Comparative Analysis of Funding of Education in Nigeria

Abstract

Some of the obstacles to the nascent democracy In Nigeria include the neglect of education for Its citizens, the spate of armed robbery attacks, political assassinations, religious conflicts and lack of proper education funding coupled with the seeming helplessness of security agencies to handle criminal acts. The focus of this paper is to comparatively analyse the funding of Education in Nigeria tertiary institutions. In the 19 years since Nigeria returned to civil rule under the Fourth Republic, University teachers in the country have embarked on strikes 14 times that saw them stay away from work for about 40 months. The latest strike by the teachers under the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) began in November 2018 lasted till February 2019, in spite of several rounds of meetings between leaders of the Union and the Federal Government all because of funding of education. ASUU has been locked in a protracted dispute with the Nigerian government over issues connected to poor funding of public universities. In the course of this study, the Comparative Analysis of Funding of Education in Nigeria were brought to the fore while the objectives of the study were well spelt out. Hypotheses were postulated and the Group Theory was used to explicate the works. Data were obtained from both primary and secondary sources. From the primary sources, the survey method was adopted. Data obtained from this method were analysed with the aid of Simple Percentage. Thereafter, the five researchable hypotheses were tested and accepted while the null hypotheses were rejected. The implication is that there was relationship between the dependent and independent variables. Generally, the paper brought to focus that effective funding of education in Nigeria is a task that must be done with collective efforts of all stakeholders for the growth and development of universities in Nigeria. In a nutshell, this paper suggested policy prescription and recommendations which are aimed at repositioning universities in Nigeria. Finally, this paper however, painstakingly appraised several of these issues and concluded that all stakeholders in the federal polity should thread softly, be objective, rational, altruistic and magnanimous in order not to make the existence of true federalism (social, education, political and economic cohesive existence of the people, peace and tranquillity) a fleeting illusion and a mirage.

Key Words: Education, Funding, Strikes, Federal, State, Government