CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The Study’s Background
Education continues to be the foundation upon which a nation’s human resources are built. It helps any nation’s social, economic, technological, political, and even cultural development. According to Adu (2005) and Moore (1982), education is the sum of a person’s acquired experiences. Education, according to Deji – Folutile (2004), Fadipe (2005), and Ogundare (2005), is the springboard for societal and global development because it brings about significant and meaningful change all over the world.
Education’s contribution to global human resource development cannot be quantified. Education-based resource development includes meeting individuals’ learning needs and aspirations through the development of their intellectual abilities and aptitudes.
As a result, the government’s goal in education issues is to ensure that the benefits derived from it are in line with the needs and aspirations of individuals as well as society. The quality of education received by a society or state is directly related to the availability or lack of educational resources provided by the government.
Cadbury (1992) provided the first insight into what corporate governance is all about, which is the system that directs and controls companies and organizations. According to Shleifer and Vishny (1997), corporate governance entails the methods by which financial suppliers to corporations ensure that they will receive a return on their investments.
According to the World Bank, corporate governance refers to the organization and rules that influence expectations about the exercise of control over resources in firms. While the Cadbury code presented a more general view of corporate governance, Shleifer and Vishny (1997) hold that “suppliers of finance” are the only eligible stakeholders. The World Bank, on the other hand, viewed corporate governance as it relates to interpersonal interaction between the firm’s resources (and direction and its publics).
Corporate governance (CG) is defined as the formal system of accountability and control in business organizations for making legal, ethical, and socially responsible decisions and allocating resources. It is founded on institutions such as laws, contracts, norms, and regulations, which create a self-governing system within the organization.
A corporation has a number of stakeholders, both internal and external, whose support is critical to the survival and growth of any corporation (Freeman 1984; Lozano 2000; Mitroff 1983).
As a result, this refers to the expenses incurred by the government in carrying out its operations (towards education). As Adegbenro (2000) and Olanrewaju (2003) correctly point out, corporate governance has been a helpful tool in maintaining a smooth growth rate in developed economies through economic stabilization, stimulation of investment activities, and the like.
Corporate governance also plays an important role in underdeveloped economies, such as reducing regional disparities, developing social overheads, and creating infrastructure for economic growth in terms of communication and transportation (Olsyede, 2008; Reitz, 2005; Adegbenro, 2000).
However, in Nigeria, education is regarded as the most important tool for change and national development, with which a nation can achieve greatness on social, economic, technological, and political levels (NPE, 1998, 2004). A good educational policy or program that ensures quality outputs must be optimally serviced with appropriately trained and motivated teaching staff that is adequately supplied with necessary facilities and equipment.
As a result, resources (both human and material) are the primary foundation of an educational system. Unfortunately, the Nigerian educational system has been slow to respond to these realities. Studies have revealed that there are general deficiencies in the number and quality of suitable teachers, as well as funds and other material inputs (Adekoya, 2004; Gbadamosi, 2002; Obasa, 2000).
Secondary education plays an important role in the Nigerian educational system. It bridges the gap between primary and secondary education by absorbing the former’s output and supplying entrants into the latter. Its performance must be measured in relation to the stated objectives. Secondary education’s overarching goal is to prepare students for:
(1) Contributing to society by living a useful life
(2) Postsecondary education (NPE, 1998; 17, 2004:13).
Secondary education, on the other hand, should:
(a) Give an increasing number of primary school students the opportunity to receive a higher-quality education, regardless of their socioeconomic, religious, or ethnic background;
(b) Diversify its curriculum to account for differences in talents, opportunities, and roles possessed by or available to students after completing secondary school;
(c) Prepare students to function effectively in our modern era of science and technology.
(d) Promote and develop Nigerian culture, art, and language, as well as global cultural heritage;
(e) Raise a generation of people who can think for themselves, respect the views and feelings of others, respect the dignity of labor, and appreciate the values enshrined in our broad national objectives and live as good citizens.
(f) Promote Nigerian unity by emphasizing the common threads that bind us together in our diversity;
(g) Instill in its students a desire for success and self-improvement both at school and in later life (NPE, 2004, Page 13-14).
The sum of these goals is for a Nigerian youth to grow into a well-rounded individual who is socially stable, morally dependent, mentally and physically alert, intellectually equipped, nationally and internationally oriented, and culturally adjusted.
The smooth operation of any organization is heavily reliant on the availability of adequate resources. Educational resources, which are the sum total of everything that goes into the system, are critical for the system’s effective operation and maintenance.
Educational resources include school buildings, student enrollment, adequate and qualified teaching staff, furniture, textbooks, and other infrastructures that are critical to the system (Oru, 1988 in Olanrewaju, 2003). The secondary school system was broadly defined as the secondary education resources such as human, financial, physical, and material resources.
Human resources include teachers, non-teaching staff, and students; material resources include printed materials, instructional aids, stationery items, and laboratory equipment; financial resources include the monetary aspect of resources; and physical resources include classrooms, laboratories, libraries, administrative buildings, workshops, and auditoriums.
For a high and consistent academic standard, these resources must not only be available in sufficient quantity, but also be distributed equitably among schools.
The quality of secondary school education is determined by a number of factors, including:
I Access to instructional resources such as textbooks, libraries, laboratories, and teaching aids;
(ii) The number and quality of available teachers;
(iii) The ability and capability of the students to study independently;
(iv) Students’ learning interests and attitudes;
(v) The nature of the subjects assigned to teachers;
(vi) Changes in the educational system;
(vii) Administrative strategies used in the school’s day-to-day operations.
Because of the government’s determination and consciousness to ensure better quality education, the emphasis in the fourth National Development Plan (1981-1985) on the expansion of secondary school facilities across the country was placed. The goal was to provide every child with the opportunity to fully develop his intellectual and working capacities for his own and the community’s benefit.
The government also emphasized that basic facilities such as classrooms, libraries, laboratories, and administrative buildings would be prioritized. It also stated that attention would be paid to ensuring that secondary and tertiary education facilities were greatly expanded, as well as efforts to provide adequate in expensive and locally produced textbooks and local science apparatus.
Enough schools, properly and uniformly equipped, were to be built so that children, regardless of their state of origin, could attend school close to their homes.
The Nigerian Educational Research Council emphasized the importance of resources as a contributing factor to quantitative education. According to the seminar report (1980), in order to achieve adequate attention on good academic qualities, the following factors should be considered:
i. Appropriate teacher education and training;
ii. Establishment of guidance and counseling services for students’ proper career guidance;
iii. Education quality control through proper instruction supervision;
iv. Improving the school environment to create a more conducive learning environment;
vi. Physical infrastructure provision;
vii. Adequate funding provided by the states and federal governments to meet the magnitude of capital and recurring costs.
The factors listed above are critical for any development-oriented educational system. When resources are available, learning becomes more meaningful, and information that is incidental to the process of teaching is permanently communicated to the student through them; additionally, facts are retained better when supplemented with resources.
According to Oni (1988), when explaining these factors, factors i-iii emphasize the importance of providing the appropriate personnel. Only when adequate and qualified teachers and guidance counsellors are available can educational quality be expected to improve.
Factors iv-vi emphasize the importance of providing physical/material resources such as classrooms and well-equipped laboratories, while factor (vii) focuses on financial resources, both capital and recurrent expenditure allocated to education.
Thus, in order for any nation to positively impact education, it must understand the interdependence of public expenditure and development, as no nation will develop more than its educational system. It should also be noted that when it comes to enhancing or improving educational growth and development, coordinating government spending is critical.
The primary goal of this research is to determine the extent to which corporate governance influences the secondary education system in Lagos State in terms of differential distribution of educational resources and their utilization between 2000 and 2009.
Problem Statement
Given the numerous economic problems that Nigeria is experiencing and the global economic meltdown, sustainable educational growth and development has been a top priority for every concerned government and private individual in Nigeria.
Despite the democratic system in place, it has been discovered that there are disparities in the distribution of educational resources to Lagos State secondary schools based on stratifications such as school age (new/old), location (rural/urban), and type (single/mixed).
Whereas all students in these schools are subjected to the same examination administered by either NECO or WAEC, and if the differential distribution of education resources favors some categorized secondary schools in Lagos State, it is worthwhile to investigate the extent to which corporate governance contributed to the differential distribution and utilization of resources in these schools between 2000 and 2009.
Answers to the following research questions will be sought based on this problem.
Research Issues
To guide this study, the following research questions were developed.
(1) Will corporate governance have a significant impact on secondary school education development in Lagos State?
(2) Does corporate governance have an impact on secondary school ethics in Lagos State?
(3) How much influence has corporate governance had on school management practices in Lagos state secondary schools?
(4) Would corporate governance have a significant impact on the secondary school regulatory mechanism in Lagos State?
(5) Would corporate governance have a significant impact on government policies governing secondary school education in Lagos state?
(6) To what extent would corporate governance influence government roles in secondary school management in Lagos State?
Hypotheses for Research
To guide this study, the following research hypotheses were developed:
(1) Corporate governance will have little impact on the development of secondary education in Lagos State.
(2) In Lagos State, corporate governance has no significant effect on secondary school ethics.
(3) Corporate governance has no discernible impact on school management practices in Lagos state secondary schools.
(4) Corporate governance has no discernible impact on the secondary school regulatory mechanism in Lagos State.
(5) In Lagos state, corporate governance is not a significant predictor of government policies on secondary school education.
(6) Corporate governance is not a significant predictor of government roles in secondary school management in Lagos State.
The Study’s Purpose
The study’s goal is to look into the impact of corporate governance on resource distribution and utilization in secondary schools in Lagos State between 2000 and 2009 in order to achieve optimal productivity. The importance of these resources is highlighted in order to re-evaluate policy. Furthermore, this study suggests ways to improve the government’s involvement in the distribution and utilization of educational resources in secondary schools in order to improve the schools’ educational performance.
The Study’s Scope
The purpose of this research is to determine the impact of corporate governance on resource distribution and utilization in Lagos State between the years 2000 and 2009. Because of the geographical spread of the local government areas and the five administrative divisions in Lagos State, this study would cover three of the five administrative educational divisions.
As a result, the scope of the research is limited to the following:
(a) Human, physical, and material resources will be investigated in this study. Financial resources would not be examined because they were measured indirectly into the other three resources examined.
(b) Because the focus of this study is on public secondary schools, the contribution of private or community resources will not be considered.
(c) This study would not take into account private secondary schools, as it is not a comparative study.
The Study’s Importance
The study’s findings would provide viable data/information on whether the government’s resources match the expectations of the school system. It will also raise awareness among educational authorities, school administrators, and the general public about the lack of uniformity in the distribution of secondary education resources, implying that there is (may be) an urgent need to improve the situation.
It would be significant in enabling education authorities to see the importance of equitable distribution of resources to secondary schools in the state, given the disparities in distribution based on school academic performance. It will highlight the disparities in academic performance among secondary schools in the state, as well as the need to improve the teaching and learning environment in these schools, thereby raising the educational standard in the state.
The findings of this study would persuade educational planners of the importance of equity or uniformity in resource distribution in order to influence students’ academic achievement.
Finally, it would allow governments at all levels to recognize that no nation can develop more than its educational system. As a result, the educational sector would receive more funding in their annual budget. This will also compel educational administrators and planners to pay attention to the system’s supervising level in order to ensure equitable resource distribution and utilization.
Term Definitions
This section contains some contextual definitions of basic concepts that are used, allowing the reader to easily understand the study.
(1) Corporate Governance: This is the formal system of accountability and control for making legal, ethical, and socially responsible decisions and using resources in schools to achieve better results.
(2) Educational resources: These are the total of the inputs into the education system, including human resources (school administrators, teachers, and students), material and physical resources (classrooms etc.).
(3) Resource distribution: Is the distribution of high-quality and plentiful educational resources to schools for sharing.
(4) Resource utilization: Is the extent to which resources are used, and it is determined by requiring respondents to check how frequently the selected teaching/learning activities are carried out during the academic session.
(5) Old schools: These are schools that were built before 1979.
(6) New schools: These are schools that were established after 1979.
(7) Single-sexed schools: These are schools for only boys or girls.
(8) Inequitable distribution of educational resources into schools.
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