EDUCATION DECENTRALIZATION POLICY AND EFFECTIVE MANAGEMENT OF POST-BASIC SCHOOLS IN NORTH-EAST, NIGERIA.

Abstract

The study examined Education Decentralization Policy and Effective Management of Post-Basic Schools in North-East, Nigeria. Two (2) research purposes, research questions and hypotheses guided the study. The population of the study comprised twenty-one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three (21773) teachers in one thousand three hundred and four (1304) Post-basic Schools in the North East Geopolitical Zone. A sample of one thousand, three hundred and ninety-eight (1398) Post-basic School teachers drawn from the population was used for the study. The study adopted correlational research design and used two questionnaires designed by the researcher for data collection. The questionnaires were tagged Education Decentralization Policy Questionnaire (EDPQ) and Effective Management Questionnaire (EMQ). Both (EDPQ) and (EMQ) were validated by three experts in the Faculty of Education, Taraba State University, Jalingo. Reliability coefficients of .769 and .764 were obtained for EDPQ and EMQ respectively which shows that both instruments were reliable. Mean, standard deviation and Peason product moment correlation coefficient were used to answer the research questions while regression analysis was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that education decentralization has a positive and significant correlation with Effective Management of post-basic schools in North-East, Nigeria. Findings of the study also revealed the existence of a positive relationship between Community Participation; Funding and Effective Management of post-basic schools in North-East, Nigeria. However, the correlation between Funding and Effective Management of post-basic schools in North-East, Nigeria was found to be statistically insignificant. The study concluded that education decentralization has a positive and significant correlation with Effective Management of post-basic schools in North-East, Nigeria. It was recommended that Government at all levels should ensure the active participation of Local communities in policy formulation processes in order to achieve an education system that meets the specific needs of the local communities. It was also recommended among other recommendations that The Federal, State and Local Governments should increase education funding in line with the recommendation of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which is 26% of the total National budget, towards enhancing the effectiveness of the education system.