Implications of Financial Distress on Tertiary Education in Nigeria (Published)
The study examined the implications of financial distress on tertiary Education Nigeria. The financial distress in tertiary institutions in Nigeria today can be attributed to poor management and leadership problems. This has tremendously affected the operations of higher institutions in Nigeria. The university system requires a lot of funds for effective administration to be able to achieve its goals. The inability of the government to stick to the UNESCO 26% of national budget for education has seriously affected the management of Nigerian universities. Most of Nigerian tertiary institutions today face a lot of problems due to financial distress. As many of them find it difficult to pay workers’ salaries, provide adequate infrastructure and teaching equipment. The causes and implications of financial distress on tertiary Education were examined. It was recommended that both federal and state governments need to collaborate more with the private sector to explore opportunities for raising non-traditional funds and participation in education financing. Also, government should stop the habit of diverting the funds meant for tertiary education projects to other sectors. In addition, funds disbursed for projects and programmes should be adequately supervised, monitored and evaluated to achieve effective implementation.
Keywords: Administration, Financial Distress, Government, Management, tertiary education
Personal and Institutional Constraints to Accessing Tertiary Education among People Living with Disability in Bayelsa State (Published)
The paper investigated personal and institutional constraints to accessing tertiary education among people living with disability in Bayelsa State. Two research questions and two corresponding null hypotheses were answered and tested in the study. Mixed method design was adopted in the study while 165 respondents consisting of 160 persons with disability, four Deans of Student Affairs and an executive of Joint National Association of Persons with Disabilities (JONAPWD) in Bayelsa State were sampled for the study using multistage sampling technique. The respondents were drawn from within and outside four randomly selected tertiary institutions namely; Bayelsa Medical University (Yenagoa LGA), Fderal University Otuoke (Ogbia LGA), Niger Delta University (Southern Ijaw LGA) and Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education (Sagbama LGA). Instruments used for collection of data were questionnaire for the persons with disability as well as Focus Group Discussion while five Key Informant Interviews (KIIs)was conducted with the other respondents. Data gathered quantitatively were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and t-test while the qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings of the study indicated that poverty and fear of discrimination were the major personal factors that hindered access to tertiary education for the respondents while the major institutional factors were shortage of experts in special needs education and shortage of infrastructure. There existed a difference in the opinion of the students and non-students on these personal and institutional factors. It was recommended that laws should be enacted that will criminalize and punish the violation of the educational rights of people with disability while special fund should be established to take care of their educational needs.
Keywords: Bayelsa State, Institutional, Personal, disability, tertiary education