INTRODUCTION - BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Education
funding comes from different sources; the major one for all levels of
government is Public revenue from taxation (Saavedrea 2003). Education funds
are reported to be distributed among the Primary, Secondary and Tertiary
education levels in the proportion of 30%, 30% and 40% respectively (Balami 2003).
The public funding includes direct government expenditure (for teachers’
salaries and instructional materials) as well as indirect expenditure in the
form of subsidies to households such as tax reductions, scholarships, loans and
grants. It also includes payment from Education Tax Fund (ETF), mainly for
capital expenditure. The main sources of fund that the Nigerian government has
are federal taxes and duties on petroleum, profits imports and export, which
form the revenue of the Federation Account, and the centrally collected value
added tax (VAT) introduced in 1996
, Hinclifte (2003) and Orbach (2002). At
present, private sources account for about 20% of total national donors,
particularly in the form of loans.
The
Nigerian government was able to finance education sector considerably, as a
result of huge wealth generated from the sale of oil, whose discovery brought
fundamental changes to the economy of Nigeria. The government of Nigeria
switched large amount of the huge wealth made from the sale of oil into
expenditure in various sectors including education (Olashore 1991).
Government’s ultimate objective according to NPE situation thereafter
engendered indiscriminate establishment of institutions, and increased student
enrolments, to mention a few. According to Nwankwo (1992), enrolment in higher
education increased from 14,468 in 1976 to 176,700 in 1990. This pace at which
education had grown in Nigeria particularly since political independence is
unparalleled elsewhere among new African nations (Adesina 1982).
STATEMENT OF
THE PROBLEM
Education
in Nigeria is currently in crisis. There is less money to spend on Primary,
Secondary and Tertiary education. Education sector complains of under-funding
while the government accuses the sector of inefficient utilization of available
resources. The donors argue that public spending on education should be
reduced. At the same time there are growing changes at the education level.
Moreover, there are increasing complaints about poor standard of education at a
period when globalization demands much from the educational system in terms of
preparation of skillful labour force.
There
is a rampant notion which is generally felt in the Nigeria’s education sector.
The incessant strikes embarked by the ASUU and NASUU, Teachers in the secondary
and primary schools etc have really affected to the education sector. Owing to
this, the academic calendar have been disrupted, pupils and students have
stayed more than required in their studies. To the employed staff in the
academic institutions, their agitations boil down to the inability by
government to meet up the new salary scheme. More so, it is attributed to the
poor state of the learning institutions, which the attention of the government
is drawn on. These have prompted the researcher to analyze the implication of
government expenditure on the Nigeria’s economic growth.
RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
This
research study, thus, should be viewed as a preliminary analytical exercise
designed to address basic questions about government expenditure on the
education sector in Nigeria. These include the following:
· Does
government expenditure on education have any significant impact on Nigeria’s
economic growth?
· What
are the possible policy recommendations for improving the education sector and
the economy in general?
OBJECTIVE OF
THE STUDY
The
general objective of this study is to examine the impact of government
expenditures on education in Nigeria’s economic growth.
The specific
objectives include:
·
To evaluate the effect of government
expenditure in the education sector in Nigeria within the period 1980-2008.
·
To draw preliminary policy
recommendations for improving the education sector and the economy in general.
HYPOTHESIS
OF THE STUDY
Ho: Government
expenditure on education does not have significant impact on economic growth of
Nigeria.
H1: Government expenditure on education has
significant impact on economic growth of Nigeria.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
As
the federal government of Nigeria now faces development challenges that are key
to both welfare improvements for the general population and enhancement of the
education sector in particular, this study will act as a source of information
on various ways of adopting effective measures of improving the education
sector. It will serve as a reference point to the policy makers to adequately
plan education funding.
It will help students and researchers
to do further work related to this research project. More so, institutions of
learning that may come across this research work can see the need to enhance
funding of the education sector without solely depending on government.
SCOPE OF THE
STUDY
The
study covers the analysis and the implication of government expenditures in the
education sector of Nigeria. In the course of the analysis, effort is made to
examine the impact of this funding in the education sector by the government on
the Nigeria’s economic growth. The level and composition of government
expenditures on education in the period of years: 1980-2008 shall be reviewed.
LIMITATIONS
OF THE STUDY
However, there cannot be a thorough
research without fund. Thus, lack of fund poses as a limiting factor to this
work; also, time factor is included because the issue of combining lectures
with research project is not an easy task.