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RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SCHOOL MAPPING AND ACCESS TO QUALITY EDUCATION

 

ABSTRACT

The study was on the relationship between school mapping and access to quality education. The aim is to determine whether school mapping affects access to quality education. The study adopted the cross-sectional survey design and sampled 125 teachers from secondary schools in Kaura and Jemma Local Government Area of kaduna State. The study raised five research questions and two hypothesis data were obtained using a structured questionnaire designed by the researcher. The mean and chi-square were used to analyse the data. Results showed that schools in Kaura and Jema’a have poor school mapping. Also, it was gathered that poverty affects access to quality education. The study recommended that government should ensure that schools are located at trekable distance, also efforts should be made by the government and other individuals to provide infrastructures to quality education. The study therefore concludes that significant relationship exists between school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jema’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Quality education is now an issue of global concern. As the Nigerian stakeholder’s attention is increasingly focused on the outcomes of education, policy makers have undertaken a wide range of reforms to improve schools and schooling, ranging from setting new standards and tests to redesigning of schools, new curricula and new instructional strategies. Rising expectations about what students should know and be able to do, break-through in research on how children learn, and the increasing diversity of the student population have all put significant pressure on the knowledge and skill teachers must have to achieve the ambitious goal demanded of public education. That goal is to ensure that children of all backgrounds master a demanding core curriculum and other materials that will prepare them to assume their civic and social responsibilities in a democratic society, and be able to compete within the global economy.

It is expected that educational system will produce the quality and quantity of human resources required for the economy’s growth using the right mix inputs. Ibukun (2009) affirmed that no nation or society can rise above the quality of her education. The immeasurable contribution of education in the development process has left a burning desire in every government to increase access to education for all her citizens. (Ibukun, 2003; Brock, 2006) opined that investigation in basic education and training is an ingredients to human capacity building such capacity, they noted is the foundation needed to realize increased productivity, most importantly technological innovation. The direction of education toward national economic growth and development was an important basic for the introduction of Universal Basic Education (U.B.E) programme. Hence education opportunities and their expansion provide the base for national economic development, Individual economic welfare and also narrows social inequalities by promoting a meritocratic basic for status attainment in which the talented can rise to appropriate position in the economy regardless of social background (Hunnum and Buchmann, 2005).

            According to Tolutope (2011) more than 40 years ago, the nations of the world speaking through universal declaration of human rights, asserted that everyone has a right to education. Despite notable efforts by countries around the globe to ensure the right to education for all, the following realities persist: more than one hundred million children have no access to basic schooling; more than nine hundred and sixty million adults, two-thirds of whom are women are illiterate, and functional illiteracy is a significant problem in all countries, industrialized and developing; more than one third of the world’s adults have no access to the printed knowledge, new skills and technologies that could improve the quality of their lives and help them shape and adapt to social and cultural change, and more than one hundred million children and countless adults fail to complete basic education programmes. The world faces daunting problems, notably mounting debt burdens, the threat of economic stagnation and decline, and rapid population growth, widening economic disparities among and within nations, war, occupation, civil strife, violent crime, the preventable deaths of millions of children and widespread environmental degradation. These problems constrain efforts to meet basic learning needs, while the lack of basic education among a significant proportion of the population prevent societies from addressing such problems with strength and purpose.

The World Education Forum (Dakar, Senegal, April 2000) was the first and most important event in education at the dawn of the new century. By adopting the Dakar Frame work for Action, the 1100 participants of the Forum reaffirmed their commitment to achieving Education For All by the year 2015 and entrusted UNESCO with the overall responsibility of coordinating all international players and sustaining the global momentum. The Education for All (EFA) movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adult. At the world education forum (Dakar, 2000) 164 governments pledged to achieve EFA and identified six goals to be made by 2015. Government, development agencies, civil society and the private sector are working together to reach the EFA goals. The Dakar frame work for action mandated UNESCO to coordinate these partners in cooperation with the four other convenors of the Dakar forum (UNDP, UNFPA, UNICEF and the World Bank). As the leading agency, UNESCO focuses its activities on five key areas: policy dialogue, monitoring, advocacy, mobilization of funding and capacity development.

The international consultation of Non-Governmental organizations, Dakar (2000) provides the opportunity to take stock of the achievements, the lessons and the failures of the past decade. The most disappointing lessons are that the objectives from Jomtien have not been achieved. Yet for 120 million children right to education is violated everyday, leaving them trapped in poverty. Other children in school lack teachers, class rooms and or books for effecting learning, this means that their education is cut short.                 

The world education forum provides an opportunity to deliver on the commitments to quality education for all governments and international agencies have to make a concerted effort to mobilize political will and financial resources. Nearly 300 NGOs gathered in Dakar to discuss Education for all believing that Education for All is achievable if government and international agencies commit themselves to the following:

There is a need to renew the commitment to education as a right as expressed in UN’s declaration on human rights. There must be a commitment to providing free quality basic education for all children, youth and adult. Equity in quality must be ensured at all levels. There must be a clear commitment to ensure that quality education for all includes all the marginalized and excluded groups like the disabled, ethnic minorities, internally displaced persons and refugees. There must be a clear statement that education is a core responsibility of the state. Education systems must respect and be based on local culture and respond to local needs. There must be a clear commitment to ensure gender equity in education at all levels. Adult literacy must be integrated with a wider process of community development and empowerment. The right to education starts from early childhood and continues through adulthood into old age.

However, creating access condition became essential even to access the extend of house hold demand for education. Rational location of educational facilities to benefit a relatively large number of children from the same amount of investment. Therefore it is a necessary step to promote development of education, the school mapping as planning approach focuses on the local level, provide an analytical framework for the implementation of education plans. They offer methods and techniques to estimate future needs and to identify ways to meet them. They can help to overcome the limitations of centralized planning through the correct understanding of local realities, the necessary consultation of relevant stake holders to facilitate and ultimately, a better fit between educational supply and demand. School mapping techniques (diagnostic, projections, use of norms and standards) and other relevant tools such as geographical information system (GIS) software, hardware, for the elaboration of a prospective school map.

            School mapping is an important planning technique to arrive at rational decision regarding distribution of educational facilities across different geographical locations; the term “school mapping” seemingly implies that the exercise is confirmed to location of schools and distribution of school facilities. Tolutope (2011) Defined school mapping as a process of identifying the educational need of a community through investigation and survey exercise. It is a set of techniques and procedures used to plan the demand for school places at the local level and to decide the institutional level. It is the geographical location of school. It is not only concerned with the drawing of maps, but deals with school location, planning, the distribution of sizes, spacing of schools and school facilities.

The subject of school facilities had received considerable attention from the public as well as educators. Educators are faced today with a growing challenge of distributing the nation’s educational facilities. At the same time, educators were held accountable for student achievement (School Facilities Distribution Task Force, 2003). Technically speaking, school facilities, refer to those material things that help or aid the teaching and learning process in school (Urevbu 1991). Enaigbe and Osagie (2011) opined that school facilities could be viewed from two perspectives, namely, those facilities needed specifically for the academic or curriculum development of the students and those facilities that are either generalist in nature or that help the physical or non-curricular (including co- curricular development of the students. Examples of the former classification include teaching aids like books, filmstrips, chalk, marker pen, stationery, syllabus, scheme of works, charts audio-visual materials, writing board etc. The latter include seat/desks, sizeable classrooms, functional libraries, well equipped laboratories, electricity, water, offices, play field, hostels, gardens, space for future expansion etc (Nwadiani, 2005).

School facilities have been observed as a potent factor to quality education. The dictum that “teaching is inseparable from learning but learning is not separable from teaching” is that teachers do the teaching to make students learn, but students can learn without the teachers. According to Earthman (2002) school facilities have an impact on teacher effectiveness and student performance. This is so because they determine to a very large extent the smooth functioning of any social organization or system including education. Their availability, adequacy and relevance influence efficiency and high productivity.

When facilities are provided to meet relative needs of a school system, students will not only have access to the reference materials mentioned by the teacher, but individual students will also learn at their own pace. The net effect of this is increased overall academic performance of the entire students. Hale (2002) found out that students in classrooms with large windows, natural lighting, and well designed sky lights performed 19 to 26% better than their peers in classroom without these features. When school facilities are provided in measurable proportion as well as adequate care of them, the gains there are unquantifiable. In the opinion of Osaigboro (2000) the instructional materials aspect of school facilities when provided help to save time and simplify learning. Furthermore Osaigboro opined that, they appeal to the different senses of the students, thereby involving them in the learning process. When school facilities are properly distributed, a conducive atmosphere for learning is created. It is against this background that the study was necessitated to assess the relationship between school mapping components (school location and distribution of school facilities) and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

            Equalization of education opportunities is a necessary condition to promote faster progress of education. Creation of easy access condition to schools or their alternatives becomes a necessity and essential step toward provision of equal opportunities for secondary schools. However, the distribution of senior secondary schools within the state is not equitable and this has resulted to lack of access to quality education.

School facilities and distribution of same are necessary for effective teaching-learning process (Szuba and Young (2003). Provision and distribution of school facilities are the corporate responsibility of the government and non-governmental organizations. The unending attention which school facilities have continued to receive from scholars in the field of education is a pointer to the necessity for it.

Available literature revealed that facilities are required for various activities of the school programme including extra-curricular activities. Some literature further revealed that the individual schools determine the type and qualities of facility needed. The facilities often needed in schools include, e-learning facilities, chalk board, marker board, classroom apparatus such as wall, charts, maps, writing materials as well as polygraph, offices, laboratories, libraries and other equipment. All of which are necessary for achieving the quality education in schools. Therefore, the thrust of this study put in a question form is that; what is the relationships that exist between school mapping and access to quality education?

1.3       PURPOSE OF STUDY

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State. Specifically the study intends to:

1.      Identify the nature of school mapping in the study area.

2.      Examine the extent to which school mapping affect access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

3.      Identify factors affecting access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

4.      Identify steps taken by Kaduna State Government to enforce good school mapping.

5.      Examine whether stakeholders in the study area have complied with governments policy on school mapping.

6.      Estimate the relationship between school location as a component of school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

7.      Determine the relationship between distribution of school facilities as a component of school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions were formulated to guide the study:

1.      What is the nature of school mapping in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State?

2.      How does school mapping affect access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State?

3.      What factors affect the access to quality education in the study area?

4.      What measures has Kaduna State Government taken to enforce good school mapping

5.      To what extend has stakeholders in Kaduna State compiled to the policy on school mapping?

6.      What is the relationship between school location as a component of school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State?

7.      What is the relationship between distribution of school facilities as a component of school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State?

1.5       HYPOTHESES

The following research questions which were tested at 0.05 level of significance were formulated to guide the study.

1.      There is no significant relationship between school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

2.      The factors that affect access to quality education will not differ between schools in Jema’a and Kaura Local Government Areas.

3.      There is no significant relationship between school location as a component of school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

4.      There is no significant relationship between distribution of school facilities as a component of school mapping and access to quality education in Kaura and Jama’a Local Government Areas of Kaduna State.

1.6       SIGNIFICANT OF THE STUDY

            This research becomes necessary as the outcomes would be a guide to the school planners and administrators to be able to identify the extent of the status, distribution or mapping of secondary schools in the state. It is hoped that the findings of this study would help to guide the policy makers and educational managers those things that need to be put in place to make learning attractive.

It is also expected that the findings will also help educationist. The education policy makers are not left out in the scheme of significance of this study.  Inter alia, it will help to redirect their policy towards adequate and effective disbursement of funds for the provision of facilities and the need for their distribution when procured. To the school authorities and teachers, it is expected that the study will help to further emphasize the indispensible role of school facilities distribution to accessibility to quality education.

Students have been found guilty of wantonly destroying school facilities, either deliberately or by error of omission.  It is expected therefore that this study will help educate the students on the need to jealously maintain facilities because anything contrary to these will have a bounce back effect on them or other students that may come after them. Finally, it will serve as a data bank for further research studies.

1.7       THEORETICAL/CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

According to Edward (2000), in view of the impact of various physical and socio-economical factors on the pattern of school practices and school mapping, attempts have been made to generalize on school mapping and thus models and theories of school location have been articulated. The most notable is that proposed by Von Thumen in 1926. He made his observations in northern Germany where he owned an estate. His work, The Isolated State was an outcome of his observations and the ensuring generalisations which he argued might apply elsewhere and with similar results.

Von Thumen’s theory started with a number of assumption as follows:- The existence of a single town in the midst of a uniform land surface where there is no disturbance by the physical factors and where transport costs are proportional to distance. Each farmer sells his surplus produce only in the town, take care of transport costs himself and always strive to maximize profits. There is one form of transport, (horse and cart).

The theory is based on the principle of economic rent in which different types of land use produce different net returns per unit area. Thus, commodities which can be grown most profitably near the town considering perishability, bulkiness in relation to transport will be nearer while others will be distributed as distances proportional to the point at which profit can be maximized. Thus Von Thumen evolved a concentric pattern of agricultural land use around the hypothetical town. These are in the distance from the town as follows:-

1.      Market gardening and dairying

2.      Forestry

3.      Intensive crop rotation

4.      Arable and pasture with emphasis on dairy products

5.      three- field crop rotation system and

6.      intensive stock grazing

Market gardening is located closest to the town since it requires the most intensive use of labour. Involves the highest transport costs and produces the most perishable goods. The existence of wood production near the centre of Von Thumen’s rings is explained by the importance of timber as a source of fuel during his time.

Changes in technological development has obviously affected Von Thumen’s original pattern. Transportation has involved, refrigeration has been invented both of which have diminished the perishability factor. Furthermore, there is yearly variation in crop yields which affects returns per unit area. Also the assumption of uniform land surfaces is unrealistic while farmers rarely act rationally, thus when Thumen’s model is applied to real world situations today, it is bound to be distorted. Despite this, the model stood the test of time for a long time. Even today, there are localities within developing countries where the theory is quite relevant to the explanations of school mapping. This theory is relevant to this study because it deals with how schools could be located and facilities distributed to schools in a manner that will minimise cost and to encourage access to education, that is basically the focus of school mapping.  

1.8       DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

            The research has been narrowed to Kaduna state due to time. Even through the research is conducted in Kaura and Jama’a local government respectively, a lot of money is required to carry out a comprehensive research on the topic. The researcher is financially incapacitated to run around for the purpose of collection of information. The cost of research materials has slowed down the study. The researcher was able to collect enough data from the study areas which provide the basis to draw up tangible conclusion and far reaching recommendations.

1.9       OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS

School Mapping:-It is a process of identifying the educational needs of a community through investigation and survey exercise. Normally an exercise which is undertaken usually after a survey of all existing facilities, like school building (i.e. availability of classrooms, laboratories, lavatories, drinking water facilities etc.) library, library books, teachers, equipment, consumable stores, availability of schools in habitations/villages, etc. so that the deficiencies are pin-pointed for taking corrective measures.  

Access to education: is the opportunity to participate in education sector.

Quality: The degree at which education is acquired by an individual. This implies the ability or degree with which an educational system conforms to the established standard and appropriateness of the inputs available for the delivery of the system.

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