A Review on Funding Post Graduate Science Education in Nigeria

A retracting economy by implication affects the quantity and quality of budgetary allocation to the key sectors of the economy of which the ‘education’ sector is an integral part of. The global oil glut and the attendant low pricing have adversely affected the economic fortunes of Nigeria and have put enormous pressure on our foreign reserve and on the exchange value of the Naira to the Dollar.

The quantity and quality of post graduate training and research work in sciences is largely dependent on the resources and the level of intellectual climate provisioned by the relevant authorities which in turn is dependent on the economy. The impact of the growing economic recession in Nigeria on the post graduate training and research in science education and the implication on our national, economic, technological and social development is discussed via the contribution of science education on our national development. This work examines  the effect of poor funding of post graduate training in science education and its implication on the national, economic and technological development.

Funding Post Graduate Science Education in Nigeria

Sciences as a discipline encourage a guided and systematic inquiry into the physical behavior of the material world. Science Education is the development of skills, aptitude and capacity for learning science and science methods. It is therefore expected to partner with individuals, desirous of acquiring post graduate knowledge in sciences, in bringing about an enhancement of relevant skills and knowledge relevant to the scientific, economic and social development of a nation.

Education according to Fadoku and Dada (2008), is a most powerful instrument for social progress. It is the greatest power yet known to man for his improvement. Afe (1995) opined that education is a tool used for the integration of the individuals into the society so that he can achieve self-realization, develop national consciousness, promote unity and strive for social, economic, political, scientific, cultural and technological progress. 

Advancement in civilization has made it mandatory to formalize core learning processes that will serve the country’s technological and economic development. Post graduate education in the sciences is therefore tailored to further the skills that will provide solution to everyday problem with a view to advancing the society better and providing further opportunities for futuristic planning.

According to Kearney (2008), post graduate education especially in science education (emphasis ours), faces multiple challenges in terms of demand, supply, quality and returns, both for providers and the clientele concerned. Why students decide to pursue this level of study and the incentives offered by institutions and employers are critical factors in changing and understanding trends.

Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) the world over are set up and recognised as institutions established for the advancement of knowledge, scholarship and innovation. In knowledge-based economies, governments see universities as engines for change and expansion of prosperity (Guri-Rosenblit & Sawyerr; Johann & Waast, 2006). Universities also play a leading role in world class research outputs. Abiddin (2012) in Olibie, Agu and Uzoechina; 2015, noted that such research outputs act as a core of excellence in prioritized areas of any nation which can generate high impact research publications as well as attract the best brains for teaching and research in producing high standard graduates. Hence, Universities inherently assure research-based teaching, which is central to the provision of training and skills needed for economic and national development

Postgraduate research is a formal training or field of study beyond the undergraduate scheme which happens in a university or that is recognized by a university or institute of higher learning. By implication postgraduate studies implies that the candidate undertaking such research has already completed a formal first degree and at some instances the master’s programme, at an accredited university or tertiary institution.

Globally, the post graduate education landscape simultaneously undergoes rapid and tremendous changes with emphasis on research through equipping students with the necessary skills and knowledge to foster the growth of independent, creative and lifelong researchers. Among the resources to facilitate this aim, mentoring plays a vital role (Olibie, Agu and Uzoechina; 2015)

Researches in sciences are thought to provide the platform for a country’s economic and social development through the application of science in technological breakthrough and advancement. But the quantity and amount of intellectual climate and reinforcements often play a big role in enhancing or deterring its impact on the overall economic and technological health of any nation. Developed countries of the world as can often be cited are nations with advanced education and research capacities enhanced by access to huge funding.

The intellectual climate and the resources available for research are generally regarded as important determinants of quality scholarly work. These factors play a major role in either facilitating or deterring scholarly inquiry both at the graduate and post graduate levels of our education. 

Importance of Post Graduate Science Education in National, Economic and Technological Development

Post graduate Research especially in Science Education, is generally meant to solve problems. The infrastructures necessary for such researches and learning in science education is capital and human resources intensive. Post Graduate training in Science Education is mostly research based and is especially very challenging in the face of poor funding. 

According to Federal Ministry of Information, 2012; post graduate education programmes require research work. The submission of an original essay, commonly referred to as project, thesis or dissertation report is an essential component of the requirements for the fulfillment of the award of a post graduate degree or diploma. Projects, thesis, or dissertation investigates changes or developments that are being planned to define the way of improving situations. It encompasses many different studies all of which attempt to better understand and improve the learning of science and the scientific processes. In the research works, post graduate students are expected to identify a suitable research problem worthy of investigation from a chosen field.

The identified problem is expected to meet the tripartite conditions of significance, originality and feasibility. In addition to these conditions, students writing dissertations are required to consider whatever problems they identify vis-à-vis individual competence and professional experience, and possible difficulties such as availability of data, financial constraints and limitations of time. Some institutions also insist that projects, theses and dissertations, be defended in a viva-voce oral examination where candidates present their research before an expert panel. And all these are capital intensive and most times suffers tremendous setbacks due to financial constraints.

A 2003 World Bank report as cited in Saraki (2009) noted “Many developing countries have neither articulated a development strategy linking knowledge to economic growth nor built up their capacity to do so. The report also cited Nigeria as though the largest country in Africa by population but having only 15 Scientists and Engineers engaged in research and development per million persons. This compared with 168 in Brazil, 456 in China, 158 in India, 4,103 in United States is pitiable.

Also in 1995, Nigeria’s scientific publication was only 711, compared to South Africa’s 3,413, India’s 14,833 and Brazil’s 5,440, Okonkwo & Okafor; 2012. This trend in scientific development stands Nigeria out as a country that is not development oriented and further entrenches the idea of improper policy emplacements that will attract quality scholarship in post graduate scientific research.

Vision 20:2020 is premised on a plan to make Nigeria a top 20 economy by year 2020. This will require Nigeria to operate not only within the framework of National development but also in the context of globalised economy which is science and information driven. Most innovative researches spearheaded by Universities like Harvard and MIT have been able to provide solutions in Governance, Medicine, Agriculture, Defense, Economy, Space Science, ICT and many other areas too numerous to mention 

It is argued that in developing countries like Nigeria, because of the scarcity of resources and the wide spread desire to modernize, the perceived applied value of post graduate studies has a major impact on its development. But the various controls in place can either facilitate or deter its pursuit. Hence, poor countries especially ones undergoing economic recession like Nigeria, find it hard to proffer solution to their problem because they lack capacity in the quality and quantity of postgraduate students capable of performing such duties. This in part has eroded the capacity of Nigerian postgraduate science education researchers in adopting the classroom model to practical solution offering. Countries like USA, China, Germany, U.K etc have made gigantic leap as a result of the quality and quantity of postgraduate research works in industry, politics, economy, defense, health, agriculture etc. Great discoveries have always emanated from the institutions equipped for postgraduate researches especially in the areas of science and technology.

The inability of our government to manage and midwife a process of funding postgraduate education in sciences have made us to critically depend on other nations who have done so for solutions to our daily problems. Increasingly, educational and health sector deficiencies have increasingly witnessed more Nigerians moving out of the country in search of solutions with attendant export of the dwindling foreign reserves to foreign countries positioned to deliver these services. The overall impact of underfunding of our postgraduate education is therefore negative. 

Funding Post Graduate Science Education in a Depressed Economy

Since 2015, Nigerian economy has been in recession, partly because of the downward trend in the global oil prices, large scale corruption and insurgency in the Northeastern part of the country that affected agricultural outputs and also imposed huge demands on our economic and political resources to tackle. Even before the recession, Nigerian government funding of the educational sector has always been below 1% of GDP. 

Also demographically, youths and young adults of school age are over 60% of the Nigerian population put at 180 million. The implication is that the education industry needs to contend with how to formally train over 100 million children and young adults, equipping them with experiences that will make them adapt to a 21st century environment. Out of this number, it is estimated that 10% or one million young adults will eventually continue with their formal education upto to the postgraduate level and ultimately about 30% or 300,000 of them will be in postgraduate sciences. The implication is on fund provisioning to cater for this huge number vis a vis the dwindling economic resources. The table below shows a six year budgetary allocation to the educational sector in Nigeria, with 2016 – 2024 budgetary provision falling far below the previous year’s own using corresponding dollar exchange rates.

Source; Omole Ibukun; (Secretary Education Rights Campaign OAU Ile-Ife) 

The budgetary provision to the educational sector in Nigeria over the years has not been impressive and still falls very far below the UNESCO provided 26% of overall budget minimum benchmark for developing countries. If argued against the background that 40 Federal Universities, 21 Federal Polytechnics, 22 Federal Colleges of Education, and 104 Unity Schools, totaling 187 institutions will catered for by the budget, it gets more complicated deciding how much of this fund will trickle down to the postgraduate level and especially to postgraduate science education. No wonder in the webometrics statistics, Jan. 2016, none of our universities were in the list of Africa’s top 25 Universities and the top 2004th in the world. This is highly discouraging and impacts negatively on our national economic and social development. 

The education system is based on the National Policy on Education (NPE) document of 1977 (last revised in 1990). A longtime by any standard and mirrors the inefficiency of our policy planners to upgrade with time. The table below gives a statistics of student’s preferences in UTME 2007 – 2010. The figure presented below clearly indicates that access to tertiary education by our teeming youths is clearly undermined by underfunding of the sector. 

HEIs Students’ Preferences -Matriculation Examinations 

(UME) – Universities Matriculation Examinations (MPCE) – Monotechnics, Polytechnics & Colleges of Education

Source; FME 2010 report by Dr. Jamila Shu’ara Director, Tertiary Education Federal  Ministry of Education, Abuja

The argument on insufficient funding is captured in the table below, showing the percentage shortfalls in personnel required to man the few HEI’s in the country

Faculty Staff in Tertiary Institutions

Source; 2007 System wide Staff Audit in Shu’ara, J (2010)

The shortfall in academic personnel can be traced to poor funding provision to engage qualified personnel and the growing incapacity of our HEI’s (Higher Education Institutions) to generate enough qualified manpower at the postgraduate level to fill the vacancies especially since minimum qualification in HEI’s teaching is a postgraduate degree in the cognate area. Even though the number of academic staff employed by postgraduate science education is not known the above statistics will confirm that the number will be infinitesimal compared to number of postgraduate education student in place

HEIs & Sources of Funding; Public HEIs have the following sources of funding: 

• First Level –Appropriation from Government, Regular & Special Intervention -Education Trust Fund, NDDC, PTDF, IDAs, 
• Second level –Internally Generated Revenue (fees, other sundry charges. (largely under –reported) 
• Third Level –Donations, Endowments, etc. (Not much due to economic down turn) 

The Total Receipts from the Federal Government Appropriation (1999 –2009) for Federal Universities was N651,777,180,338.33 while Regular Intervention from ETF was N103,137,788,678.12. (Special Intervention from ETF & other Agencies Niger Delta Development Corp, Petroleum Development Trust Fund, IDAs not included) Shu’ara; (2010). This compared to $652.57bn (N18.859trillion) in United States within the same period is a critical factor in the huge disparity in national development that exists between our nation and the United States

Much more diversified funding is therefore recommended especially in the areas of copyrights and patent rights to inventions emanating from activities in postgraduate science education projects. Also our university management must be innovative especially in deploying funds to scientific researches that will generate fund. A research project that can yield miniaturized secondary cells capable of large storage of electrical energy and supply same over long period can yield huge revenue for the university. New drugs for malaria treatment, HIV intervention, improvised science teaching equipment and anti-ageing drugs are such areas that can increase opportunities for more revenue earnings if postgraduate science researches are directed to such areas. 

Conclusion:

Postgraduate education in the sciences can be a convenient vehicle through which we can harness the products of science, skill and methods in solving our national economic, social, political and developmental issues. Product of guided researches in sciences at the postgraduate levels can help the growth of our industries and increase GDP. However over the years, poor funding have militated against harvesting the huge resources available from postgraduate science education, especially now that Nigerian economy is in depression caused mainly by our over reliance on crude oil export proceeds. This situation calls for proactive measures from our HEI’s managers in expanding revenue drive through opportunities not yet explored before like copyrights, patent rights, providing industry solutions at a fee and such other consultancy services that empirical knowledge can solve.

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