidelines and monitor the progress of the free and compulsory education throughout the 31 Local Government Areas of the state. Despite the fact that the UBE programme was being implemented in the state, it was until 2008 that the scheme had a face of a complete free and compulsion. As at 2007, fees and other charges were collected in public secondary schools. Equally, PTA levy, development levies etc were also collected in the primary schools in the state.

The introduction of free and compulsory education scheme abolished the collection of all forms of charges, government therefore started paying subvention to principals and Head-teachers of secondary and primary schools for the day-to day management of the schools. Under the scheme, government has also constructed and renovated dilapidated schools buildings, provided textbooks which are distributed throughout the various schools in the state. It is therefore no doubt that the free and compulsory education scheme in public secondary schools is a demonstration of commitment towards achieving the objective of UBE and education for all. However, the scheme has attracted increased enrolment of students in public secondary schools. In 2010, report shows that the population of student enrolment in public secondary school increased from 159, 280 to 318, 000. However, in the 2012/2013 school year the number increased to 584,912. Equally the Akwa Ibom State Ministry of education noted that, the programme in the state has received a budgetary commitment of about 60,000,000 USD annually from the government. (State Ministry of Education, Uyo). The problem of population explosion in schools has resulted in increased teacher-students ratio. Okon (2014) argued that only Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government is able to meet the mandatory teacher-students ratio of 1:40. According to him, there are only 57 percent of the mandatory numbers of teachers intended to implement the loaded curriculum of the programme in Akwa Ibom State. This implies that only 57 percent of the students population are actually exposed to teaching and 43 percent of the populations are not catered for.

The implementation of Basic Education programme according to Onwubiko (2012) is expected to be a collaborative effort, one which involves not only the three levels of government but, the civil society organizations, international donor agencies, communities and private individuals. However, so far, there is a low mobilization of local community in partnership with government for effective policy implementation.

A SURVEY OF THE PROBLEMS OF THE FREE AND COMPULSORY BASIC EDUCATION IN AKWA IBOM STATE