ABSTRACT

The study examined the effectiveness of the Akwa Ibom State civil service in the implementation of free and compulsory education policy through the state’s Ministry of Education. It was premised on the observed challenges in the implementation of UBE in the state. The objectives of the research work were to examine the relationship between funding and attainment of free and compulsory education policy goals in Akwa Ibom State; to assess the impact of infrastructure in schools on the quality of learning in public schools in Akwa Ibom State; to identify and discuss the major challenges of implementing the free and compulsory education policy in Akwa Ibom State; and to suggest ways by which the free and compulsory education policy can be effectively implemented and managed to achieve its stated goals. To achieve the above objectives, documentary research design was adopted with data drawn from secondary sources. The findings of this study revealed that the funding of free and compulsory education in Akwa Ibom State is not commensurate with the attainment of the set goals and objectives of the policy. It was further revealed that the poor level of infrastructural development has a negative impact on the quality of learning in primary and secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State. In view of the above findings, it was recommended amongst others that every tier of the government that has the responsibility of contributing to the funding of the free and compulsory education in Akwa Ibom State should ensure that they live up to their expectation. This will help solve the problem of funding to provide the various facilities and infrastructure needed to achieve the stated goals and objectives of the policy.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1              Background of the Study

The primary role of every government today is to provide certain key services to its teaming population by responding with various supports through the state bureaucracy. In Nigeria, such services are executed through Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), all of which work within specified rules and regulations to achieve the government objectives by implementing public policies, as well as, executing projects and programmes. The success of such programmes and policies however depend on the effectiveness of the stock of human resources available to the services of the state. The free and compulsory education policy of Akwa Ibom state is one of such policies that were implemented by the state civil service through the Ministry of Education and other affiliate departments and agencies.

Education has always remained a social process in capacity building and maintenance of society for a very long time. It is through education that members of the society acquire skills, relevant knowledge and habit for survival in the challenging world. However, the educational system in Nigeria has experienced a lot of changes. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) is one of these changes. The universal declaration of Human Right Act, which culminated in a world conference of education for all (EFA), held in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990, gave rise to the universal, free and compulsory education in parts of Nigeria (Dike, 2000). This programme was launched by the then President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo in September 1999. This was subsequently signed into law in May, 2004 (UBE Digest, 2004).

The intention of the Universal Basic Education was to make education universal, free and also compulsory from primary up to the junior secondary schools for all Nigerians irrespective of age, sex, race, religion, occupation or location. The 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, section 18, sub-sections 1-3, state that: “(1) Government shall direct its policy towards ensuring that there are equal and adequate educational opportunities at all levels, (2) Government shall promote science and technology, (3) Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end Government shall as when practicable provide: (a) free, compulsory and universal primary education, (b) free university education; and (c) free adult literacy programme”. The Universal Basic Education (UBE) would thus lay the foundation for basic literacy, numeracy and communication in the society (Uyanga, 2012).

Ten years later in 2009, the Akwa Ibom State Government under the leadership of Governor Godswill Obot Akpabio kick started the nation’s plan by declaring a free and compulsory education, not only from Primary one to Junior Secondary Three (JS3) but extended this programme to Senior Secondary education in the state. With this policy, the state’s educational sector became rebranded repositioned and completely repackaged (AKSG, 2009).

Also, with the Child’s Right Act enacted by the state government on December 5, 2008, education in Akwa Ibom State became a fundamental right for all children residing in the state. To show its commitment to the compulsory education, the government established a new monitoring policy on 26th April 2010 to ensure full implementation and to consolidate on the gains. Consequently, any child of school age found on the street during school hours (whether in uniform or not) was arrested alongside their parents for prosecution (AKSG, 2010).

The Universal, Free and Compulsory Education Policy the together with Akwa Ibom State policy of free and compulsory secondary education have already brought about students’ population explosion in Akwa Ibom Primary and Secondary Schools. This implies that the number of students’ enrolment in the state public secondary schools has tremendously increased.

The Nigerian education system has been facing complex problems and various governments have initiated programmes of reforms that have achieved less than the desired goals thus crippling the system instead of enhancing it. These reforms have been inconsistent, mismanaged and mostly ineffective. The implementation of the National Policy on Education is a typical example of such attempts. Lack or insufficient provision of learning resources and poor management of resources by government and school administrators seem to be responsible for the failure of UBE as a laudable educational programme of government. Some educational experts have identified lack of political will, as well as unstable, incomplete, inconsistent and outdated data as major attributors to the poor implementation of the UBE.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The popular assumption in Nigeria today is that there is free and compulsory education, at least up to the Junior Secondary level. The above assumption was built on the launching of the “Universal Basic Education Scheme” in 1999. The scheme aims at providing free, compulsory, universal basic education for every Nigerian child of school-going age. The essence of any programme is its workability and of course, education is about functionality. Jaiyeoba and Atanda (2004) identified three main subsystems of education, which are policy formulations, management and implementation. They argued that there is a wide gap between the policy formulation and implementation; the former sets the standard and criteria for evaluating the accomplishments of the organization, while the latter is interested in the execution of these policies based on the set standards. The concept of free education re-echoes in almost every education related document in Nigeria. For instances, section 18 (3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria states: “Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy; and to this end, government shall as and when practicable provide -

(a)        free, compulsory and universal primary education;

(b)        free secondary education; and

(c)        free adult literacy programme.”

It is worthy to note that the best legacy any leader can give to its citizen is education. That time-tested truism was the guiding principles of Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State who did not only declare free education for his people but made it compulsory for every Akwa Ibom state up to SS3. The scheme was launched in 2009 with the distribution of free exercise books to schools, science and introductory technology equipments for science laboratories and technology workshops, books for libraries, etc.

The then Governor argued that illiteracy compound poverty, while education does not only enlightens but also empowers. This effort was accompanied by the allocation of subvention to schools (N300 per student per term in secondary schools; N100 per pupil, per term in primary schools) (AKSG, 2015). The money is meant to assist head teachers and principals to provide some logistics such as the purchase of diesel, chalks and other materials. Apart from the subvention, the Governor also released millions of naira for funding of registration for NECO/SSWAEC and NABTEB examinations for Akwa Ibom candidates in public schools. Free education is expensive but Governor Akpabio said it was the best way to spend funds; investing in the future.

It is instructive to note that immediately after the free education policy of the Akpabio administration was announced, enrolments in schools tripled. This did not matched with the right number of teachers, school desks and classroom blocks hence sitting on the windows to receive lessons became an advantage for some students as so many others were found standing in or around the classrooms due to lack of space in the classrooms. Yet, the question many still ask is: how free is free education in Akwa Ibom State? For instance, going by Amaele’s (2001) assertion of free education, one can infer that Akwa Ibom is having a partial implementation of free education.

Amaele (2001) stated that “free education means tuition free, free feeding, free books, free accommodation, free transportation, free uniform and other personal needs of the learner, and that the partial implementation of the above does not qualify a system as free.” Okobiah (2003) stated that the architectural space, light, temperature, sound and furniture constitute the physical environment of the classroom. The author further suggested that tables and chairs are better for writing than when desks are attached, although they occupy more space. The size of the classroom may be standardized for 40 students but in most cases, this number is tripled. Could such a situation support effective learning in Akwa Ibom State’s free and compulsory education prgoramme?

Mbakwem (2005) observed that some secondary schools may have enough classrooms in terms of the numbers of the available classes but not enough tables, desks and chairs. The issues here are whether students are comfortable in the classrooms, and whether students have enough desks and chairs? Moreso, do students, including handicapped students, occupy the seats comfortably? Udoh (2008) asserted that in classrooms, it is not sufficient to have seats but the seats should be arranged in such a manner that students can move around for group discussions and group work. The seats should be comfortable for students, should permit free mobility and allow for adequate and comfortable body postures.

A careful observation has revealed that free and compulsory education is suffering financial setbacks in Nigeria, and Akwa Ibom State is not an exception, because it was not adequately budgeted for. The poor allocations to the education sector are at variance with the UNESCO provisions that 26% of the total budget in developing countries should go to the education sector. For instance, the Federal Government of Nigeria’s budgets/allocations to education in 2008, 2009 and 2010 were 6.5%, 6.0% and 4.3% respectively (Federal Ministry of Finance, 2011) while that of Akwa Ibom were 0.31%, 0.54%, 0.34% and 0.53% for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 respectively (Akwa Ibom State Ministry of Finance, 2012).

Udoh (2008) also maintained that the critical issues militating against effective implementation of free and compulsory education in Akwa Ibom State are inadequate infrastructure, unqualified teachers, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings especially in rural areas as students often stand to learn. Furthermore, Udofot (2010) commented that an essential task in the implementation of free and compulsory education in Akwa Ibom State must involve a census of existing infrastructure and facilities. They must be assessed for their quality, appropriateness, quantity and adequacy.

However, several researchers (Adebola, 2007: 53; Ejere, 2011: 221-226; and Duze, 2012: 38-44) have observed that many years after the UBE policy was launched, it is still poorly implemented. They also identified various factors that may have contributed to the failure of the implementation of UBE. The factors include inter alia inadequate and poor data; inadequacy of policy resources; fragmentation and conflict of roles or responsibilities due to many agencies involved in the implementation; and a dearth of high quality personnel in the implementing agencies

It is therefore observed that a number of factors have been responsible for students’ poor academic performance generally. Such factors include teaching methods, poor pupil-teacher ratio, inadequate learning materials, school location, motivation, interest and class size. With the rapid increase in the number of students, the effectiveness of the civil service in the implementation of free and compulsory education policy through the Ministry of Education in Akwa Ibom State is worth researching on.

In the light of this, the following research questions are raised:

a.                   What is the relationship between funding and attainment of free and compulsory education policy goals in Akwa Ibom State?

b.                  What is the impact of infrastructure in public primary and secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State on the quality of learning?

c.                   What are the major challenges hindering the effective implementation of the free and compulsory education policy in Akwa Ibom State?

1.3       Objectives of the Study

The broad objective of this research work is to examine the responsibility of Akwa Ibom State’s Ministry of Education in implementing the state’s policy of free and compulsory education. To this end, the specific objectives of the research work include the following:

a.                   To examine the relationship between funding and attainment of free and compulsory education policy goals in Akwa Ibom State.

b.                  To assess the impact of infrastructure on the quality of learning in public, primary and secondary schools in Akwa Ibom State.

c.                   To identify and discuss the major challenges of implementing the free and compulsory education policy in Akwa Ibom State.

d.                  To suggest ways which the free and compulsory education policy can be effectively implemented and managed to achieve its stated goals.

1.4       Research Hypotheses

The hypotheses of this research work include the following:

1.                  The higher the funds allocated to education, the higher the chances of attaining the goals of free and compulsory education policy in Akwa Ibom State.

2.            &n

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