Resource utilization and internal efficiency in Nigerian secondary schools: Implications for socio problems of education

This study investigated the relationship between resource utilization and internal efficiency indicators in Nigeria public secondary schools with a view to appraise whether the public secondary schools in the country make the best use of resources allotted in turning out graduates with minimal wastage. A correlational study; stratified random sampling technique (SRST), based on the six geo-political zones was used to select 250 Local Government Areas (LGAs) out of the existing 774 LGAs representing 32%. Then sample proportion to size method (SPS) was used to select 136 public secondary schools from all the 250 sampled LGAs. Instruments tagged: Resource Utilization Questionnaire (RUQ) and Internal Efficiency Questionnaire (IEQ) were used to collect relevant data on the independent and dependent variables respectively and pre-tested using test–re test method. Four null hypotheses were generated to guide the study. Out of the four hypotheses generated, one was rejected while three were accepted. The correlation matrix table showed that all variables of Resource Utilization had positive relationship with Internal Efficiency. This attested to the fact that resources are vital for educational system production function. The implications of the findings towards socioproblems of education were stated and recommendations are hereby made.


INTRODUCTION
Education is an indispensable tool for personal and social developments.Many countries in the world view education as a good investment for national development because it is expected to produce the required quantity and quality of human resources for the economic growth using the right mix of inputs.Secondary education is meant for children between the ages of 11 and 16 years in Nigeria.This level of education started in Nigeria as far back as 1859 with the founding of Church missionary Society (C.M.S.) Grammar School in Lagos and the establishment of secondary schools in other parts of the country including Abeokuta, Calabar, Ibadan, Ijebu-Ode, and Ondo (Taiwo, 1983).Secondary school, like any other organizations receive inputs from its environment, converts or processes it and afterwards, discharges the output to the environment from where the input is obtained (Oni, 1995).
Resources allotted for secondary education service delivery hinges on finance.There is seemingly low productivity of educational products in spite of the high amount of money vested on education.Nigerians expect secondary school system to be efficient in a way that a given quantity of output is obtained with minimum input but anecdotal observations of secondary schools" operation in Nigeria reveals that there are elements of inefficiency in the system.Majority of the students were repeating classes, dropping out and the increase in the fail out percentage in the public secondary school; thus, constituting wastage.The system wastage experienced reveals that the objectives of secondary education have not been fully met because students" desire for achievement and transition to tertiary institutions has become very low recently.The 2010 West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE) results analysis revealed that only 25% of these students passed with the National minimum requirement of five (5) credits including English Language and Mathematics (WAEC, 2010).Adeoye (1983) in Akinsolu, (2005) confirmed the aforementioned when he lamented on the outcry by parents and the media over the decline in standards of operation of our educational system, the quality of students" performance in West Africa School Certificate Examination (WASCE) and their subsequent inability to secure gainful employment/admission at the completion of their secondary school career despite the huge inputs into the system by various stakeholders.Since expenditure on education is largely regarded as an investment, there is need for continuous appraisal of public secondary schools so as to ensure both cost effectiveness and prudence, which seem appropriate just as we have in the commercial and industrial sectors.

The background
Educational managers of the state public secondary schools are faced with the challenge of how to convince the various stakeholders of education of their capability in efficient utilization of resources allocated to their schools.The poor performance of public secondary schools students in public examinations coupled with inefficient utilization of resources, border on the issue of standard, when compared with what is obtainable in private secondary schools in the state.
The main focus of this study is an appraisal of the system"s efficiency as the huge investment in the education industry seems not commensurate with the output.The expectation of all concerned is that school managers should make judicious use of the scarce educational resources in ensuring that students stay for the minimum number of years expected in the school system thus promoting high efficiency in the system.The promotion of high efficiency of the school system will reduce wastage to the barest minimum.The following constitute general wastage within the secondary school system, in which Nigeria state public secondary schools is not an exception: 1. Students dropping out of the secondary school system because of death, inability to cope financially, inability to cope academically, transfer of parents from one area and thus not being able to complete the programmes of study.2. Students repeating class because of failure, thus completing the course with additional numbers of year(s).3. High proportion of public secondary school system seems not able to enter tertiary institutions or the labour market at the completion of their courses due to failure in the Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination (SSCE) unlike in the private secondary schools.
Ideally, there should be a progressive flow of students from one grade to another.The wastage factors earlier specified are elements of inefficiency, which are important educational problems worth investigating.It denotes that inefficiency of an educational system constitutes a sort of waste to the system.If a student repeats a class once, he/she will spend seven years instead of the six years, and this is an additional cost to the government.Worse still, if at the end of the six years, a student fails the terminal examination and he cannot proceed into the tertiary level according to plan, s/he will have to re-enter the course thereby incurring additional costs.
The aforementioned situation implies that the Secondary School system is not functioning efficiently as expected when compared with the inputs injected.There is therefore, the need for establishing parameters to assist in measuring set standards of state public secondary schools in Nigeria.The study aims at investigating the resource utilization and the internal efficiency of Nigeria state public secondary schools.The specific objectives of the study were as follows: 1. To investigate the resource situation in Nigeria public secondary schools.2. To find out how physical, human and financial resources in the Nigeria public secondary schools are utilized.3. To assess the extent of relationship between resource utilization and internal efficiency of public secondary schools in Nigeria.4. Lastly, to examine possible strategies for improvement.

Theoretical framework of the study
The use of the economic investment theory of costbenefits analysis was used as the theoretical framework for this study.Cost-Benefit Analysis (CBA) serves as a guide in calculating the costs of education, estimating the benefits from education and comparing the benefits with the costs to obtain the returns expected.This to a large extent assists in decision making as to the future pattern of resources allocation within the education sector Akangbou (1987).The operations of secondary education in Nigeria rest solely on resources that accrued from generated revenue by the various stakeholders which serve as the National income of the nation.Nigeria as a nation receives her income from money generated from oil and use part of this to fund education.The state governments add to whatever is received from the federal through their own internal generated revenue towards sustainability of the state and the state education programmes.This calls for the need to analyze the cost-benefit of any educational programmes to ensure that the system operates with minimal wastage.

Review of related literatures
Resources constitute a very important factor in the functioning of the educational system as the success of the system or otherwise depend on the manpower and materials made available (Oni, 1995).In support of this, Fabunmi (1997) identified resources in an educational establishment to include students, personnel, physical facilities, curriculum and finance.These are the major variables that determine the rate of educational development of a given country.
Financial resource has equally been recognized as a major resource in the development of any educational system.The National Policy on Education (1998) recognizes this fact, when it states that "education is an expensive social service that requires adequate financial provision from all tiers of government for a successful implementation of the educational programmes in the country".Gravenir (1984) traced the history of education finance in Nigeria from the colonial period up to the latter part of the 1970"s.He did a comparative analysis of state government expenditure on secondary education from 1969/70 sessions to 1977/78 sessions.He discovered that three major issues constituted problems for secondary school finance in Nigeria.These were the issues of democratization for secondary education, boarding system in secondary schools and government control of secondary schools.He suggested that schools should embark on large scale mixed agriculture to generate necessary funds, so as to limit the extent of their dependence on government for finance.
Similarly, Ndagi (1994) carried out a study of the trends in educational finance in Nigeria under military rule between 1968 and 1978 and discovered that Federal Government"s resource allocation to education was second only to defence, but exceeded resource allocation to other social services like agriculture and health.Of the total resources allocated to secondary education, over 50% went to personal emoluments of staff and over 30% went to maintenance of students while less than 15% were used to purchase educational materials and equipment.Education had the highest percentage of the total budgetary allocations by state governments.Also, Durosaro (2000) believed that a very vital aspect of the function of the school manager was the management of the school fund and facilities.While Oguntoye (1983) also stated that finance is positively related to the quality of education.In his study on "Input-Output analysis in Nigerian secondary school system", he discovered that recurrent expenditure on maintenance and repairs correlates positively with the quality of secondary education in Ogun State.
Another vital resource is the human resources.They are seen as the greatest and most precious asset or factor in the production process.Ndiomu (1992) stressed that the indices for measuring national growth and Olatoun 25 development hinged on the conditions of the human resources that such a nation possesses.However, poor staffing has been a recurring feature in the country"s educational system, (Amoo, 1982).Amoo stressed further in his study "demand and supply of secondary school teachers in Osogbo Local Government Area of Osun State", that there were wide gaps between the demand and supply of qualified teachers in the state.Shortage of qualified teachers" demand as revealed by the findings of this study was expressed as 44% in the 1978/80 session, 56% in the 1980/81 session and 51% in the 1981/82 session.He argued that the planning for the teachers" supply by number and qualifications for commencement of free secondary education in the state was faulty and inadequate.He stated further that the situation would worsen if efforts were not made to train well-qualified teachers.Ogunsaju (2000) asserted that adequately qualified staff must be employed and proper monitoring system for developing these human resources must be put in place to ensure school effectiveness.He further stressed that the situation whereby unqualified and inexperienced teachers are made to teach the students should be discouraged and the need for recruitment of qualified teachers with relevant teaching experience intensified.
Also, Frankie-Dolor ( 2002) asserted that of all the prerequisites for effective management of an organization, the most vital is the human resources.The success of any type of organization, be it social, political religious or economic, depends to a large extent on the human beings that make up the organization.Human beings take decisions, which provide the knowledge, energy and the co-operation through which organizational objectives are achieved.On Physical and material resources, its importance, need and relevance towards the success of every educational programme cannot be overemphasized.The availability of adequate school buildings, classrooms, chairs, desks and other facilities are necessary for the attainment of educational objectives.Hallak (1990) identified educational facilities as the major factor contributing to academic achievement in the school system.These include the school buildings, classrooms, furniture, libraries, laboratories, recreational equipment and other instructional aids.Adeboyeje (1999) corroborated this through his definition of physical facilities as the essential materials that must be put in place and into consideration for the objectives of the school system to be accomplished.Adeboyeje (1998) stressed further that the availability of these facilities determines the quality of instruction and performance of students in the school.Oyedeji (2000) classified school plant into site, building and equipment, which includes permanent and semi-permanent structures such as machines, laboratory equipment, the chalkboard and office assistants" tools such as brooms and clearing materials.School building is said to have positive impact on the comfort, safety and academic performance of the student.Ibitoye (2003) in his study relationship among secondary school size, resource utilization and school effectiveness in Ilorin Local Government Areas discovered that there is a high relationship between enrolment and the utilization of classrooms provided for teaching-learning endeavour.The result implies that the higher the number of students in the school, the higher the utilization of the classrooms.The study depicts the relevance of physical resources in meeting the increase demand of school enrolment.
Efficient management of school physical facilities is mandatory in order to make the school a pleasant, safe and comfortable center for the community activities, Adeboyeje, (2000).According to him, the school administrator has to play a major task in the school, which is the management of all the physical facilities.He further stressed that the school administrators should be conversant with universal principles of managing physical facilities.Proper understanding and application of such principles will contribute to correcting deficiencies in physical facilities management practices, which in turn facilitate instructional programmes in schools In addition, Akinsolu (2003) stressed the importance of physical facilities in the management of educational system.In her study on provision and management of facilities for primary education in Nigeria, she pointed out that there is a gross inadequacy in facilities for Nigerian primary schools with availability to required percentage ranging from as low as 1.5 to a maximum of 35.2%.She opines that all stakeholders need to ensure adequate provision of physical facilities in all educational system, be it primary, secondary and tertiary levels to enhance learning and for improved productivity.
Internal efficiency of educational system is the relationship of its outputs (graduates) to its inputs (resources).Longe and Durosaro (1988) referred to internal efficiency as the extent of the educational system"s ability to minimize cost and reduce wastage resulting from repetitions, dropouts and failures.Wastage in education is used to describe those who are uncertificated school leavers who left the system before the completion of the course.Wastage may occur between grades, that is, those who repeat the grade and those who dropout of the system between the grades.
Adeogun (1995) conducted a similar study to evaluate the internal efficiency of junior secondary education in Oyo state between 1986 and 1990.The study revealed that the system was not internally efficient.The wastage rate decreased from 8.7 in 1989 to 4.7% in 1990.For this study, the internal efficiency centres mainly on public secondary school in Osun State and it covers a flow of six -year period of inputs and outputs.Durosaro (1985) conducted a study relating resource allocation to internal efficiency of secondary education in Bendel state between 1975 and 1983.The findings in the study revealed that wastage rate on secondary education recurrent expenditure was 19.19% of the total recurrent expenditure out of which repetitions contributed 4.05%, dropouts was 0.687% while failures of students was 14.45%.He also discovered that the total recurrent expenditure and wastage rates on secondary education in Bendel state showed significant correlation over the period of study, this is, as the resource allocation increased, wastage rate decreased.Adeyemi (1989) investigated internal efficiency of Technical Colleges in Lagos State.Data were collected through the use of a questionnaire (TCEAQ).The data were analyzed with the use of simple percentages and the re-constructed cohort method.The study found that the wastage rates were 2 and 3% and wastage ratio 1.00 and 1.08 respectively for the two sets of cohort used.The performance of students was positively related to the rate of utilization of the available resources vis-à-vis human and physical resources.All the studies reviewed served as the major springboard upon which this study took off.The study used the approach of these authors in carrying out this research.The study examined the extent of resource utilization on internal efficiency of public secondary schools in Nigeria.

Research design
The study is a correlation and descriptive type of ex-post-facto, because the two variables studied had already occurred.Resource utilization is the independent variable and its other sub-variables are, financial, human and physical resources, while the internal efficiency is the dependent variable which focuses on outputs in relation with the inputs into the education system.The 2001/2002session cohort was examined till the final year 2006/2007.The analysis of this cohort final examination, that is, the West African Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (WASSCE) results was used as one of the indicators in determining the efficiency of the school system.Also the flows of the students" right from their inception in the various sampled schools were also used.This means that the school history groups from each sample schools were traced right from JS 1 through the educational cycle, known as a Cohort, in order to establish the sampled secondary schools internal efficiency vis-à-vis their LGAs.

Sample and sampling technique
Stratified Random Sampling Technique (SRST), was used to select 250 Local Government Areas (LGAs) out of the existing 774 LGAs representing 32%.Then Sample Proportion to Size Method (SPSM) was used to select 136 public secondary schools from all the 250 sampled LGAs.

Research hypotheses
The following hypotheses were also developed for this study:

Main hypothesis
There is no significant relationship between resource utilization and internal efficiency of public secondary schools in Nigeria.

H01
There is no significant relationship between financial resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, fail out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary school.

H02
There is no significant relationship between physical resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, fail out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary school.

H03
There is no significant relationship between human resource utilization and the repetition rate, dropout rate, fail out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools.

Research instruments
Data collection and collation were based on questions raised through two research questionnaires.Resource Utilization Questionnaire (RUQ) and Internal Efficiency Questionnaire (IEQ) were used to collect relevant data on the independent and dependent variables respectively and were pre-tested using test-re test method.In constructing the questionnaires items, the existing literatures were extensively reviewed to locate and identify related instruments and identify the indicator of the variables, which have been used by previous researchers.For this study, the instrument used by Famade (1999) and Afolabi ( 2004) was adopted.

Validity and reliability of the instrument
An instrument is valid to the extent that it measures what it is intended to measure.For the resource utilization questionnaire, as mentioned earlier, those of Famade (1999) and Afolabi (2004) were adopted for this study.The instrument was validated and found to be reliable by experts and other specialists in the field of educational management and having a reliability coefficient of 0.71.For the internal efficiency questionnaire (IEQ), after designing, the researcher gave it to test construction expert for both content and face validity.
As for the (IEQ) reliability, since this has to do with accuracy, stability and consistency of a measuring instrument, it was administered alongside with the (RUQ) through a pilot study on principals of ten (10) public secondary schools, which were not part of the sampled schools.The test-retest method was employed in carrying out this task.An interval of one month was given for the retest administration and a reliability coefficient of 0.81 was obtained.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
In testing the hypotheses formulated for this study, correlation co-efficient was used.The level of significance for accepting or rejecting hypotheses is 0.05 level of significance.

Main hypothesis (H o )
There is no significant relationship between resource utilization and internal efficiency of public secondary schools in Nigeria.Table 1 shows the zero order correlation-coefficient matrix of the relationship among all the components of the independent variable "Resource utilization" and the dependent variable "Internal Efficiency".In specific terms the table shows that physical resource utilization has the highest relationship of 0.193 with internal efficiency while the financial resource utilization was ranked second with 0.066 and lastly the human resource utilization has the lowest relationship of 0.044 with internal efficiency.
From the table and going by the interpretation of correlation coefficient, findings revealed that all the three components of resource utilization had a positive relationship with internal efficiency since all values obtained for the three components, 0.066 (FRS), 0.193 (PRS) and 0.044 (HRS) were all above zero.

H 01
There is no significant relationship between financial resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, failout rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools.
Table 2 shows that the calculated r-value for repetition rate, dropout rate, fail out rate and graduation rate is lower than the critical value (r) at 0.195 at 0.05  The rejection of Hypothesis (H 02 ) indicates that there is significant relationship between physical resource utilization and repetition rate, drop out rate, fail-out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools within the period of study.Public secondary schools within the period of study seemed to have utilized the available physical facilities in achieving high academic standard.The finding depicts the fact that physical facilities are determinant factor of efficiency of any educational system.In addition, this finding agrees with Durosaro (1981), Ojedele, (1986) and Ibitoye (2003) on the relevance of physical resources in achieving school efficiency and that all educational planners should therefore strive in ensuring a conducive environment by getting all physical facilities in place to enhance teaching and learning.

H 03
There is no significant relationship between human resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, failout rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools from1999/2000 to 2004/2005.
Table 4 shows that the calculated r-value of 0.1067 for repetition rate, 0.1239 for drop out rate, 0.556 for fail out and 0.1536 for graduation rate which are lower than the critical value (r) of 0.195 at 0.05 level of significant and 135 degree of freedom, hence the acceptance of the hypothesis H03.The finding reveals that there is no significant relationship between human resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, fail-out rate and graduation rate in Osun State public secondary school.From this finding, it seems that the massive enrolment in Nigeria public secondary schools due to social demand for education within the period of study had no impact on the utilization of teachers and thereby resulting in no significant relationship with the internal efficiency indicators.The finding thus, confirmed Aboderin (1999) and Adesoji (1985) whose studies revealed that human resources had no impact on school academic achievement.Their studies revealed that homes and students related factors had significant influence on student academic achievement.The studies further indicated that students" background and students" readiness to learn contributed significantly to secondary school academic performance which in turn made the system to operate with minimal wastage.

Conclusion
Based on the data collected and analyzed the following conclusion can be drawn: The efficiency of Public secondary education in Nigeria was far below the expected output.The system as at the period of study was characterised with wastages which makes it less efficient or away from an ideal situation.The expectation of all stakeholders is that students are to be trained to be useful members of the society with minimal wastage and a situation where they repeat, dropout or fail out of the educational system without success constitutes a huge wastage cost on all stakeholders.

Implications for socio-problems of education
The findings of this study, has the following socioeducational implications: 1.The alarming rate of wastage in our secondary schools will result into production of miscreants to the society; 2. The deplorable situation of physical facilities in the school will likewise reduce access, participation and retention since physical resource is one of the major resources that contribute to educational development; 3. Educational wastage"s resultant is the production of low level /casual manpower which seems detrimental to the socio-economic development of any given country.4. Increased truancy and dropout among students, thus make them vulnerable to health hazards such as HIV/AIDs, drug abuse and other juvenile Delinquency; 5. Bridging the educational gaps for the dropouts implies additional cost on the part of the Nigeria government and thus will affect the attainment of Education For All (EFA) goals and millennium Development Goals in Nigeria by 2015.

RECOMMENDATIONS
1. Education planners and Managers need to strengthen school monitoring and evaluation mechanism so as to improve access, participation and retention hence students can stay and learn in schools.2. Principals of secondary schools in the state should devise means of combating truancy among their students and ensure that high academic standard is maintained in their respective schools; these will assist in achieving system goals and objectives.3.There is also an urgent need for an inter-sectoral budget restructuring to release more resources for education this will go a long way in meeting both students and teachers requirement for effective service delivery in improving the school system efficiency.4. Enlightenment and sensitisation of parents and all other stakeholders such as School Based Management Committee (SBMC) on the need to ensure that educational system operates with minimal wastage so as to allow the school system to be efficient.5. Training and re-training of teachers should be intensified so as to empower these teachers on modern methodologies and skills required for effective teaching and learning in schools.

Table 1 .
Correlation-Coefficient Matrix of all the components of Resource Utilization (X) and Internal Efficiency (Y).

Table 2 .
Result of Multiple Correlation Coefficient Analysis between financial resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, fail out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools from 1999/2000 to 2004/2005.

Table 3 .
Result of Multiple Correlation coefficient Analysis between physical resource utilization and repetition rate, drop out rate, fail out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools.Table 3 shows the correlation between physical resource utilization and repetition rate, dropout rate, failout rate and graduation rate.It reveals a correlation coefficient of r-value of 0.2855 for repetition rate, 0.2985 for dropout rate, 0.2203 for fail-out rate, and 0.2283 for graduation rate, which are greater than the critical value of 0.195 at 0.05 level of significance and 135 degree of freedom.This implies the rejection of hypothesis H 02 .

Table 4 .
Result of multiple correlation coefficient analysis between human resource utilization and repetition rate, drop out rate, fail out rate and graduation rate in Nigeria public secondary schools.