1.0 Introduction
Several times ASUU and its sister unions have had to engage government on issues of funding of the education sector and better remuneration for its members. Funding of education comes from different sources. In Nigerian universities and polytechnics, it comes majorly from the government. This the government gets from public revenue, that is from taxation and the proceeds from the sale of crude oil.
The basis of office technology and management is the skills of shorthand and typing. With the coming of the computer age, it is also important that students learn how to use the computer to type and do other things. Modern day graduates of office technology and management, who are the secretaries and personal assistants, must be prepared to accept increasingly complex responsibilities. They can only do this when they are adequately equipped through learning. The thorough education that they will get from school can only be accomplished with all the requisite tools.
Tools like human and material resources are needed. The human resources are there already, willing and able to discharge their duties but the materials resources are the issue. By material resources I mean the things that money can buy like comfortable classrooms, and instructional materials. This department especially needs computers (both desktop and laptops), printers, scanners, photocopiers, laminating machines and other office machines.
Most of the time, they are not available and the few available ones are old, dilapidated and outdated. The need to adequately fund the schools so that students will have the necessary tools to learn is the basis of this project.
1.1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The funds for education are solely provided by the government but the schools are saying it is not enough and they are demanding more. While the government is saying it does not have more to give and also accusing those in the sector of not judiciously using the funds provided.
Nigeria is one of the countries within the African continent that has been termed educationally disadvantaged and almost at its precipice, owing to a myriad of problems bedeviling the sector.
The major constraint remains the issue of poor funding of the sector, for which the United Nations Education and Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other stakeholders have consistently advocated for an increase.
UNESCO believes that for the sector to be properly rejuvenated and offer the much needed impact, governments of member countries ought to channel at least 26 per cent of their national budgets to education alone (Daily Independent, 2014).
The President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) Nasir Fagge, maintained the union’s position when he spoke recently at a one-day strategic meeting for Civil Society Organisations, which was hosted by the Independent Service Delivery Monitoring Group (ISDMG) in Abuja.
Fagge, who spoke on the theme “Revitalizing Nigeria Tertiary Education for 21st Century Challenges,” said Nigeria’s tertiary institutions were performing below average when compared to other institutions in Africa.
He lamented that no Nigerian university ranked among the first 100 in Africa or among the first 5,000 in the world, he however advocated that government should comply with the UNESCO benchmark of 26 percent funding for at least three or five years and assess the impact.
Continuing, he said “I know that Ghana and South Africa have been doing well for the last 25 years and so it is not surprising that our students are moving over to Ghana for education.
“I think a substantive increase in funding of education will to a large extent put the necessary foundation in place for addressing the problems of the system,” he said.
1.3 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
The non-availability of funds for learning is affecting learning in its entirety. The basis of this project is to found out how lack of funding has affected the productivity of teachers and students, and the overall learning in the department of office technology and management, using Yaba College of Technology as a case study. Specifically the department of office technology and management.
Funding in education is a dicey topic. The issue of funding educational institutions has caused so many strike actions by the Academic Staff Union of universities (ASUU). This is the case where the lecturers are demanding for more money while the government is saying they don’t need much money or the schools should provide some of the fund.
1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS
These are the questions of this research work:
1.5 OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
This project work attempts to do the following:
The only limitation in this study is in the area of study. I concentrated my research and discussions on the department of office technology and management in Yabatech. So the results may differ, from what is obtained in other departments and in other schools.