A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POLICY FORMULATION AND IMPLEMENTATION WITH RESPECT TO EDUCATIONAL PLANNING IN LAGOS STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
Education policies are evolved and formulated in
every community in order to improve the standard of living of the populace
(Kola, 1996). According to Kola, free education policy in some states was to
alleviate the suffering of the indigent students and parents in this austere
period of our economy. Also, growing awareness in the citizenry of a nation as
regards the shortcomings in their general existence on each could instigate
virile educational or other sectoral policies that could proffer solutions to
their existential problems. As Adeyemi (2000) puts it, the current document
tagged the new National Policy on Education (NPE) evolved after a long drawn
seminars and conferences on the relevance of our hitherto previous educational
system in the realization of the developmental dreams of an ambitious young
nation like Nigeria. In fact, the views, discussions and eventual report from
these seminars and conferences, and the National Seminar on National Policy on
Education formed the basis for the eventual 1977 National Policy on Education.
In
essence, educational policies are need-oriented. The need to live happily in a
well developed community that is free of poverty, hunger, disease etc, it could
be the need of safety and security. These needs could be grouped as organic
(human) and inorganic (environmental). At these two extremes, Awokoya (1982)
highlights three groups of policy objectives that are apparent. These are: the
individual needs on which policy objectives could be drawn; the community
pressures (communal sustenance); and the degree of complexity and
sophistication to which specialized personal must be educated and trained to
meet these demands.
The term planning has no doubt, enjoyed wide
application across all disciplines. However, different institutional context
and socio-political structures determines the specific activity that can be
classified as involving planning. For example, what an architect may regard as
a planning activity, may slightly differ from that of a medical doctor, an
engineer, an economist or an administrator. In the same vein, the content of
planning in the former socialist USSR before the break up of the Republic or
any other socialist country cannot be the same as that in the capitalist
economy like the U.S.A. or any other capalist country (Agabi, 2001).
According
to Owolabi (1998), we need to facilitate the discussion of educational planning
by identifying a guiding definition. Planning has been used to mean the process
of determining in advance, what is to be done, including classification of
goals, establishment of policies, mapping out programmes and campaigns and
determining specific methods or procedures, and fixing day to day schedules
(Newman, 1993:136). It is not necessary that we identify all the possible
definitions that have been put forward by scholars since the practice of
planing began. In comtemporary usage, Newman (1993) definition appears limited,
since it did not recognise the focal issue that has given rise to the adoption
of planning in every field of economic life. That focal issue is rationality or
optimization of resources use.
In
this study, planning can be said to connote a process which essentially
involves deciding in advance, the specific future view to optimizing the use of
limited organizational resources towards desirable and specified goal
attainment. What is clear from this is that planning is a conscious,
deliberate, systematic and rational decision making process, designed to
influence future course of action in an organisation or any field of human
activity with the ultimate aim of making the most economical use of the limited
resources (i.e. profit or benefit maximization) (Uzoma, 2000).
Beeby
(1993:4) states that educational planning is the exercise of foresight in
determining the policy, priorities and costs of an educational system, having
due regard for economic and political realities, for the systems potential for
growth and for the needs of the country and the pupils (students) served by the
system. The planning of education is now universally embraced as a tradition.
The reasons for this are many: (1) education is planned so that the limited
resources of a society like finance, personnel and material can be rationally
allocated among the various competing educational demands and programmes or
types. Educational planning therefore enables those involved in education to
gain economical insight in the use of scarce educational resources, (2) with a
proper definition of objectives, educational planning helps in concretising a
society educational choices in terms of specific tasks to be accomplished. This
helps in giving direction to actions, permits delegation, facilitates control
and provides the basis for evaluation, (3) educational planning is done to
ensure that the various educational interest and demands of all those interest
groups like students, parents, school managers, community members etc; are
harmonized with those of the society in terms of needs, capacity and
constraints, (4) the production of skilled manpower or inculcation of desirable
habits through education takes a very long time to mature. Investment decision
here therefore needs to be planned for ahead to time, (5) government the world
over, have found the need to plan education to ensure that there is adequate
investment in education. This is because the spill-over benefits and costs
associated with it makes it unenticing for adequate private sector investment,
(6) above all, education is planned to avoid wastages by providing just the
type and quantity of educational services needed in the society (Barnes et al.,
1999).
1.2
Statement of the Problem
Educational policies are evolved and formulated in
every community in order to improve the standards of living of the people in
that community. However, certain problems militate against the planning and
implementation of these policies in the educational system. For example, the
planning of education and the consequent implementation of the plans have had
very limited success in Nigeria. It is not likely that the stage of things will
be better in the near future. There has been recurrent problems in educational
policy formulation, planning and execution. These recurrent problems of
educational planning and implementation are: the cart before the horse
syndrome, for example, in most cases, educational planning efforts normally
start after implementation. National leaders merely make public pronouncements
about educational policies or programmes without any regard to the actual
process. Also, the problem of poor functional differentiation where educational
planning and implementation have the problem of ineffectiveness, because
educational objectives in Nigeria have been very vague in implementation.
Another
problem is weak data base, in Nigeria, the culture of educational planning has
been without accurate data base. This has limited the progress made in
education. The problems of inadequate outdated and inaccurate data have been
highlighted by Ashby (1960). The lack of qualitative and quantitative data base
in educational policy formulation, planning and implementation has stalled
progress in that sector.
Other
perceived problems that militate against planning and effective implementation
in education are explosive population, inadequate resources (human and
materials), the depressed economy, unprogressive administrative tradition,
politics, lack of public support etc.
1.3
Research Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of this study is to examine a
critical analysis of policy formulation and implementation with respect to
educational planning in Lagos State.
Other
specific objectives are:
(1)
To find out
whether there is good policy formulations in Nigerian educational sector.
(2)
To examine
whether there is effective implementation of educational policies in Nigeria.
(3)
To identify
the problems militating against effective implementation of educational
policies in Nigeria.
(4)
To investigate
whether educational planners in Nigeria have effectively implemented the same.
(5)
To proffer
adequate solution to the problem of poor implementation of Nigerian educational
plans.
1.4
Research Questions
The following research questions will be raised in
this study:
(1)
Is there any
good formulation of educational policies in Nigeria?
(2)
To what extent
can we examine whether there is effective implementation of educational
policies in Nigeria?
(3)
How can we
identify the problems militating against effective implementation of
educational programmes in Nigeria?
(4)
To what extent
can we investigate whether education in Nigeria have effectively executed?
(5)
What are the
possible solutions to the problems of poor implementation of educational
policies in Nigeria?
1.5
Research Hypotheses
These research hypotheses will be formulated in
this study:
(1)
There will be
no significant effect of educational policy formulation on educational
implementation in Nigeria.
(2)
There will be
no significant effect of poor educational planning on standard of education in
Nigeria.
(3)
There will be
no significant relationship between educational planning and implementation in
Nigeria.
1.6
Significance of the study:
This study will be benefited to the following people:
(1)
Educational Planners: With the findings and recommendations of this
study, educational planners would be in good position to plan effectively, the
education of Lagos State. It also enables them to seek ways of implementing the
plans made. The recommendations of this study will help educational planners in
the school to brace up and explore effectively the meaningful ways of putting
the policies so formulated into proper execution.
(2)
School Administration: The recommendations of this study will assist educational
planners who will use the proffered solutions to carry out their day to day
activities in our educational sector. The recommendations will give them the
needed insights on the ways of efficient implementation of the plans or
policies formulated by the educational planners or policy formulators in
Nigeria.
(3)
Stakeholders in Nigeria Education: This study will be beneficial to the stakeholders
such as parents, students, teachers and the entire society who will be
adequately exposed to the benefit and importance of good policy formulation and
effective implementation of educational plans in the country.
1.7
Scope of the Study
This study covers the critical analysis of policy
formulation and implementation with respect to educational planning in Lagos
State. A case study of Mainland Local Government Area of Lagos.