CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Finance is concerned with the determination of economic value, acquisition, allocation,

utilization and investment of resources to achieve the objectives of different economic units such

as government, business firms, organizations and households (Campell, 2004 and Boma, 2018).

Public school financial resources usually include funds from sources such as tuition, Parent

Teachers’ Association (PTA) levy, trust fund, development levy, government subventions,

donations, education investments in marketable securities, et cetera. Education finance therefore

refers to government and/or organization processes by which revenues are generated through

taxation, tuition fees and philanthropy, distributed and expended for the operation and capital

support of formal schooling (Guthrice & Schuerman, 2017; Tyger, 2018).

School financial resources is used for building office accommodation and classrooms, training of

teachers, payment of salaries and wages, provision of instructional materials and recreational

facilities and investment for future consumption opportunities, among others. Financial resources

are of fundamental importance in the management of education at all levels globally. It is an

essential educational resource which determines the quality and quantity of other resources

needed for the proper functioning of the education sector (Irikana & Weli, 2019). Therefore, no

educational system can thrive without financial resources. The development of every educational

system and the attainment of educational goals is tied to the availability of financial resources.

Thus, finance is an indispensable tool in processing educational products for quality output.

School financial resources refer to all physical and monetary resources within the parameters of

the school system meant for exploitation and allocation for production function. Financial
resource according to Oyekan, Adelodun and Oresajo (2015), is the monetary resource which

serves as a means of acquiring all other educational resources. Its availability and mobilization is

of great importance to any education industry.

Hedges, Pigott, Polanin, Ryran, Tocci and William (2016) argued that one of the issues of

contention in education financial research is how and whether the resources provided to schools

relate to students’ academic achievement. In other words, does money matter to students’

academic performance? Increasing school financial resources can contribute to such factors such

as teacher quality, administrative capacity, students’ resources and facility investment which all

have the potential to greatly affect student’s achievement. But the structure of school finance

may also play a part in increasing academic performance. For instance, a finance system that

fails to provide adequate teacher salaries may result in reduced teacher quality, as more

experienced educators may leave relatively low paying jobs for better prospects with higher

reward. On the other hand, a system that provides overly generous salaries and benefits for

teachers may fail to invest in facilities such as classrooms, auditoriums or computer labs which

may put students at a disadvantaged position and stifle learning opportunities. Though the

amount of resources spent on education matters, the ways in which finance systems allocate

these resources also play an important role in promoting or impeding academic performance

(Andrew, 2016; Hedges et al 2016).

Consequently, academic performance has been of serious concern among stakeholders as

students’ educational outcome declines. Osim, Akeke and Uchendu (2015) observed that poor

work performance by teachers in Enugu State is as a result of inadequate educational support

variables such as school facilities. Adequacy of school facilities provides conducive working
environment for teachers with its ripple positive effect on students’ outcome in secondary

educational level.

The Nigeria educational system has suffered untold hardship as a result of underfunding of the

system. There are identical problems of inadequate infrastructure, demoralisation of teachers,

lack of discipline in schools, dilapidated classrooms, dearth of books and equipment, unqualified

teachers, high student/teacher ratio, overpopulation, inadequate staffing, agitation for special

salary scale by teachers, delay in payment of salary, decay of infrastructure, poor management in

terms of supervision and inspection, brain drain, population explosion, lack of motivation on the

part of instructional and non-instructional staff, crowded classrooms, lack of instructional aids,

lack of recreational facilities, under nourishment, inadequate training and development for staff

and dearth of statistics. All these inherent problems caused by underfunding of the education

system have undesirable effects on students’ achievement in public primary schools in Nigeria.

Fafunwa (2018) noted that the Nigerian students have suffered under the burden of dilapidated

infrastructure, ill-motivated teaching staff, retrogressive academic curriculum and total absence

of technology resources at all levels of the Nigerian academic institutions.

The yearly budgetary allocations from the state governments had proved to be inadequate to

cater for the survival of the system. The educational system has been politicised and free

education remains the central focus of political campaigns and manifestoes; political agitations

and personal ambitions have beclouded attempts to source funds through school fees and other

levies. Hence, there is the need for mobilisation of funds to supplement the available budgetary

allocations. It is incumbent on the headships of various schools to design strategies such as

educational levies, sales of farm produce, inter-house competition levy and donations from old

students’ association to generate funds both internally and externally. Notably, their capacity to
mobilise funds is limited by the internal control, accountability and political factors in the sense

that many state governments have instructed heads of various schools not to charge student extra

fee for political gain.

Academic performance according to Nnamani, Dikko, and Kinta (2014) is defined or regarded as

participants’ examination grades at the end of a given duration (term, semester, programme).

Ebenuwa cited in Nnamani et al (2014) avered that students’ academic performance affects the

quality of human resources within the society. It is particularly true, because the manpower

population of a country is a product of graduate output of various levels and types of educational

institutions. It therefore suggests that primary school leavers output with low academic

performance will bequeath to the society human resources without competence and capacity to

drive the economy. However, this has become a major problem that requires urgent and serious

solution.

Statement of the Research Problem

Despite Nigeria’s commitment to National Policy on Education through free, compulsory and

Universal Basic Education (UBE) under the Universal Basic Education Act of 2004, basic

education continues to suffer from low and inequitable access. This is evidenced in the report

which shows that there are 31 million children of primary school age, and 25 million of

secondary age, with a total of 82 million children under the age of 14 in the country; but the

country’s gross enrollment rate (GER) in 2016 for primary education was 87 percent and the rate

for junior secondary education was 42 percent. Nigeria, as the largest country in Africa in terms

of population, has approximately 20 percent of the total out-of-school children population in the

world. Adding to this challenge is the demographic pressure, with about 11,000 newborns every

day, which may likely need space for education at the foundation level in a very short time. The
structure and features of the education system in the country can be described as a ‘1-6-3-3-4’

system: one pre-primary year and six years of primary, followed by three years of junior

secondary education—which together comprise basic education; the next three years are senior

secondary education, followed by four years of tertiary education.

It is a general belief among scholars that school inputs are fundamental key measures of their

outputs. These school inputs can be measured monetarily and nonmonetary. The monetary inputs

are the budgetary allocations to education by the governments and funds generated to

supplement the available budgetary provision, whereas, non-monetary inputs include students’

socio-economic status, family background and attitude towards education. Both monetary and

non-monetary inputs have an impact on students’ achievement. The level of students’

achievement becomes the criterion by which money and other resources are allocated to schools.

Nevertheless, the distribution of educational resources could lead to different levels of

achievement. A visit to primary schools in Nigeria revealed their regrettable, devastating and

disheartening state. The buildings are going through different stages of dilapidation; members of

staff are ill-motivated due to late payment of salaries or sometimes non-availability of salaries,

dearth of instructional staff due to brain drain, disproportionate student/teacher ratio and lack of

instructional materials among other factors. All these problems are due largely to underfunding

of the system. This without doubt has tremendous effects on the overall achievement of students

in public examinations.

Funding of formal education in Nigeria has been a topical issue due to the present bleak in

economy arising from the global inflationary trend and economic down turn. In spite of the

efforts of the different governments of the federation to provide funds for education, educational

institutions still lack the necessary funds to implement various programmes.

The problem of this study emanated from various inadequacies associated with the Nigerian

educational system, inadequacies in terms of teaching and learning facilities, school plants, non-

payment of teachers’ salaries, modern technologies, unconducive learning environment.

The Nigerian educational system has witnessed a great deal of transformation in recent times. As

the aims and objectives for setting up educational institutions has continued to widen, new

subjects have been enlarged to reflect the critical needs of Nigerian society. In other words, high

premium is placed on the funding of education, because the success of any project depends to a

large extent on the availability of funds for the project.

There are many problems associated with the funding of primary education in Enugu State.

There is the general outcry in the state that primary education has not produced the desired

objectives as stipulated in the national policy on education due to lack of proper funding. On the

basis of this, there is the need for improved funding of primary education so as for the state to

achieve the goals and objectives of primary education in the country.

In Enugu State, there is a neglect of this sector of education by government for the past decade

and more and if nothing is done to arrest the situation, for our children to acquire basic education

will be a mirage. This is because of the following factors: there is an increase in pupils enrolment

in primary schools without the corresponding increase in the number of professional teachers,

delay in the payment of teachers’ salaries and allowances, inadequate supply of instructional

materials, poor infrastructural facilities, lack of befitting building for learning, lack of effective

supervision and motivation, lack of financial commitment by Parents Teachers Associations

(PTA), nonchalant attitude of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO”s) and educational

philanthropists, total neglect of the rural schools in the state among others have continued to

plaque primary school education in the state.

From the foregoing, it is clear that most of the problems confronting primary education in the

state is poor funding and it is on the basis of these enumerated problems that the researcher saw

it imperative to carry out the study on the Impact of poor funding of primary education on the

academic performance of the pupils in Nkanu West LGA, Enugu State.

Purpose of the Study

The main purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of poor funding of primary education

on the academic performance of the pupils in Nkanu West LGA, Enugu State. Specifically, the

study sought to determine:

i. The extent to which poor funding on school personnel effect the academic performance

of pupils in Nkanu West LGA

ii. The extent to which underfunding on school facilities impacts on the pupils’ learning

process in Nkanu West LGA

iii. The extent to which poor funding of teaching and learning materials influence students’

classroom engagement in Nkanu West LGA

Significance of the Study

The theory of public expenditure developed by Adalph Wagner (2017) emphasized that

governments irrespective of the levels have the tendency of increasing public expenditure in such

areas as defense, general administration of law and order, social welfare, health, social amenities,

agriculture, transportation, communication and education among others. The implication of this

theory to this study is that, since governmental activities and expenditure is increasing day by

day and there is this increasing demands of the other sectors of the economy, such as power,

infrastructure, agriculture, health, social welfare among others, it is therefore imperative for

managers of education, including primary education to look for other modalities of funding
education in the country. The findings of the study will therefore validate or invalidate the

stipulation of the theory.

The following group of people shall benefit from the findings of the study. They include the

Local Government Education Authorities, the pupils, teaching and non- teaching staff and the

parents.

The Local Government Education Authorities: They shall benefit from the findings of this study

as they shall be enlightened on how to improve funding of primary schools. In other words, the

study will provide them with an alternative means of or sources of funding primary education.

The result shall also benefit the pupils because when funding of primary schools is improved, the

set objectives shall be achieved and then the quality and quantity of primary school pupils shall

be what it is supposed to be.

It is a fact that, when there is improvement in the funding of primary education, payment of

teaching and non-teaching staff shall be regular. This shall motivate them for maximum

performance and it will also avoid the incessant strikes always embarked upon by primary school

teachers in the country.

On the part of the parents, they will benefit from the study because they will be expected to be

more involved in the education of their children.

Scope of the Study

This study investigated the impact of poor funding of primary education on the academic

performance of the pupils in Nkanu West LGA, Enugu State. In doing this, the research is

narrowed to public secondary school to enable the researcher minimize the cost of covering a

large area as an individual researcher, and to enable the researcher conduct a meaningful study

within the short possible time as permitted for this program of study.
Research Questions

The study was guided by the following research questions:

i. To what extent does poor funding on school personnel effect the academic performance

of pupils in Nkanu West LGA?

ii. To extent does underfunding on school facilities impact on the pupils’ learning process in

Nkanu West LGA?

iii. To what extent does poor funding of teaching and learning materials influence students’

classroom engagement in Nkanu West LGA?