THE AVAILABILITY OF HUMAN AND MATERIAL RESOURCES IN TEACHING SENIOR SCHOOL IN LAGOS STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

The development of human and material resources has been the focus of concern of recent, towards the development of a nation. This is due to the fact that the growth of tangible capital stock of a nation depends to a considerate degree on human capital development. Without adequate investment in developing the human and material resources of the education sector, the possibility of the growth of any nation might be hampered. Education is the vital instrument for social and economic mobility at the personal level and an instrument for transformation of society at the national level (Okpala, 2006) The major concern of the researcher is on the availability of human and material resources in secondary school as both of them are the major ingredients to determine the effectiveness and performance of the school.

Resources, according to Flippo (2003) mean anything that can give help or support when needed in order to achieve a goal or objective by an individual, group of individuals or an organization. Thus, educational resources according to Flippo (2003) mean those things that are needed to help or support in achieving educational goals and objectives. Irondi (2009) maintains that educational resources are made up of human, financial and materials resources. He adds that human resources are made up of school administrators, the same people teachers, bursars typists, Clarks, messengers, cleaners, watchman, cooks, drivers, librarians, gardeners etc. Human resources in secondary school are made up of both skilled and unskilled workers. Castetter (2006) opined that there is no organization that can function properly without adequate and qualified personnel. He maintains that the quality of the personnel determines the quality of the school products. Adequate provision of human resources in schools will help to produce quality students and will help to promote good schools administration. It is the responsibility of the school and the government to provide human resources to secondary school.

Adeogun (2009) notes that it is the responsibility of the school administration and the state government to ensure that adequate materials resources are made available to the concerned school. This will enable the schools to equip their students effectively and produce good performance on the part of both teachers and students; there is need for the provision of adequate human and materials resources in our secondary schools. Adequately of the human resources according to Adeogun (2009) means having the right quantity and quality of staff in an organization. According to Nwana (2003), teacher quantity refers total number of teachers in the school system and for teachers to be effective; they must be adequate in number. Lassa (2008) asserted that the success of any human endeavor, secondary school inclusive, is closely related to be quality of personnel who perform the tasks.

He added that the extent to which public education succeeds will depend to a large extent, upon the quality of the personnel engaged in the educational process and upon the effectiveness with which they discharge individual and group responsibilities. He also pointed out that among all the ingredients needed in making secondary education succeed, is the competency of the personnel charged with the task of effecting desirable changes in children. In another view, Nwana (2003) found out that the adequacy in the number of teaching staff and availability of teaching materials influence the overall efficiency and effectiveness of an educational institution. This implies that for secondary schools to be effective and efficient, there is need to for the provision of adequate human and materials resources consequently, this study will assess the availability of human and materials resources in teaching senor secondary District I, Lagos State.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The availability of human and material resources in secondary schools is crucial and government of the state has been consistent in ensuring that these educational resources are available for schools. Inspite of the eort of the government to provide the schools with both human and materials resources, most secondary schools have still not met the academic standard and are struggling good student performance. Report from past researchers reveal that government secondary schools lack adequate infrastructural facilities like laboratories, libraries and ICT centres and those aect the performance and productivity of schools. Also, poor administration in most secondary schools leads to bad maintenance of human and material resources in school. Good supply of materials like textbooks and other instructional materials may be mismanaged by school administrators, principals and teachers. Moreso, many secondary schools lack textbooks in the four care subjects, that is, English, Mathematics, Basic Science and Technology. Lack of textual materials and instructional materials like teachers guide, hand books, manuals have affected quality delivery of the curriculum. Thus, the main thrust of this study shall be assess how effective is the availability of human and material resources in teaching senior secondary school in Lagos State.