ABSTRACT
Among the proponent of “social approach” in the administration of Education, Education is viewed as a ‘magic wand’ that can untie the fortune of the development of every nation. In view of this, education the world over is seen as the potent tool for the development of any nation. Consequently, it has been recommended that every citizen of the world should be expose to fictional literacy level. Nigeria is not an exception to this clarion call. Hence, past and present administrations have in one way or the other tried to provide education to Nigerian citizens though various policy formulations like the Universal Primary Education (UBE). Cross Riverians stand to gain a lot from this lofty program if well implemented. However, experience has shown t hat the past programs were plagued by one problem or the other, of which UBE may not be an exception. In other to forestall the reoccurrence of the past, this work was deemed necessary. More so, the significance of this study further stems form the fact that Cross River State is regarded as Educationally Disadvantage State (EDS), Due to this, this program cannot afford to fail in the state of this image is to be redeemed. This study considered the following variables as every crucial to the success of the Universal Basic Education program in Cross River State. These are: provision of adequate instructional materials, infrastructure/facilities, enough teachers, enough qualified teachers and adequate arrangement so that the nomads and migrant fishermen and their wards can benefit from the program. To properly guide the study, five research questions where formulated. The date collection instruments were a thirty (30) item questionnaire and a structured oral interview schedules. The questionnaire were administered to a total of 1,438 respondents (all teachers) while the structured oral interviewed scheduled was for four (4) staff of the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) Calabar. A bench mark of 2.50 and above was set as acceptance criterion based on an arithmetic mean (x) score average. After carefully analyzing the items, the major findings of the study are that: Monies meant for proper execution of the program are often diverted by fraudulent implementers of the program as such must of the needed instructional materials are in short supply. Infrastructure / facilities are also not adequate even though the government is making converted effort to ensure that they are provided. There is still shortage of teachers in some key subject’s areas. Qualified teachers are still inadequate to handle core subjects, as a result, some teachers teach subjects outside their area of specialization. Arrangement by the government so that the nomads and migrant fishermen and their wards could benefit from the program is still grossly inadequate. Based on the educational implications, informed by the findings of this study, some recommendations were made. And finally, the limitations of the study were pointed out and suggestions for further studies were made.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the study
Education as a concept has been subjected to so many definitions. Etymologically, the concept is said to have been coined from two Greek words or phrases. These are educo-educare and educo-educere. Educo-educare in a nut shell sees education as a process of assisting a learner to realize himself or herself. This is particularly a position held by the idealist philosophers on which Plato is seen to be the chief proponent.
On the other hand, educo-educere believes that at birth, man is born with an empty mind which is likened to a blank sheet, a clean sheet or in John Locke’s terminology, “tabula rasa”. To the proponent of this idea, education is a process of leaving or making an impression in a tender mind or immature learner (Okoro, 2002).
From contemporary perspective, the concept “Education” has also been defined in a diverse ways. Eyibe (2000) says Alfred North White Head saw education as the acquisition of the art of the utilization of knowledge. This is to say that education is not merely the acquisition of knowledge but that which is beneficial to both the individual and the society at large. In view of this, Ogbonnaya (2002) writes that “Education can be regarded as an activity that goes on in the society and its method depends on the nature of the society in which it operates”. By implication, education is an activity that goes on in any society from generation to generation and it is to the benefit of the society, (utilitarianism). In realization of this fact, the National Policy on Education (F.M.E):2004:4) states that “The Government has stated that for the benefit of all citizens the country’s educational goals shall be clearly set out in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individuals and those of the society, in consonance with the realities of our environment and the modern world”
Education, the world over is so important that it has been acclaimed to be instrument needed to effect both individual and national development. In view of this, article 26 of the Universal Human Right Declaration of 1948 emphasized that education should be made available to every citizen of the world, free and compulsory. To actualize this clarion call, about one hundred and fifty-five (155) countries in 1990 between 5th-9th of March, gathered in Jomitian, a town in “Thailand where the World Bank, UNESCO, and UNDP organized a world conference on Education for all (EFA). (Onwuka, 2005). Among resolutions taken in this conference, is that, education should be made free and compulsory right from primary schools to Junior Secondary level at least.
Nigeria as a signatory and a co-member of the Jomitian conference has adequate providion for this as evident in the National Policy on Education. According to Tahir (2006:1) “the 1977 National Policy on Education (NPE), provide for a free and universal primary Education that should be made compulsory as soon as practicable”. The practicability of this vision or dream is traceable to the setting up of the Gomade committee in 1969. Tahir (2006:1) reports that this committee was set up “to examine the feasibility, social and financial implications of introducing free primary education throughout the country. The idea of making education free at the primary level throughout the country was for the purpose of the balancing of education in the country because the Western Region had in 1955 introduced free primary education (Ogbonnaya in Onwuka 2002). As a response to the committee’s recommendation, in January, 1974, the then Head of state, General Yakubu Gowon, announced that Universal Primary Education would begin in 1975. However, the government was persuaded to postpone this till 1976. Consequently, after two years, Gowon was Ousted out of office, General Obasanjo was brought into power and he launched the scheme in 1979 (Ekwot, 2006).
However, this was short lived due to certain factors such as political, financial and public out-cry against the inherent defects in the programme. In 1999, the universalization of access to education was further enhanced with the launching of the Universal Basic Education programme by President Olusegun Obasanjo (September 30th) twenty years after. Tahir (2006:3) avers that “the UBE programme is Nigeria’s reform agenda and strategy for the achievement of Education For All ( EFA) as well as the education related Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s)”. In pursual of this, the objectives of UBE as enshrined in implementation hand book/guideline (FME 2000:1) are as follows:
- Developing in the entire citizenry a strong consciousness for education and a strong commitment to its vigorous promotion.
- The provision of the universal basic education for every Nigerian child of school going age.
- Reducing drastically, the incidence of dropouts from the formal school system (through improved relevance, quality and efficiency).
- Catering for the learning needs of young persons who, for one reason or another, have had to interrupt their school, through appropriate forms of complementary approaches to the provision and promotion of basic education.
- Ensuring the acquisition of the appropriate levels of literacy, numeracy manipulative communicative and life skills as well as the ethnical moral and civic values needed for laying a solid foundation for life-long learning.
In furtherance of the above, the UBE scheme seeks to eradicate illiteracy in Nigeria and increase gender enrolment in our school system, effective participation of nomads and migrant fishermen and their wards. All these if fulfilled will be in line with the global antecedents that the UBE programme has. Accordingly, the UBE Annual report 2001 (F.M.E. 2007:8) has this as why the success of UBE programme in Nigeria is a must.
- The Jomitien (1990) Declaration and framework for action on basic education for all
- The New Delhi (1991) declaration on the E-9 countries (i.e. the nine countries with the largest concentration of illiterates, of which Nigeria is a member), lately re-affirmed in Recife, Brazil (January 2000) calling for a massive reduction of illiteracy within the shortest possible time span.
- The Ouagadougou (1992) Pan-African declaration on the education of girls and women.
- The Amman Re-affirmation (1995) calling for the forceful pursuit of the Jomitien recommendations on basic education for all.
- The Durban (1998) Statement of Commitment to the promotion of education for all.
- The OAU Decade of Education in Africa (1997-2006), on inter-African co-operation on Education, with strong emphasis on the vigorous pursuit of basic education.
- Dakar World Education Forum (2000), which set “an agenda for education in the 21st century”.
- The OAU Decade of Education in Africa (1997-2026) requiring African States to broaden access to quality Basic Education a foundation stone for the sustainable socio-economic development of the continent.
For these goals and objectives to be achieved, there ought to be investigation, and/or examination of the programme by interested stake-holders from time to time. This being the case, this work is to determine or investigate into how the Universal Basic Education programme since it was launched has been implemented in Cross River State. This is borne out of the fact that similar programmes like this have not been effectively implemented in this state. Secondly, Cross River is still regarded as educationally disadvantaged state. More so, as recorded by Ogan (2002) most primary schools in Cross River State have so much dilapidated building and shortage of infrastructures and learning facilities and even teachers. This ugly situation he ascribes to various factors which cannot be contained in this work.
One hope that with the launching of the Universal Basic Education things will change for better. Available records from CR SEED (2002) reveals that the government of the day is making frantic efforts in ensuring that the education sector in Cross River State witness a new shape of life. This is evident in the recent budgetary allocation which education receives the lion share (CR SEEDS 2002)
Furthermore, when policies are formulated, implementation of such policies are not acidulously followed. This work is undertaken to carefully analyse the various medium which the policy formulated as regards UBE to be executed in Cross River State. Suffice to say that the concept of analysis as used in this work operationally refers to “The process of investigating into the structure, functioning or connections of a particular matter or subject matter under scrutiny (Ekanem, 2007:67). In this case, the concern of this researcher is with the structure, and functioning of the Universal Basic Education programmes in Cross River State.
