AN ASSESSMENT OF RESOURCE QUALITY AND ITS IMPACT ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA TERTIARY INSTITUTION

AN ASSESSMENT OF RESOURCE QUALITY AND ITS IMPACT ON SERVICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA TERTIARY INSTITUTION

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Background Of Study

Economic growth and sociopolitical progress can both be aided by education. The advancement and application of knowledge are increasingly driving economic and social advancements on a worldwide scale. In all nations, education, particularly university education, is critical to the development of a knowledge economy and society (World Bank, 1999). A university is a specialized institution that produces high-level human resources, skills, information, and ideas in order to promote global development. University education, according to the National Policy on Education (FRN, 2004), would "make the greatest contribution to national development by strengthening and broadening its programs for the development of high-level people in the framework of the nation's needs." University education is thought to have the ability to instill proper skills and value orientation in individuals, as well as assist them to comprehend their surroundings and develop into valuable members of society.

Universities are required to deliver education that fits the demands of both the national economy and the local communities in which they are located (FRN, 2004). These goals are pursued by these institutions through teaching, research and development, information discovery, knowledge distribution, and community service. According to Sanda (1992), the goals of education are to achieve manpower development for society as a whole, skill development for individual students, and the formation of cultured people with survival value orientations as well as an objective vision of society.

Nigeria's first higher education institution was founded in 1948. University College, Ibadan was the name of the college at the time, and it was run as a campus of the University of London. The Ashby Commission's "Investment in Education" report paved the way for the first wave of higher education institutions (also called Ashby Institutions in Nigeria.) University of Nigeria, Nsukka (1960); University of Ibadan (upgraded to a full university in 1962); Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria (1962); University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University (1962); and the University of Lagos (upgraded to a full university in 1962). 1922).

According to Shehu (2005), the first generation of Nigerian higher education institutions, like many of its counterparts in other African countries, experienced economic prosperity. They absorbed a large portion of the country's research capacity and produced the majority of the country's qualified professionals. They were a small group with a small enrolment, and their financial needs were modest. The universities were run independently by their respective governing committees. Teachers in universities in Nigeria were among the highest paid in the country at the time. They had unfettered access to research activities and other intellectual development resources both locally and worldwide, as well as other perks of academic life. Their graduates had an international standard of quality. These institutions were, without a doubt, academic hotspots. Nigeria has created a well-regarded higher education system by 1980, delivering international-standard instruction in a variety of fields. The University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University, according to Saint, Harnett, and Strassner (2005), have received international distinction for their studies in tropical health and agriculture, respectively. This means that university education in Nigeria achieved both the national goal of workforce growth and the formation of cultured individuals capable of serving as society's leaders. No wonder, Shehu said, this was the era of Donnish Intellectual Ambience-the start, and unfortunately, the end, of Ivory Tower Syndrome in Nigeria!

Despite a significant drop in the government's economic fortunes, the number and enrolment in university education grew rapidly from 1975 to the present. Universities are now classified not only as first, second, and third generation schools, but also as federal, state, and private universities. Nigeria has 117 universities, 36 federal, 36 state, and 45 private institutions at the time of this study (NUC, 2011). As a result, Nigeria is home to more universities in Sub-Saharan Africa than in any other sub-Saharan country (Materu, 2007). Nigerian universities' overall student population has increased from 1, 395 in 1960 to 40, 000 in 1976 and 172, 000 in 1988. By the year 2000, the population had risen to 448, 230 people (Uvah, 2005). According to the National Universities Commission (NUC), between October 1999 and March 2006, the number of students enrolled in Nigerian universities increased by 1,200%. The total number of students enrolled in 2007 was 1, 096, 312, with a staff of 99, 464, including 27, 394 lecturers and 72, 070 non-academic employees (Okojie, 2008). Because the number of students exceeded the available facilities and the staff-to-student ratio went beyond sustainable proportions, this development had an impact on the quality of university education.

The value of a good education in the development of a country cannot be overstated. According to the Federal Ministry of Education (FRN, 2003), university education served as an effective instrument of national development from the colonial era to the 1970s, before quality and standard issues arose in the 1980s as a result of the government's decision to expand the university system without corresponding resource allocation. Quality education, according to some, is dependent on the availability and appropriateness of four key resources: human, physical, material, and financial resources. This is why proponents of human capital theory argue that human capital is the most valuable of all global resources. Implicitly, infrastructure and facilities will be of little use unless they are used by the correct types of people. The school's success is measured by the quality of instruction provided to students and the product created in the form of graduates, both of which are carried out by qualified human efforts. Lecturers, non-lecturers or support staff members, and students make up Nigerian institutions' human resources. According to Ejiogu (1990), the number and quality of educators in any given community has a significant impact on the quality of education. Jennifer (2003) agreed, claiming that teacher quality is the most important school-related element that influences students' progress.

As a result, the Nigeria Policy on Education (FRN, 2004) maintains that the teacher is the most important driver of education quality, stating that "no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers." In order to achieve internal efficiency and effectiveness, sufficient quality and quantity of people, physical, and financial resources are required. The importance of financial adequacy in the provision and upkeep of these resources cannot be overstated. Over the years, funding has remained a key issue in the Nigerian education system. Underfunding and insufficient financial resources, among other things, limit measures to promote university education and improve quality in order to address the difficulties of a continuously changing environment (Banjo 1991; Ajani 1999; Nwaka 2000 and Akinkugbe, 2001). The purchasing power of Nigerian colleges' budgets has been eroding over time. Federal government data

Even though enrolment increases, the Ministry of Education appears to show that this has been on a declining trend since the mid-1980s. Nigeria devotes far less money to education than the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) recommends (26 percent of government spending).According to the NUC report from 1994, the proliferation of universities in Nigeria without enough funding has resulted in issues such as facility breakdown and deterioration, library shortages of new books and current journals, laboratory supplies, and restricted research funds, to name a few.

In today's world, a good education is a basic requirement for everyone. This was announced in Jomtien in 1990 and reiterated in Dakar in 2000 at the World Education Forum. Because of the global demand for it and the desire of all countries of the world to produce high-level human resources that will serve as leaders, the world conference on higher education held by UNESCO in 1998 recognized the need for internal self-evaluation and external mechanisms for promoting quality in higher education. As a result, quality assurance in higher education will always be required because of the global demand for it and the desire of all countries of the world to produce high-level human resources that will serve as leaders. Higher education's quality assurance should include all of its duties and activities, including teaching and academic programs, research and scholarships, staffing, students, physical facilities, equipment, and community and academic environment services. The importance of university education as a driver of growth and development, on the one hand, and the problems of globalization, on the other, need the establishment of effective quality assurance procedures. This method entails the selection of inputs (students and resources) into the school system for processing in order to achieve desired outputs that are the institutions' products.

The World Bank (2002) encourages the growth of high-quality higher education by providing an enabling legislative and regulatory environment. The government should promote the growth and expansion of both public and private institutions, establish minimum quality standards, and adopt intellectual property legislation.

Nigeria's federal government has built institutions to provide quality education to its citizens at various levels. The National Universities Commission (NUC) plays a key role at the university level by overseeing the external quality assurance process, while professional organisations play an equally essential function. The NUC is responsible for the administration of university education. NUC was given a statutory responsibility in this regard by Act I of 1974. Furthermore, Act 16 of 1985 enables the commission to establish Minimum Academic Standards for all academic programs and courses, as well as accredit Nigerian universities' degrees and other academic prizes. This is to ensure that graduates in any discipline achieve a specific minimal level of competency at the end of their course. As a result, the efficiency and efficacy of administration, teaching, learning, and research should all be examined in a quality university education. Internal institutional processes, also known as self-assessment factors, are used by university management to conduct internal self-evaluation, maintain, and promote quality within the university. Faculty academic board reviews, the appointment of internal examiners and assessors, the review of programs and courses, and the enforcement of basic academic standards are all used to accomplish this. Accreditation, admission of qualified candidates, teaching manpower, program quality, instructional delivery, entry requirements, facilities/equipment/basic infrastructure, course contents, mode of assessment, and university carrying cap are among the external quality regulatory mechanisms in Nigeria. Adeyemi and Osunde (2005adeyemi and osunde)

The Joint Admission and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is another quality assurance institution that was formed by Act 2 of 1978 (as amended by Act 33 of 1999) with the supervisory function of controlling university admissions while taking into account available spaces and federal equity. According to Adeogun (2002), JAMB was created to eliminate resource waste caused by numerous admissions, which tend to deprive others of university entrance. The following are some of JAMB's quality assurance responsibilities:

1. Ensuring high-quality matriculation examinations, so that only those who are adequately prepared to benefit from university education are admitted; and 2.

2. Ensure high-quality exam administration in order to reduce cheating and ensure the quality of new university entrants.

Onyene (2004) stated concisely that JAMB has failed to address the quality issue because it gives the federal government remote control over university admissions, while the university senate has no say in who enters the system and is only required to accept whoever is provided to them. As a result, professionals are left out of choices that affect their day-to-day operations. As a result, the government recently introduced the UMTE screening test, a university-gate interview. This adds to the quality assurance system in place to ensure that only qualified students are admitted to Nigerian universities.

Any institution's contributions to knowledge must meet internationally acknowledged standards in order to be relevant in the global village. In Nigeria, university institutions and the government have implemented quality assurance systems and initiatives to ensure that university education is effectively used as a tool for socioeconomic and political development. Despite the government's, ministries', departments', and agencies' (MDAs) efforts, concerns have been expressed regarding the reduction in the quality of education provided in Nigerian institutions.

Statement Of Problem

Recently, there has been a lot of concern about the decline in the quality of university education in Nigeria. According to Oguntoye (2000), our educational system has been preoccupied with quantitative expansion rather than qualitative improvement for a long time. Policymakers are more concerned with the number of people who are educated and who graduate than with the quality of those who graduate. According to Egwu (2006), only the University of Ibadan (the best in Nigeria) was ranked 60th in a survey of the best universities in Africa, while it was ranked 7000th in the world.

Graduate unemployment is also very high, as employers complain that they are not well prepared for the workforce. Many employers believe that academic standards have deteriorated significantly in the last decade, and that a university diploma no longer guarantees mastery of communicative skills and technical competence. As a result, university graduates are frequently referred to as "half baked." They went on to say that institutions that practice "garbage in, garbage out" produce graduates who do not meet society's needs.A significant gap appears to exist between university output and labor market demand. It does not take a professional statistician to persuade anyone of the volatility of the graduate unemployment phenomenon in any country around the world, especially in Nigeria, where a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria casually stated that over 75% of Nigerian graduates are "unemployable." Overcrowding, dilapidated structures, obsolete equipment, insufficient funding, admission of low-quality students, and insufficient quantity and quality of lecturers are among the factors cited by Okebukola (2006) as contributing to the decline in quality.

This research looked into the value of university education as an economic good and a service. It looked into the target universities' qualitative resources and service delivery in terms of teaching effectiveness and research output. The study looked at the accreditation status, teacher-student ratios, and the number of lecturers in the various academic programs offered at these institutions. The adequacy of classroom communication materials/physical facilities, as well as lecturers' professional development and ICT compliance as they enhanced research output and publications, were also investigated.

​​​​​​​Objective Of Study

The general aim of this study is to critically analyse  resource quality and its impact on service delivery in Nigeria tertiary institution. Below are the specific objectives:

To examine the relationship between resource quality and service delivery in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

To examine if the quality of resources available have any effect on the quality of service delivery in tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

To investigate the factors affecting the availability of quality materials in  tertiary institutions in Nigeria.

1.4 Research Question

The following questions will guild this study

1. Is there any relationship between resource quality and service delivery in tertiary institutions in Nigeria?
2. Does  the quality of resources available have any effect on the quality of service delivery in tertiary institutions in Nigeria?
3. What are the factors affecting the availability of quality materials in  tertiary institutions in Nigeria?

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