Unions, Government and the University Enterprise in Nigeria (Published)
Permit me to broach this topic with an analogy. A roof is leaking. It needs repairs. Though it sits resplendently on top of a building, it leaks badly inside when the rain falls. In order to get to the top to fix the leakages, one would think naturally, that the mender would fetch a ladder and climb the structure. But this mender is different. He gets a sledge hammer instead and takes down the building to enable him fix the roof! This analogy exemplifies the toxic nature of the subject and the urgency of approach required to conjure a symphony between the unions in our universities today and the gentry (government and university management). The over-charged, over-unionized polity of Nigerian public universities has become a cause for concern, especially as it has begun to affect the quality of teaching, research and community services. Placed side-by-side with the lackadaisical approach of government to the educational sector, it has become evident that new byways needed to be tried out to preempt the imminent and total collapse of this sector. In this work, we shall examine the causes, effects and management of industrial disputes in our universities, and the historical, economic and political nuances involved in the incessant disputes. In other words, we shall carve our positions on the causes of strike, the effects of strikes and the possible alternatives to strikes in Nigerian public universities. The objective of the study is not to apportion blames but to expose the factors which had greatly contributed to the weakening of our HEIs and had forged a corrosive effect on our universities such that the culture of scholarship is being gradually sidetracked and mediocrity being glamourized. Our universities have no place in international rankings, and our graduates who are turned out in multitudes, could no longer said to be competitive in the global market. Stop-gap measures to address challenges could no longer serve the purpose of propping and rejuvenating the Nigerian educational sector especially, in public universities where every rupture has signified a culmination of gradual rust from the primary and secondary sectors of our education. Most of these universities are becoming factories where black-market options with little or no employable skills are mass-produced on a regular basis. Examination malpractices, incessant strikes, cult activities and poor work ethics are fast becoming ‘the new normal,’ which calls for urgent efforts to address quality concerns. This zeal to recover, rediscover and recalibrate the public universities in Nigeria is a project in irredentism that should be executed with all seriousness required so as to rescue the system from near-extinction and launch it back to global reckoning.
Keywords: Government, Nigeria, unions, university enterprise
Teenage Pregnancy and Its Influence on Secondary School Education in Nigeria (Published)
Teenage pregnancy continues to rise in today’s society. It is estimated that about 16 million girls are married off every year (WHO, 2018) contributing to the number of teenage pregnancies across the globe. In Nigeria, 23% of females aged between 15-19 years are bearing children. This can be attributed to illiteracy, societal practices and poverty encouraging girls enter into sexual relationship at an early age. This condemnable situation leads to numbers complications which include; sexually transmitted diseases, school drop outs, pressure on the health sector, increased mortality to mention but a few. These impacts of school enrollment and drop out have significant implications on national development and therefor needs to be tackled urgently. This study therefore, seeks to analyze the influence of teenage pregnancy on secondary school education in Nigeria using a case study of Obio-Akpor L.G.A, Rivers State. The instrument for data collation was a semi-structured questionnaire and the data obtained analyzed employing SPSS version 2.0. A total of 802 respondents responded to the interview making the rate of response 96.2 %. Majority of the respondents were teenagers and 151 (18.1%) being parents. Findings from the study revealed that teenage pregnancy significantly impacted school enrollment, that a significant percentage of teenagers are pregnant before 15, lack of education of parents and teenagers increased the probability of teenage pregnancy, poverty and drug abuse increased the likelihood of teenage pregnancy while teenager mothers 61.2 percent likely to withdraw from school because of the financial obligations of being a mother. In addition, the study makes a number of recommendations which include; sensitization programs should be initiated by relevant bodies to educate the populace on the impact of teenage pregnancies, Policies that facilitate better health care services for teenagers should be deployed by government and non-government organizations, Government and non-governmental organizations should make contraceptive services easily accessible and affordable, School-based daycare facilities should be provided for soon to be/already teenage parents, Psychological help should be provided to students in secondary to help them deal with pressures of peers and societal stigmatization.
Keywords: Education, Nigeria, Teenage Pregnancy.
Adopting Alternative Methodologies and Practices in Educational Research in Higher Education in Nigeria (Published)
Alternative methodologies and practices have gained prominence in educational research in the 21st century. The application of other research methodologies and practices challenges the one-fit-all approach associated with a single research methodology in educational research. The current practice is one that has developed to re-position the subsisting culture of research to rather assume a multidirectional trajectory in educational research in higher institutions of learning. While this is the case in the educational systems of other contexts, it raises concern about whether alternative methodologies and practices also apply in educational research in higher education in Nigeria. This literature examines what obtains in the Nigerian context, and where there seems to be gaps, strives to inspire a rethink of the existing research methodology and practices in educational research for better research in higher education in Nigeria.
Keywords: Higher Education, Nigeria, Practices, educational research, methodologies
Learner Voice, Praxis for Democratic Schooling in Nigeria (Published)
Learner voice has emerged in literature in the 21st century as a means to inform educational change in both developed and developing countries, including Nigeria. It is a rights-based movement and the focus in this work is to help democratise school practices to foster engagement of the perspectives of learners, as partners with teachers, in decision-making involving the curriculum, policies and practices in the context. Analysis of the concept herein is underpinned by social constructivist epistemologies. Learner voice practice challenges didactic pedagogies prevalent within the Nigerian educational system. Rather, the notion regards the learner as a co-creator of knowledge of classroom programmes and partner in school reforms within the context.
Keywords: Democratic, Nigeria, School, engagement, learner voice
Women Participation in Agriculture, Prospects and Challenges for Increased Food Production in Enugu State – Nigeria (Published)
The paper examined women participation in agriculture, their prospect and challenges for increased food production in Enugu State-Nigeria. It explained elaborately how committed women are in making food available for the fast growing population in Nigeria. Women activities in production, processing, marketing of agricultural products among other, were highlighted. The challenges women are facing to enhance food production were also pointed out. These challenges include; lack of access to productive resources like land, customs and tradition in some parts of Nigeria, low level of training /education among others. Recommendations to improve on the challenges were proffered, these include that the level of women training in agricultural production needed to be enhanced, that government should look into laws of land tenure and tradition placed on land acquisition and use, especially as it affect women in agriculture.
Keywords: Agriculture, Increased Food Production, Nigeria, Women
Outcome of Prayer: A Study of Children in Selected Denominations in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria (Published)
Prayer has been assumed to cause different effects on the life of the praying individual. On one side, prayer could imply on the emotional status, individual growth and the on the personal needs of the individual among others. On the other side, it may cause depression and unhappiness especially when the desired response did not happen. This study was set out to investigate whether the above argument applies to the lives of younger and older children of ages 7-8 and 11-12 respectively in four selected churches in Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The study adopted phenomenological qualitative design with Semi-structured interviews and conversations, uncompleted sentences, picture projection and letter writing to God as methods for collecting data. The raw data was gathered, transcribed, coded, classified and re-classified until meaningful patterns and themes emerged after which they were analysed with the help of NVivo. 11 Pro. This study discovered that the effects of the children’s prayer are directly related to their reasons for praying; that as they pray, children experience a deep relationship with God, dialogue with Him verbally and non-verbally, and act upon instructions they believe come from God. It was revealed that children’s emotions and feelings are affected negatively or positively based on the stage of development as discussed in Piaget’s theory of Cognitive Development that formed the foundation for this study.
Keywords: CAC, CCN, Denomination, Effect, God, MFM, NBC, Nigeria, Older Children, Relationship, Theme, Younger Children, prayer
Education for Sustainable Development in Nigeria and Other Developing Nations (Published)
This paper is a contribution to addressing the challenge of underdevelopment in Nigeria using the tool of education. The researcher looked at education for sustainable development in Nigeria as a developing country. In recent times, there has been a paradigm shift in defining development and the way it is practiced. This paradigm shift is what has resulted in the adoption of Sustainable Development (SD) as a concept. Sustainable Development was highlighted in the Brunttand Report, at the Stockholm Conference of 1972 and more recently, in Paris, France where over 169 countries adopted the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a working document. All over Nigeria, there are rumours and evidence of failed leadership characterized by dwindling educational, economic, social and political fortunes. All these problems are as a result of the inability of the leadership to plan successfully for development using appropriate educational tools. It is the opinion here that, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) can function to educate, train and undertake research to contribute to the sustainable development of the Nigerian Society. For instance, such education can provide the citizens with skills, perspectives, values and knowledge to live sustainably in their communities. It can also produce leaders who manage the affairs of government and private sector industries to constitute the stake holders of sustainable development. To function properly in this regard, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) should grow from a variety of sources and be delivered through casual, informal, non-formal and formal strategies. In order to achieve these therefore, the paper recommends among other things that there should be a reorientation of existing education at all levels to include principles, skills, perspectives and values of sustainable development. That formal, non-formal informal and casual education for knowledge, attitude and skills for poverty alleviation and human development be promoted.
Keywords: Developing Nations, Education, Nigeria, Sustainable Development
Business Education: An Indispensable Tool for Achieving Sustainable Development in the South-East States of Nigeria (Published)
The study was carried out by the researchers in the South East States of Nigeria to determine how business education could be an indispensable tool for achieving sustainable development. A survey research design was used for the study. The population comprised 46 business educators teaching in public universities in the South East States of Nigeria. A self-structured questionnaire developed by the researchers and carefully validated by the experts in the Faculty of Education of Enugu State University of Science and Technology was used for data collection. Mean and Standard deviation were used to answer the two research questions that guided the study while t.test hypothesis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the study showed that business education programme is an indispensable tool for achieving sustainable development in the South East States of Nigeria because it provides the needed manpower required in industries. The study equally revealed that one of the strategies for achieving sustainable development in the South East States of Nigeria through business education programme is to ensure that the school curriculum is relevant to the skills required of industries. Moreover, there was no significant difference between the mean responses of male and female business educators on the relevance of business education in achieving sustainable development and the strategies for achieving sustainable development in the South East States of Nigeria. Based on the findings of the study, the researchers recommended among others that the curriculum planners should ensure that the school curriculum content is relevant to the skills required of industries because of the relevance of the programme in providing the needed manpower in industries.
Keywords: Business Education, Business Educator, Nigeria, Sustainable Development
Assessing Free Education of Public Secondary Schools for Sustainable National Development in Nigeria (Published)
Education is inevitable tool for sustainable development and economic development is the desire of all nations of the world but how to attain a sustainable development remains a challenge to many nations. This paper examined free education and its adaption for sustainable national development in Nigeria. Education is a social service, which is meant to eradicate illiteracy, ensures comfortable living of the citizens as well as the development of the country, it should be provided free for all. In the course of this paper, information and data were gathered from literature and forty two (42) principals spread across forty two secondary schools in the four (4) Local Government Area of Umuahia Education Zone to describe the Concept and support of the arguments raised. The data for the study were collected using an instrument titled “Assessing Free Education for Sustainable Development Questionnaire (AFESDQ). The instrument was validated by three (3) research experts and reliability established using Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient with reliability 0.83. Data obtained were analyzed using mean for the research questions while hypothesis formulated was tested at 0.5 level of significance. The relationship between free education and sustainable development were established, the extent of enhancement and factors that facilitate free education were also examined with suggestions including among others, the need to ensure equity and egalitarianism, combat the looming poverty, low manpower/ literacy level and provision of scholarships, bursaries to students and adequate funding from government.
Keywords: Free Education, National Development, Nigeria, Public Secondary Schools
Correlates of Dyscalculia and Learning Outcome in Mathematics among SSII Students in Obudu, Cross River State-Nigeria (Published)
Dyscalculia brings about different types of learning disorder which affects individuals (students) at various levels of learning. It enables the students, educators and guidance to determine inabilities, phobia, anxiety and develop compensatory mechanism for under developed areas. This paper deals with correlates of dyscalculia and learning outcome in Mathematics among SSII students in Obudu, C.R.S- Nigeria. Types of dyscalculia like; sequential, verbal, practognostic and operational dyscalculia are discussed. Tips on how to reduce dyscalculia are listed in the work. The survey research design was adopted for the study. A sample of 200 students was randomly drawn for the study. Data generated were subjected to statistical analysis using Pearson product moment correlation analysis at 0.05 level of significant. Results obtained show among others that dyscalculia significantly correlates with students learning in mathematics. Based on this it was recommended among others that students should engage in practice, extra-time, graphicalized their work and evaluate their work.
Keywords: Dyscalculia, Education, Learning, Mathematics, Nigeria, Students