Assessment On The Effect Of Free Education Policy On Public Junior Secondary Schools

Assessment On The Effect Of Free Education Policy On Public Junior Secondary Schools

Chapter One

Preface

Background Of The Study

Education has been viewed as a more important force that may be used to prompt change. Education is viewed as the light that dispels the darkness of ignorance and allows humanity to navigate the trials and agonies of progress and civilization.( Ikechukwu, 2006) Free education is the finest and easiest approach to conduct information to all those who earn it. Making education free at the secondary position will be salutary to our society. The term” free education” is a combination of the terms” free” and” education.” The term’ free,’ according to the Oxford Dictionary of English, denotes” without expenditure or payment.” When the expenditure of tutoring a child is carried by the government at the state or public position, or by an external agent( s) other than the parents, it’s appertained to as’ free education'( Ige, 2015).’ Free Education’ may therefore be defined as each-round education offered for a sprat free of charge by the government, philanthropists, and other associations, with neither the child nor the parent contributing a song. In Nigeria, the conception of free education has progressed. Following the division of Nigeria into three regions( West, East, and North) in 1951, education was placed on the concurrent legislative list of the civil and indigenous administrations. This means that both situations of government have the authority to fund and control educational establishments. In Nigeria, free education has a long history of being used to fund scholars’ education. The birth of free education passed in January 1955, when the also- western region, led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, started her fire university abecedarian education program( UPE). In 1957, the Eastern Region and the civil capital region of Lagos established free abecedarian education. The coming time, education was enforced in the east, thereby ending free education. This trouble in the East failed owing to a lack of sufficient medication and prosecution. For undergraduates, free education( free education) is now in effect in Federal Universities. Indeed with free education, scholars bear a significant fiscal burden.

The Universal Basic Education( UBE) program is a policy reform action of the Federal Government of Nigeria that aims to correct deformations in introductory education. UBE is intended to include formal education up to the age of 15, as well as adult andnon-formal education, including education of Nigerian society’s underprivileged groups. Section 3 of the National Policy on Education, 2004 defines introductory education as a form of education conforming of six times of abecedarian academy and three times of inferior secondary academy. The policy states that education must be both free and obligatory. This action will cover both grown-ups and out- of- academy youths, as well asnon-formal educational programs at the abecedarian and inferior secondary academy situations. The UBE is made up of three major factors Universal, Basic, and Education. The term” universal” refers to the fact that the program is open to all people, anyhow of lineage, culture, race, or social status. Aluede( 2006) and EddyAkpan( 2009) The expression introductory refers to commodity that’s abecedarian or necessary and must be handed or attained. Everything additional is grounded on this element as well. Nothing can be fulfilled without it. It’s the foundation of all knowledge gain( Eddy and Akpan, 2009) As a result, UBE may be viewed as the form of education that every individual need. It shouldn’t be a honor, but rather a right, and it should be the sum of an existent’s gests .

As a result, the Universal Basic Education( UBE) program’s thing is to offer free introductory education for children. still, due to inconsistencies in its perpetration in the history, several countries in Nigeria are now enforcing partial free education, as is the case in the South- west zone. This pertains to the payment of Senior School Certificate Examination( SSCE), Junior School Certificate Examination( JSCE), and development tax payments. One of the perpetration tactics of the Universal Basic Education action is the distribution of free lunches to abecedarian academy scholars. Since the morning of Western education in 1842, Nigeria has not enforced’ free education.’ Rather, at one point or another, programs were enforced that excluded the payment of academy freights, in part or entirely, at one position or another. The elimination of academy freights or other associated levies doesn’t make education free since there are still walls to a child’s access to education. Some of these limitations have preliminarily been answered. When walls to carrying quality and standard education are removed, allowing every child to acquire education anyhow of age, gender, interest, or aptitude, we say that there’s free education. Education-free education isn’t the same as free education. Free education isn’t handed in part, but in its wholeness. How be it this notion has piqued contestation among scholars.

Statement Of The Problem

The purpose of free education policy is to minimize the burden on parents who invest plutocrat on education since it’s honored as the stylish tool for effective public development. In agreement with this view, the government has done all necessary to meet the backing and educational demands of scholars in order for them to gain information and enhance their intellectual capability. The government assures that scholars meet the conditions of this policy in terms of education-free education, payment of external freights, and text vacuity. It should be mentioned that this is inadequate to ameliorate educational quality. That is, it gives uneven chances to all kiddies in the country, inferring that not all pupils were enrolled in seminaries as a result of this policy.

Unexpectedly, the development of the UBE was urged by a broad roar about the declining position of introductory education and a severe decline in the morality of primary academy pupils. According to Ayodeji( 2012), the UBE was brazened with the problems that introductory education faced in Nigeria previous to its preface, which included a lack of installations, shy supervision, a deficit of labor force, a lack of finances, high text prices, incoherent class perpetration, and a high drop- eschewal rate. Denga( 2000). As a result, against this background, this study tries to examine the impact of free education policy on public inferior secondary seminaries.

Objects Of The Study

The broad ideal of this study is to examine the effect of free education policy on public inferior secondary seminaries. Specifically, the study sought

To determine whether education-free policy influence the quality of education in some named public inferior secondary seminaries.

ii. To probe the extent does free education enhance Sustainable National Development?

iii. To ascertain the if free education as quested in UBE is actually free

iv. To determine the challenges of universal introductory education in inferior secondary seminaries.

Exploration Questions

This study handed answers to the following questions;

Does education-free policy influence the quality of education in some named public inferior secondary seminaries?

ii. What’s the extent does free education enhance Sustainable National Development?

iii. Is the free education clause quested in Universal Basic Education Policy actually free?

iv. What are the challenges of universal introductory education in inferior secondary seminaries?

Significance Of The Study

The study is salutary to scholars, preceptors, educational directors and itineraries, parents and to the society at large. To scholars, it enables them to remain focused in the accession of knowledge through free education policy provision in order to make their tone- regard, inseminate confidence in them to be suitable to contend with their counterparts. To the preceptors, it enables them to ameliorate in their tutoring pedagogy with the use of educational coffers in agreement with the free education policy objects. It’ll also help the educational itineraries to give feed reverse to the government concerning the loopholes in the educational system. To the parent, the study is salutary to them because it lessen their burden of education freights and provision of necessary pupil’s requirements. To the society at large, the affair of the education system will be suitable to promote public development through quality education.

Compass Of The Study

The study covers free education policy and quality of education which involves education-free policy, provision of handbooks policy, reclamation of good preceptors and their impact on the quality of education. It involves the preceptors in some Junior secondary academy in Minna original government in Niger State.

Limitation Of The Study

Like in every mortal bid, the experimenters encountered slight constraints while carrying out the study. The significant constraint was the skimp literature on the subject owing that it’s a new converse therefore the experimenter incurred more fiscal charges and important time was needed in sourcing for the applicable accoutrements , literature, or information and in the process of data collection, which is why the experimenter resorted to a limited choice of sample size covering only Junior secondary academy in Minna original government in Niger State. therefore findings of this study can not be used for conception for other secondary seminaries in other countries within Nigeria. also, the experimenter will contemporaneously engage in this study with other academic work will stymie maximum devotion to the exploration. Howbeit, despite the constraint encountered during the exploration, all factors were played down in other to give the stylish and make the exploration successful.

Functional Description Of Applicable Terms

Education This is the process of conducting knowledge and chops through training to enable the child or individual develop positive station to acclimate to the society to which he she belongs.

Basic Education This is the education given to children in primary academy to inferior secondary academy.

Primary Education This is the first position of education organized in the formal academy system offered to a child generally age( 6- 11) times in Nigeria.