THE IMPACT OF THE AKWA IBOM STATE GOVERNMENT EXPENDITURE ON EDUCATION AND HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT

                                                 Abstract

Akwa ibom state has over the years invested substantially to improve the educational attainment of the labour force and to raise productivity but yet still faces declining real output and slow economic growth. The paper focuses on the impact of education expenditure on economic growth as a means of achieving the desired socio-economic change needed in the state. Findings indicate that though a positive relationship subsists between education expenditure and economic growth but a long run relationship does not exist over the period under study. The study observed that this puzzle is attributable to labour market distortions, redundancy of the workforce, industrial dispute and job discontinuities as well as leakages in the Nigerian society such as brain drain among others. In conclusion, the above study has shown that educational sector has not been productive as expected. This is evidenced by the poor quality of graduates, increasing cases of cultism in schools and high rates of drop-outs. The paper further suggests the improvement of the education system through efficient use of public resources through good governance, accountability and transparency. Also, efforts should be made by policy makers to come up with policies that would check, preserve and protect the plight of educational capital to other country.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER ONE:

                                      INTRODUCTION

 

• Background of the study

It is widely accepted that education creates improved citizens and helps to upgrade the general standard of living in a society. Therefore, positive social change is likely to be associated with the production of qualitative citizenry. It would seem to follow naturally that if more individuals are educated, the wealth of nation would rise, since more education attracts higher wages and aggregatively higher national income. And if there are positive externalities of education, national income would increase by even more than the sum of the individual benefits. This increasing faith in education as an agent of change in many developing countries including Nigeria has led to a heavy investment in it, and thus the delegation of manpower development to the schools. The pressure for higher education and even school education in many developing countries has undoubtedly been helped by public perception of financial reward from pursuing such education. Generally, this goes with the belief that expanding education promotes economic growth. The need for increasing public expenditure could be found in various theories of public expenditure. The theories of Wagner, Musgrave theory of increasing state activities, the Keynesian theory of deficit financing. Education is one of the important areas where governments in both developed and developing economies direct its resources. The belief is that the result from education expenditure will go a long way in transforming human, social, economic, cultural and other aspects of the people’s lives. But however, the paradox accompanying this belief is that, despite the huge investment in education, there exist no strong evidence of growth-promoting externalities of education in Nigeria, but rather, education expansion further deepens social inequality and inculcate negative social changes such as cultism, rent seeking, sexual harassment, sorting, result racketeering, industrial disputes, brain drain among other social vices in the Nigerian school system and the society at large. The puzzle is – why has Nigeria that had invested substantially in education over the years be facing declining in real income and sluggish economic growth rate? Many theories and studies are of the opinion that education expenditure impacts growth and the society positively. One problem with education expenditure in Nigeria is the highly skewed nature of the trend of recurrent expenditure. With the incessant strike actions embarked upon by teachers at all levels in recent times, the future remains bleak for the sector. This leaves government with lean resources for capital expenditure in education. However, the situation on ground with regards to education expenditure is different from what the theory says. This forms parts of the reasons for this study – to determine the impact of education (recurrent) expenditure on economic growth and to compare the result with the facts on ground and come up with some ways forward.

• Statement of the research problem

The first and perhaps the greatest challenge that akwa ibom state is facing and making it difficult for good quality education that is capable of bringing about sustainable development  to the extent that funding has been in response to conditionalities imposed by international financial institutions. (IFTs).The problem of educational development in Nigeria not only in akwa ibom state is that of responsibility and control, the conflict between the federal, state and local government in the management of education at various level is also one of the prominent  problem of educational development in the state.

Another problem of education today is the politicization of education; which seriously affected the development of education. Today many educational institutions are opened and run in many states on political ground or other flimsy reasons.

Parent today used their political offices or influences for the education of their children.
A sensitive issue that crippled the development of education is the manner and the why the politician influence the recruitment exercise of teachers. Many people today are after securing job for their children just to have meal ticket not bothering whether their wards qualified or not. This has contributed to recruitment of many unqualified teachers in our schools.
Another critical area that hinders development of education today is indiscipline; this is manifested in examination malpractices, secret cult menace, corruption etc.
Poor parenting/guidance is another cause, many parent lack caring, protection and guidance as such no adequate provision of basic needs for their children to up keep him or her to meet the challenges of life, in accordance with the laws of the land. Many parent have today bring innovation that are not encouraging but paving ways to examination malpractices in order to brighten the chances of their wards in qualifying examination to higher institutions.
The above problems mentioned are just few out of hundred of problems of educational development in the state.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is to ascertain the impact of Akwa Ibom state government expenditure on education and human capital development. For the successful completion of the study, the following sub-objectives are put forward by the researcher:

(i) To evaluate the impact of the state government expenditure on education and human capital development.

(ii)  To ascertain the role that government plays in uplifting the standard of education in the state.

(iii)  To ascertain the ways in which government can help to develop the educational sector.

(iv) To ascertain whether the amount invested into the sector produces equal output

1.3 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

For the successful completion of the study, the following research questions were formulated:

(i) what is the impact of state government expenditure on educational development?

(ii) What roles does government plays in lifting the educational standard of the state?

(iii) in what ways can government helps in restructuring the standard of education in the state?

(iv) what is the role of government in human capital development?

1.4 Research Hypothesis

For the successful completion of this study, the following hypotheses were formulated:

H₀: There is no significance relationship between education and humans capital development.

H₁:  There is a significance relationship between education and human capital development

 H_o: there is no significant relationship between government expenditure and quality education in the state.

H₁: there is a significant relationship between government expenditure and quality education in the state.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is conceived that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of great benefit to the ministry of education in policy formation and implementation, the study will also be of benefit to the federal and state government in ascertaining the amount to be allocated to education in the budget. It is conceived that the study will also be of great importance to researchers who are in need of information on similar field. Finally, the study will also be of great importance to lecturers, teachers, students and the general public.

• SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of this study is on the impact of the Akwa Ibom state government expenditure on education and human capital development. However, the researcher encounter some constrained to the scope of the study, which are:

(a) Availability of research materials: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study

(b)Time factor: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.

(c)Finance: The finance available for the research work does not allow for wider coverage as resources are very limited as the researcher has other academic bills to cover.

1.7 Research methodology

The data collected was not an end in itself but it served as a means to an end. The end being the use of the required data to understand the various situations it is with a view to making valuable recommendations and contributions. To this end, the data collected has to be analysis for any meaningful interpretation to come out with some results. It is for this reason that the following methods were adopted in the research project for the analysis of the data collected. For a comprehensive analysis of data collected, emphasis was laid on the use of absolute numbers frequencies of responses and percentages.  Answers to the research questions were provided through the comparison of the percentage of workers response to each statement in the questionnaire related to  any specified question being considered. Frequency in this study refers to the arrangement of responses in order of magnitude or occurrence while percentage refers to the arrangements of the responses in order of their proportion.

 

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Expenditure:

• An amount of money that is spent on something
• An amount of time, energy, effort, etc. that is used to do something
• The act of spending money

 

Education:

Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, skills, values, beliefs and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training, and directed research. Education frequently takes place under the guidance of educators, but learners may also educate themselves. Education can take place in formal or informal settings and any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts may be considered educational, the methodology of teaching is called pedagogy.

 

Human capital:

Human capital is the stock of competencies, knowledge, social and personality attributes including creating embodies in the ability to perform labour so as to produce economics value.

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