Appraisal of the Performance of School Based Management Committee in the Funding of Secondary Schools

APPRAISAL OF THE PERFORMANCE OF SCHOOL BASED MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE IN THE FUNDING OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS 

IN ENUGU STATE

By

Prof. Chinedu Aguba

Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, 

Enugu State University of Science and Technology

e-mail: [email protected]

&

ETIKUO, Nancy Chidimma

Department of Educational Management, Faculty of Education, 

Enugu State University of Science and Technology

e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

The study appraised the performance of School Based Management Committee in the funding of secondary schools in Enugu State. Two research questions guided this study and two hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. This study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population for the study was 590 respondents which comprised 295 principals and 295 SBMC Chairmen in the secondary schools in Enugu State. There was no sampling because the population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was an 18-item structured questionnaire titled “Performance of School Based Management Committee in Funding of Secondary School Questionnaire (PSBMCFSSQ)”. To ascertain the validity of the instrument, the questionnaire was given to two experts in Educational Management and one expert in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Education, all from Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu. Reliability of the instrument was arrived at using Cronbach Alpha reliability estimate. The computation yielded .81 and .79 for clusters 1 and 2 respectively with an overall reliability estimate of .80.  Mean with standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities and provision of instructional materials to a low extent. In view of the findings, the study recommended that Enugu State government should involve SBMC members, teachers, students, and other stakeholders in decision-making regarding facilities management. When everyone feels ownership over the process, they are more likely to be invested in its success.

Keywords: Performance, School Based Management Committee, Funding, Secondary Schools

Introduction

 Secondary education holds a unique significance within Nigeria’s educational framework due to its pivotal role in shaping students’ academic and professional trajectories. This is especially crucial in developing nations such as Nigeria, where the government traditionally assumes the primary responsibility for providing education. Nevertheless, recent times have seen economic challenges and fierce competition for limited resources significantly impede the government’s ability to sustain this predominant role. Consequently, this has led to insufficient investment in education, resulting in far-reaching consequences for the availability of essential school facilities, particularly at the secondary level of education (Bakwai and Ibrahim, 2018). Recognizing this circumstance, the concept of the School-Based Management Committee (SBMC) was introduced as a response (Adeyemi in Bakwai and Ibrahim, 2018).

School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) are independent and non-political volunteer groups comprised of members representing the school community. These members can include students, educators, parents, community leaders, and other community-based organizations with an interest in education. Oka in Maduka (2019) characterized SBMCs as the transfer of decision-making power from central district offices to individual schools. According to Adeolo (2013), SBMC involves devolving power and authority to significant stakeholders, empowering them to carry out essential duties related to education policy administration, monitoring, evaluation, and review. This approach aims to achieve effective governance, quality teaching, and successful learning outcomes. SBMCs serve as a vital bridge between schools and the communities they serve (Bakwai and Ibrahim, 2018). SBMCs represent the decentralization of authority from government bodies to the school level (Caldwell in Ahmed, 2013). The decentralization of authority through SBMCs is a global educational reform strategy that is increasingly central to modern education reform efforts (Yau and Cheng, 2014). In the SBMC framework, the responsibility for decision-making authority over school operations shifts from the government to principals, teachers, alumni, parents, and other community members chosen for their roles (Ahmed, 2013).

School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) have gained worldwide recognition as an approach to enhance the quality of grassroots education. These community-driven entities are established to improve school governance, decision-making processes, and resource distribution. SBMCs play a pivotal role in encouraging community engagement, promoting accountability, and ensuring efficient resource utilization within schools. In Enugu State, Nigeria, SBMCs have been instituted to contribute to the financial support and overall administration of secondary schools. This contextual study aims to provide a basis and reasoning for evaluating the performance of SBMCs in financially supporting secondary schools in Enugu State. The establishment of School-Based Management Committees marks a significant stride towards bolstering the financial backing of secondary education.

Funding denotes the provision of monetary resources for business operations, investments, purchases, and more. As per Haruna and Inikpi (2019), funding involves supplying financial resources in the form of money to finance programs or projects. In the educational context, funding pertains to the financial resources allocated to support various facets of education, including schools, colleges, universities, and educational initiatives. This funding can originate from diverse sources like government allocations, private donations, grants, tuition fees, and other financial contributions. Educational funding is pivotal for upholding and enhancing educational quality by covering expenses such as teacher salaries, infrastructure development, classroom materials, technological resources, research endeavors, and student support services. Funding plays a critical role in the functioning of SBMCs and their capacity to fulfill their responsibilities in terms of maintaining physical facilities and providing instructional materials.

Physical infrastructure are the school compound, including structures like school buildings, classrooms, libraries, labs, restroom facilities, administrative offices, and other essential elements that have the potential to inspire students in their educational pursuits (Akomolafe and Adesua, 2016). Oshahem, as cited in Onwe (2015), defines school physical facilities as concrete constructions that fulfill educational functions. They symbolize the tangible presence of a school, as they serve as conduits for implementing educational programs. Within any educational institution, crucial resources for facilitating effective teaching and learning include physical assets like classrooms, teachers’ accommodations, sanitation facilities, and furnishings (Mvuyekule, 2017). When a school lacks sufficient and high-quality physical facilities, it significantly impedes teachers’ teaching efforts and students’ ability to concentrate on their studies. Okpala, cited in Ugwu (2017), laments the unfortunate state of many present-day schools, characterized by dreary, uninspiring roofs and lackluster walls. Okpala underscores that these deplorable physical conditions force both students and teachers into inadequate learning environments. Moreover, physical facilities also encompass spaces that house educational materials, including textbooks, reference resources, computers, and various other tools necessary for effective learning.

Instructional materials encompass tools and resources employed in educational settings to facilitate teaching and learning processes. These materials, utilized by both educators and learners, serve the purpose of classroom instruction and demonstrations (Ogaga, Igori, and Egbodo, 2016). They establish a communicative link between teachers and students, enabling effective knowledge transmission. Within this context, instructional materials encompass a variety of assets that educators can leverage to enhance the appeal and memorability of the learning experience (Tety, 2016). The significance of instructional materials is further underscored by their impact on student performance). By collaborating on the provision of instructional materials, a sense of responsibility and transparency is nurtured. School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) play a pivotal role in ensuring efficient utilization of allocated resources for instructional materials, allowing principals to demonstrate responsible resource management within the school community.

Principals are the professional leaders of the secondary schools. Obi in Ogbu (2014), opined that the principal is a coordinator who has to organize activities in such a way that things must work smoothly, quickly and efficiently. The principal as administrator and chief executive of his school is in charge of the human resources (students, teachers and non-teaching staff), material resources and physical structures of the school. Oladeji (2016) was of the view that principals are the uncompromising leaders of their schools as well as such administrators in whose hands lie the future of these institutions.

The concerns of this study stem from the current conditions of certain secondary schools within Enugu State, which are in a rather dire state. Many of these schools have outdated resources in their libraries, obsolete equipment in their laboratories (if they even possess them), and their physical infrastructure is in need of repair. These circumstances could potentially be attributed to the government’s neglect of secondary education, or it might indicate that the government alone is incapable of meeting all the needs of these schools. There have been allegations and claims that some secondary schools lack proper classrooms or staff offices, significantly disrupting the effective operation of secondary education. Given this context, the researchers evaluated the effectiveness of the School Based Management Committee in financing secondary schools in Enugu State. The study focused particularly on how well these committees maintain the school’s physical facilities and provide the necessary instructional materials.

Statement of the Problem

The effective functioning of secondary schools is essential for the holistic development of students and the overall educational system. In recent years, many educational systems have shifted towards decentralized management through School-Based Management Committees (SBMCs) as a means to enhance local decision-making and resource allocation. Enugu State has also adopted this approach in its secondary schools, where SBMCs play a pivotal role in managing school affairs, including funding allocation. In spite of all the efforts made so far to ensure that qualitative and quantitative education is given at the secondary level of education, the secondary level of education still suffers from some seemingly intractable problems ranging from mismanagement of physical facilities and inadequate provision of instructional materials. The government sometimes provides some of these needs, but they are grossly inadequate in supply. Evidence abounds in various secondary schools that prove that the government alone cannot solve all the problems of school funding. The trend now is that the government cannot do it alone, as effective school administration is almost an impossible task without stakeholders’ involvement like the SBMC. However, despite the implementation of SBMCs, there exist several challenges and concerns regarding their performance in effectively managing and allocating funds to secondary schools in the areas of maintaining physical facilities and provision of instructional materials.

Purpose of the Study

     The general purpose was to appraise the performance of School Based Management Committee in the funding of secondary schools in Enugu State. Specifically, the study sought to:

1. ascertain the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities;
2. examine the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. To what extent has the SBMC performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities?
2. To what extent has the SBMC performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials?

Hypotheses 

The following hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance:

HO1: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities.

HO2: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials.

Research Method

Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. Nworgu (2015), defined descriptive survey research design as a design that aims at collecting data and describing them in a systematic way. With descriptive survey research design, the researcher was able to collect data through copies of questionnaire from a group of people which were analyzed and consequently generalized to cover the entire population. The population for the study was 590 respondents which comprised 295 principals and 295 SBMC Chairmen in the secondary schools in Enugu State. There was no sampling because the population was manageable. The instrument for data collection was an 18-item structured questionnaire titled “Performance of School Based Management Committee in Funding of Secondary School Questionnaire (PSBMCFSSQ)”. To ascertain the validity of the instrument, the questionnaire was given to two experts in Educational Management and one expert in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Education, all from Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu. Reliability was arrived at using Cronbach Alpha statistic. The computation yielded .81 and .79 for clusters 1 and 2 respectively with an overall reliability estimate of .80.  However, out of the 590 copies administered, 538 copies were retrieved from 267 principals and 271 SBMC Chairmen making it 91.19 percent return rate. Mean with standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the hypotheses. In rating the mean, each response option had a numerical value based on real limit of numbers: VGE = 3.50-4.00; GE= 2.50-3.49; LE = 1.50-2.49; VLE = 0.00-1.49. The interpretation of the test of hypotheses was based on the significance (sig.) values from the SPSS output. The null hypotheses was not rejected when the probability values are greater than 0.05, but was rejected when the probability values are less than 0.05.

Data Analysis and Results 

Research Question 1: To what extent has the SBMC performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities?

Table 1: Mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities 

Table 1 shows the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities. The mean ratings of principals ranged from 2.29 to 2.45 while that of SBMC Chairmen ranged from 2.31 to 2.47 respectively. In addition, they have grand means of 2.37 and 2.38 with standard deviations of 0.91 and 0.93 respectively. Thus, the responses of principals and SBMC Chairmen showed that SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities in Enugu State to a low extent.

Research Question 2: To what extent has the SBMC performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials?

Table 2: Mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials 

Table 2 shows the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials. The mean ratings of principals ranged from 2.31 to 2.48 while that of SBMC Chairmen ranged from 2.31 to 2.41. In addition, they had grand means of 2.39 and 2.37 and standard deviations of .93 and .92 respectively. Thus, the responses of principals and SBMC Chairmen imply that SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials in Enugu State to a low extent.

HO1: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities.

Table 3: Summary of t-test analysis on the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities

Data on Table 3 show that at 536 degree of freedom, the p-value was .106 which is greater than .05 level of significance set for this study. This implies that the null hypothesis was not rejected and, therefore, there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities in Enugu State.

HO2: There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials.

Table 4: Summary of t-test analysis on the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials

Data on Table 4 show that at 536 degree of freedom, the p-value was .094 which is greater than .05 level of significance set for this study. This implies that the null hypothesis was not rejected and, therefore, there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials in Enugu State.

Discussion of Findings

The finding of the study showed that the performance of SBMCs in the provision of instructional materials is to a low extent. The evidence from the finding shows that maintenance of the physical facilities regularly, constructing new hostels in order to accommodate students, fencing of the school compound, building new classroom blocks, maintaining the furniture in the staff office was to a low extent. The finding agrees with Eboatu, Ezeugbor and Golu (2018), who posited that SBMCs participate to a low extent in the maintenance of physical facilities in secondary education. The finding is in disagreement with Emenalo and Ibekwe (2013), who posited that SBMCs are involved in the maintenance of physical facilities to a great extent. Further finding shows that there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools as regards the maintenance of physical facilities in Enugu State.

The finding of the study showed that the performance of SBMCs in the provision of instructional materials is to a low extent. The evidence from the finding shows that providing audio materials in each of the class, motion pictures are provided by SBMC, still projected pictures are given to the schools by SBMC, three dimensional materials are made available by SBMC, graphics materials are provided to each class teachers was to a low extent. The finding disagrees with Nasiru, Zandam and Ali (2019), who posited that SBMC are involved in the provision of instructional materials to secondary schools. The finding also disagrees with Maduka (2019), who posited that SBMC are involved in the provision of instructional materials. Further finding shows that there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of principals and SBMC Chairmen on the extent to which the SBMC has performed in the funding of secondary schools in fostering the provision of instructional materials in Enugu State.

Conclusion 

The current appraisal of SBMC performance in funding secondary schools in Enugu State exposes deficiencies in maintenance of physical facilities and instructional material provision, it also serves as a call to action. By prioritizing effective collaboration, capacity-building, and resource allocation, stakeholders can work towards a more robust education system that empowers students with an enriching learning environment, ultimately contributing to the overall development and progress of the state.

Recommendations

Based on the findings, the following recommendations were proffered:

1. Enugu State government should involve SBMC members, teachers, students, and other stakeholders in decision-making regarding facilities management. When everyone feels ownership over the process, they are more likely to be invested in its success.
2. Non-governmental organization should launch awareness campaigns to educate all stakeholders about the significance of instructional materials in improving educational quality. Highlight how access to such materials positively impacts students’ understanding and performance.

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