ABSTRACT

This study was designed to develop a benchmark for effective partnership among the government, non governmental organization, and donor agencies for effective administration of adult education programmes in the South East  zone of Nigeria. The purposes of the study were to ascertain forms of partnership among the government, NGOs and donor agencies in decision making process, financial provision, human resources provision and management, material resources provision, monitoring and supervision of adult education programmes in the South East-geo-political zone. Five research questions were posed and five hypotheses were stated to guide the study. The study was a descriptive survey research design. The simple random sample technique was used for sample composition. The sample of the study consisted of 394 respondents made up of 62 proprietors of adult education centres, five directors of state agencies for mass education, 15 coordinators of the state donor agencies and 312 instructors of adult education in the five states of the study. Questionnaire for Developing Benchmark for Effective Partnership in the Administration of Adult Education Programmes (QDBEAAEP) was the main instrument used for data collection. The instrument was validated by experts and its reliability coefficient was 0.91. The data were analyzed using mean scoresto answer the five research questions while the ANOVA and post-hoc test were used to test the five hypotheses formulated. The data analyses revealed among others that there is need to consult non-governmental organizations and donor agencies in problem identification in decision making process of adult education programmes. There was an agreement among respondents that government should sponsor instructors from NGos adult education centres on regular training and extend financial subsidy to NGOs adult education centres in order to reduce the fees paid by learners. Adult education centres managed by NGOs should submit quarterly the records of their staff strength to NMEC for planning purposes, among others. Based on the findings, it was recommending among others that state agencies for mass education, NGOs and donor agencies should be involved in the problem identification and cooperate in policy implementation system in adult education. They should also organize regular conference programmes on adult education for their staff.

 

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE                                                                                                             I

APPROVAL PAGE                                                                                                   II

CERTIFICATION                                                                                                     III

DEDICATION                                                                                                           IV

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT                                                                                         V

TABLE OF CONTENTS                                                                                           VI

LIST OF TABLES                                                                                                     VIII ABSTRACT                                                                                                                   ix

 

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study                                                                                           1

Statement of the Problem                                                                                           9

Purpose of the Study                                                                                                  10

Significance of the Study                                                                                           11

Research Questions                                                                                                     13

Hypotheses                                                                                                                 14

Scope of the Study                                                                                                     15

 

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

Conceptual Framework                                                                                           16

Adult Education Administration in Nigeria                                                               17

Public Policy and Decision-Making in Adult Education                                            25

Financial Management of Adult Education Programmes inNigeria                           39

Human and Material Resources Development and Management

in AdultEducation                                                                                                      47

Monitoring and Supervision of Adult Education Programmes in Nigeria                 55

Benchmark and Partnership in Management of Adult Education Programmes

in Nigeria                                                                                                                    60

Trend of Adult Education in Nigeria                                                                         68

Origin of Non-Governmental Organizations and Donor Agencies

Participation in Adult Education in Nigeria                                                               78

Theoretical Framework                                                                                            83

• Resources Dependency Theory                                                                      84
• Game Theory                                                                                                  85
• Negotiated Order Theory                                                                               87

Review of Empirical Literature                                                                               87

Summary of the Literature                                                                                      90

           

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHOD

Design of the Study                                                                                                    92

Area of the Study                                                                                                       93

Population of the Study                                                                                              93

Sample and Sampling Technique                                                                                94

Instrument for Data Collection                                                                                   94

Validation of the Instrument                                                                                      95

Reliability of the Instrument                                                                                       95

Procedure for Data Collection                                                                                    96

Method of Data Analysis                                                                                           97

 

CHAPTER FOUR: PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA

Summary of Major Findings                                                                                       113

 

CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION OF RESULT, CONCLUSION

AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Discussion of Results                                                                                     117

Ways of Partnership among Government, NGOs and Donor agencies

on decision making

 

Forms Financial Cooperation among Government, NGOs and Donor Agencies

in the Administration of Adult Education Programmes                                             118

 

Ways of Partnership among Government, NGOs and Donor agencies on Human

Resource Development and Management in the Administration of Adult

Education Programmes                                                                                               122

 

Partnership in Material Resource Strategies among Government, NGOs and

Donor Agencies                                                                                                         123

 

Forms of Monitoring and Supervision by government, donor agencies and NGOs

in the Administration of Adult Education Programmes                                             125

 

Conclusion                                                                                                                  127

Implications of the Study                                                                                           129

Recommendations                                                                                                      130

Limitations of the Study                                                                                             132

Suggestions for Further Research                                                                               132

 

REFERENCES                                                                                                        133

 

APPENDICES                                                                                                          148

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Adult education is associated with everyday life activities of adults. Adult education involves any kind of education designed for the illiterate population, the formal school dropout, the unskilled and semi-skilled workers, carried out outside the formal school setting (Eyibe, 2005). It involves literacy programmes, remedial education, skill training programme and retraining programmes properly planned and implemented for the purpose of improving the beneficiaries.

Adult education in Nigeria is an off-shot of two religious groups:Islam and Christianity (Iheanacho, 2004), who for many years undertook the organization and administration of adult education. However, these religious groups placed premium on education as a way of attracting converts and making them strong advocates of their religion. Government involvement in Adult education in Nigeria originated from the report of a committee set up in 1940 by the colonial government in Nigeria. The committee was charged to look into the possibility of launching of Mass Education in Nigeria. The committee’s report was submitted in 1943 and published by 1944 under the title “Mass Education in African Society”. In 1946, the first literacy campaign was introduced under major A.J. Carpenter as the first mass education officer (Aji, 1996).

In 1975, the Federal Ministry of Education created an adult and non-formal education branch of the Ministry and in 1977 the first National Policy on Education (NPE) was published. In thedocument, Adult Education was recognized for the first time, as a driving force for developmentand the objectives stated as follows:

• to provide functional literacy education for adults who have never had the advantage of any formal education;
• to provide functional and remedial education for young people who prematurely dropped out of the formal school system;
• to provide further education for different categories of completers of the formal education system in order to improve their basic knowledge and skills; and
• to give the adult citizens of the country necessary aesthetic, cultural and civil education for public enlightenment.

With this government intervention, the administration and organization of adult education changed. It became a process of translating a programme design into a flow of people and materials through a system of activities and decision (Barikor, 1991). Consequently, administration of adult education was handed over to the newly created department of adult education in the Ministry of Education in 1975.

In 1990, the Federal Government promulgated decree No. 17 of June 26, establishing National Mass Education Commission (NMEC) The NMEC became responsible for the administration of Adult Education Programmes in the country. Presently NMEC organizes mass literacy campaign intended to eradicate illiteracy and innumeracy in Nigeria. Some of the major objectives of the National Mass Literacy Campaign according to Federal Ministry of Education (FME, 1991: 4-5), include: Increasing awareness of the importance of literacy and soliciting the participation and cooperation of all persons in the task of literacy for all by the year 2000;developing literacy programmes for young people and adults, with special attention to disadvantaged groups like women, the disabled and rural settlers; Marshalling new resources and providing less expensive forms of education through improvement in the planning and management of education;developing resource materials suitable for the realization of the goals;eliminating disparities in access to education and reducing wastage.

The commission monitors and coordinates the activities of the Agencies for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-Formal Education in each state of the Federation through its six zonal offices. The zones are South-East, South-West, South-South, North-East, North-West and North-Central.  Based on monitoring activities, the commission collates data and reports on adult education programmes from all Agencies for Mass Education and Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on annual basis. The State Agencies monitor at the state level while the local government Adult Education Units monitor at the local government level. In recognition of the fact that past literacy programmes failed because of inadequate monitoring and evaluation, the commission has produced a monitoring handbook meant to serve as a guide for effective monitoring of all aspects of the National Mass Literacy (Omolewa, 1995).

The National Mass Education Commission (NMEC) has made effort towards achieving its laid down objectives and functions in liaison and cooperation with several parastatals, agencies and NGOs such as, National Youth Service Corps, Nomadic Education Commission, Non-Governmental Association for Literacy Support Services (NOGALSS). The commission also liaises and obtains various forms of support from international donor organizations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), United Nations Children’s fund (UNICEF), United Nations Economic, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the World Bank (WB). The collaboration with these agencies served as a boost to the development of Adult Education in Nigeria, (Olagbemi, 1998). Through these collaborative activities, channels were provided for NGOs to disseminate their findings, provide more services, and expand their research work..

Donor agencies have also demonstrated their interest and support in adult education in the South-East zone. For example UNESCO is currently supporting an FGN/UNESCO cooperation project on improving community education and literacy using radio in Enugu and Ebonyi States of the South- East Geo-political zone.Realizingthat illiteracy limits the attainment of sustainable human development, the UNDP has various adult education development projects and capacity building programmes in the South-East zone. They include mass literacy programmes, introduction of new farming techniques and food preservation methods in agricultural development, also provision of soft loans for the establishment of small-scale enterprises. The success of these projects depends, to a large extent, on government compliance with cash counterpart requirement.

The UNICEF has also contributed immensely in improving adult education programmes.They supported the NMEC to review the National Blue Print for Mass Literacy, Adult and Non-formal Education as a stakeholders’ guide to assist mass literacy delivery in Nigeria (NMEC, 2007).

          Globally,adult education is considered very important.It is capable of revamping the economy and changingthe people in the desired direction. It was in realization of the irreplaceable role of adult education in nation building that most developing nations began to attach greater importance to the non-formal aspect of their education system. As a result, many developing countries like Tanzania, Cuba, and Ghana have through vigorous non-formal adult education programmes tried and succeeded in reducing the problems of illiteracy and underdevelopment in their countries (Achebe, 2004).

In Nigeria,there appears to be a general lack of commitment and strong political will by government to pursue these laudable objectives of adult and non-formal education. Consequently, it seems the government has not shown major concern to adult education programmes but instead they formulate policies for the non-governmental organizations to implement. Agi (2008) emphasized a point made at a World Bank Education meeting in Paris which stated that desired results in adult education require bold policy reforms and sustainable implementation by partnerships of government, NGOs and donor agencies.

Partnership, according to Agi (2008), is the free association among agencies and partners based on democratic principles of understanding in the pursuit of business affairs and sharing the profit and losses. It allows partners to put together their strengths, recognize and rise above their weaknesses in their efforts at achieving a common agreed objective. Partnership in the administration of adult education programmes will make the governments, NGOs and donor agencies bring together their resources both human and material in achieving the goals of adult education. However this partnership has not been successful in Nigeria largely due to the absence of benchmark for effective administration of adult education programmes in Nigeria.

Adult and non – formal education is a sector that needs inter-sector collaboration, cooperation and coordination. In recognition of this, NMEC (2008:18) provided the partnership framework which mandates the commission on behalf of federal government toorganize at least biannual stakeholders meeting;seek for support of the international development partner for the state;work in co-operation with other sister establishment like UBEC, NAPEP, NDA and relevant ministries;collaborate with national and international NGOs; link up with relevant Colleges of Education and Universities for training.

The framework mandates the states to collaborate with international development partners at zonal and   state levels;hold meetings with for the purpose of collaboration, cooperation and co-ordination; collaborate with State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), quranic school operators, mallams etc on integration of Quranic Education (QE) into Basic Education and solicit for community support or active involvement. Adult Education officers at the local government level were also authorized tomeet with all local NGOs and stakeholders for consultation and collaboration;link up with relevant individuals and institutions on training of facilitators;hold meetings regularly with the facilitators for programme success; community opinion leaders, local philanthropists etc for the purpose of cooperation and coordination;institute awards to promote more partnership.

The above partnership framework place more emphasis on intra-governmental relationship but most adult education centres are established and operated by non – governmental organizations. The donor agencies also fund most adult education programmes in the South East (Obasi 2004). Nwabuko, (2004) observed that there is no strong partnership existing among government, NGOs and the international donor agencies in the administration of adult education programmes rather, a weak representation which does not afford them full participation as partners. This is in contrary to what was stipulated in the National Policy on Education (NPE, 2004). According to the document,  partners should involve and engage actively in the activities and programmes commonly agreed upon through joint mobilization of resources for effective administration of adult education in Nigeria.

In addition to the problem of unequal and weak partnership, adult education also suffers undue financial neglect and constraints (Akinkpelu, 1992 &Nwabuko 2004). In order to adequately respond to this neglect, developing a benchmark for partnership is a sine-qua-non for adequate financing, resource provision, monitoring and supervision of adult education programmes.

Benchmarking is an ongoing systematic process for measuring and comparing the work processes of one organization with those of another for the purpose of identifying best practices that can lead to improvement in operation and customer service (Shafer & Coate, 1992). It provides direction and clear targets, and allows partners to answer two questions: what are we doing well now, compared to others like us, and what do we need to do better if we are to improve our performance? The objective ofbenchmarkingis to assist a programme to establishbaseline performance criteria for the partners to abide.Hence appropriate partnership benchmarks in the administration of adult education programmes can help toavoid duplication in programmes and services provided by the partners, and establish commitment measures for administration of adult education programmes.

Adult education administration shares certain basic common elements with all other forms of administration in human organization. This is because the function entails continuous decision making that affect the use of both human and material resources to produce the desired result. In corroboration with this view,Barikor (1991) identified the major factors in effective administration of adult education to include decision making, adequate financing of the programme, development and management of human resources, adequate provision of material resources and efficient monitoring and supervision.The stimulation, development and realization of adult education programme objectives, therefore can not take place without effective decision, adequate funding, planned   human development and management, and provision of materials. For effective partnership and adequate administration to be achieved in adult education in the South East Zone of Nigeria, there is therefore need for a benchmark to be developed and this is the thrust of this study.

Statement of the Problem

Many factors seem to impede the development of adult education in Nigeria. Some of the factors include independent and uncoordinated programme implementation, poor funding, inadequate provision of material resources, unqualified personnel, inefficient supervision and non involvement of NGOs and donor agencies in decision making in adult education. These lapses seem to impede whatever progress that have been made and seem to constitute areas of conflict among government, non governmental organizations and donor agencies.

For sustainable progress and development in adult education to be achieved, there is need for effective decision making and collaboration amongst the stakeholders. This cannot be achieved without developing a standard, a yardstick or a guideline which can be used to measure the involvement, expected quality and quantity of inputs and expected achievement of adult education programmes. If this is not done, adult education programmes will be haphazardly run according to the wish of individual organizations i.e. without any standard.

Regrettably, such document does not presently exist to guide effective partnership in the administration of adult education programmes. Against the background of non-existence of such document, the problem of this study is that of developing a benchmark for effective partnership among the government, NGOs and donor agencies.

Purpose of the Study

          The main purpose of the study is to develop a benchmark for effective partnership among government, NGOs and donor agencies towards the effective administration of adult education programmes in the South East of Nigeria.

Specifically, the study seeks to:

1. Ascertain ways the NGOs and donor agencies could be involved in the Governments’ decision making process for adult education programmes.
2. Determine better forms of financial cooperation among government, NGOs and Donor Agencies in the administration of adult education programmes;
3. Ascertain ways of establishing partnership in human resources development and management among government, NGOs and donor agencies in the administration of adult education programmes.
4. Find out strategies for establishing partnership among government, NGOs and Donor Agencies in the provision of material resources for adult education programmes.
5. Ascertain forms of joint monitoring and supervision of adult education programmes by Government, NGOs and donor agencies in the administration of adult education programmes.

Significance of the Study

                    The findings of this study will have empirical and theoretical significance. Empirically, the results of this study will be useful to the Nigerian government, adult education practitioners, NGOs, donor agencies, education policy makers and the adult population. The government will benefit from the study because it will provide them with a standard which will enable the government provide a system which will make the best quality of adult education available for all at a very reduced rate. It will also enable the government to reassess its relationship with NGOs and donor agencies providing resources for adult education as well as discover areas where lapses exist in the provision of resources in the administration of adult education programmes.

The findings of the study will provide policymakers in Nigeria with relevant information that will guide them when making policies relating to development programmes in adult education, particularly on the issue of involvement and cooperation of organizations in administration of adult education programmes.

The findings of the study will improve effectiveness of adult education practitioners through exchange of ideas with instructional supervisors especially those from national and state adult and non formal agencies. They will also have better information and also be equipped with the best approach to interact with adult learners for executing adult education projects.

The findings of the study will also benefit the adult population when government and donor agencies find ways of making direct grant, subsidy and adequate provision of other resources to NGOs thereby reducing the cost of funding adult education programmes. It will not only be respecting Education For All (EFA) mandate of free and compulsory education, it will equally promote the democratic system of government.

The international donor agencies will come to grapple with the various material resource problems that hinder the effective administration of adult education programmes in developing countries and providing a possible holistic approach to overcome such problems.

The findings of this study will identify areas of exchange of adult instructors and other personnel in different areas of human resource utilization in adult education administration as indicated by government, NGOs and donor agencies, which will help in the over all effective administration of adult education programmes.

Theoretically, the findings of this study will show the efficacy of resource dependency theory, and the game theory, negotiated order theory in analyzing partnership in the administration of adult education programmes in Nigeria. Resources dependency theory will show how government, NGOs and donor agencies depend on one another for resources to achieve adult education programmes goals. Games theory provides an analysis on how government, NGOs and donor agencies interact with one another to obtain their individuals’ goals while Negotiated order theory analyses the stage by stage joint agreement of government, NGOs and donor agencies on financial provision, material provision monitoring and supervision and human resource management in adult education.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. In what ways could the NGOs and donor agencies be involved in the governments’ decision-making process in the administration of adult education programmes?
2. What forms of financial cooperation could be evolved among government, NGOs and donor agencies in the administration of adult education programmes?
3. In what ways could partnership be established among government, NGOs and donor agencies to ensure human resources developmentand management ofadult education programmes in the South East Zone of Nigeria?
4. Whatstrategies could be evolved to establish partnership among government, NGOs and donor agencies in the provision of material resources in the administration of adult education programmes in the South East Zone of Nigeria?
5. What forms of joint monitoring and supervision strategies can be evolved by the government, NGOs and donor agencies in the administration of adult education programmes?

 

Hypotheses

          The following hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance:

HO₁: There are no significant differences among the mean ratings of the state agency for mass education officials, proprietors of adult education centres, coordinators of donor agencies and instructors on ways of involving NGOs and donor agencies  in the decision making process of adult education progammes.

 

HO₂:   There are no significant differences among the mean ratings of the states agency for mass education officials, proprietors of adult education centres, coordinators of donor agencies and instructorson forms of financial cooperation among the government, NGOs and donor agencies for adult education programmes.

 

HO₃: There are no significant differences among the mean ratings of the state agency for mass education officials, proprietors of adult education centres, coordinators of donor agencies and instructors on ways of establishing partnership in human resources development and management among the government, NGOs and donor agencies for adult education programmes.

 

HO₄:   There are no significant differences among the mean ratings of the state agency for mass education officials, proprietors of adult education centers, state coordinators of donor agencies and instructors on ways of establishing partnershipin the provision of material resources for adult education programmes.

 

HO₅: There are no significant differences among the mean ratings of the state agency for mass education officials, proprietors of adult education centres, donor agencies and instructors on ways of establishing partnership among government, NGOs and donor agencies in monitoring and supervision of adult education programmes.

 

Scope of the Study

            This study wasdelimited to the five states in the South-East zone of Nigeria namely: Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo. There are various variablessuch as coordination, planning, information dissemination and recruitment of learners, where government, NGOs and donor agencies can cooperate in the administration of adult education programmes in the South East zone of Nigeria. However, this study is focused on these areas of cooperation namely: decision making, financing, human resource development and management, material resources provision and monitoring and supervision.

 

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