CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Education has been described as the bedrock of every society and tool for nation building. It is also a means of preserving societal and cultural settings, plus the acquisition of skills that make members of the society useful to themselves and the society (Ehusani, 2002). Ehusani opined that the process of educating is to develop the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domain of individuals and groups in order to equip them with knowledge and skills necessary to survive and make the society progress.

Education is the development of knowledge, skill, attitude, ability or character with the purpose of making life worth living (Ani 2000). This means that wholistic development of individual and society can be achieved through the process of education. Ani opined that the most valuable means to acquire education is through teaching, imitation or training. Education is the process of inculcating norms and values of a society from the teacher to the learner with the aim of making them functional members of the society. Durkheim (2001) defines education as the influence exercised by adult generations on those that are not yet ready for social life.

The objective of education is to stimulate and develop in the learner; the physical, intellectual and moral abilities. These are demanded of him by the society for which he is specifically destined to be part of. Onwuka (2011) defines education as the process by which people are acclimatized to the culture into which they are borne in order that they may advance in it. He opined that education involves nursing and nurturing of an individual so that they will become a full fledged member of the society. Furthermore, he stated that it is the actualization of human potentials that the individual can become something more than what he was before or achieve more goals than before. In this context, education refers to the inculcation of formal orinformal input in the development of innate potentials that make someone useful member in the society.

For quality education to be achieved in a nation, the principal actors of learning who are the teachers, learners and the environment must be cooperatively organized to achieve the aims of the society. The societal expectations of quality inputs from the training institutions makes the students central in any instructional program. The quality of staff in the school system presupposes the quality of the school output, which are the resources that will be available for the school to progress (Ochuba 2009). Ochuba stressed that in the school system, some determinants of high quality education include goals of education, quality of inputs as well as an organized school system that ensure the articulation and effective co-ordination of all aspect of school life.

The worth of any educational system as an investment lies in its capabilities to continuously serve its customers which are the students, parents, employers, labour or the society better and remain relevant. Ijayi (2009) maintained that educational planners are therefore faced with two main challenges: providing for quantity and for quality.

The concern for quantity and quality in the school system is that quantity through the admission of as many students as possible to school within the shortest time allowed should be assessed to ensure quality (Adegbesan, 2010). Adegbesan maintained that quality cannot be achieved without quantity which serves as an assessment. Ajayi and Adegbesan (2007) see quality as the totality of the features, such as a process, product or service on its performance. They maintained that it is not just a feature of a finished product or services but involves a focus on internal processes and output which includes the reduction of waste and the improvement of productivity. In order words, quality is the ability with which a process, product, service or phenomenon is in conformity with an established standard that makes it relatively superior to others. According to Eya and Chukwu (2012) quality in an educational system conforms to the established standard and appropriateness of the inputs available for system delivery. Quality in this context refers to maximum performance on education. It means the relevance and appropriateness of the educational programs to the needs of the society for which it is provided.

Quality input give rise to quality output. Quality input according to Ehindero (2004) is the systematic and continuous actions of an organization that lead to efficiency and better output. Ehindero stressed that organizational development is determined by the number of successful output produced to compete in the society.

Eya (2011) defined quality input as the totality of the resources put into a system to bring out effective and efficient result. Eya maintained that in educational system, the students, the fees and other resources are combined to yield maximum output. In this context, quality input refers to the totality of effort put into education such as finance, facilities and curriculum development to enhance the students’ academic performance and also ensure efficiency in the educational system. This notwithstanding, education remains the biggest industry for any nation in the world.

There has not been significant positive result in our educational system owing to defects in some major areas. Administrative system in our schools is nothing to write home about because of incompetent school administrators. The principal is the executive head of secondary schools in Nigeria (Oboegbulem and Onwurah 2011).

They stressed that one of the most important functions of the secondary school principal is the structuring of the school for purpose of instruction. The ugly development arising from poor administration has put the secondary education on the backward stage.

Another indicator for this decline in the school system is in the area of teaching and learning. This has to do with teachers and students. Evidence of wastage abounds among the teaming population of students who repeat the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) and Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) examination every year. According to West African Examination Council (WAEC), a total number of 1,692,435 students took their 2014 examination in Nigeria. Out of this number, only 529,425 passed, representing 31.28% of the population. This is indeed a massive failure. Parents who can afford it are now taking their children to private schools where they hope to receive quality input while the poor ones are left out in the public schools