CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Funding of education cannot be discussed without the knowledge of education itself therefore education has been defined by various scholars.
According to Okonkwo (2010) education can be defined as “a cultural action directed at creating attitudes and habits considered necessary for participation and intervention in one’s historical process.
In the view of Uche (2013) “education is the process of training and developing the mental, potential, physical knowledge, skills and character of individuals by formal and informal schooling”.
In our own view, education can be defined as a tool, which enables an individual to live effectively and efficiently for him and the society at large. The Nigerian education system comprises of 6-3-3-4 that is the six years in primary school and three years for the junior level of the secondary school, three years in the senior secondary and four years in the tertiary institution (depending on the course of study).
The tertiary institution plays a significant role in the domain of manpower development. According to the national policy on education (1981:5-38), tertiary institutions “are those institutions that cover the post secondary section of our national education system, which is given in universities, polytechnics and colleges of education, the advanced teacher training colleges, correspondent colleges and institutions as may be allied to them”.
Over the years, the tertiary institutions has suffered due to poor finding. According to Ozurumba (2010:106) “the best education could be easily aborted if not supported by adequate funds” inadequate funding has been the contaminating problem in Nigeria.
To this end, testing institutions need finance to carry out research in medicine, engineering, education etc. training and retraining of lecturers acquiring of facilities and other amenities that can improve student potentials to the overall achievements of the aims and objectives of higher education in Nigeria.
In Nigeria education history between 1932 and 1962 there were five higher institutions viz: university of Nigeria Nsukka, University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University, Yeba higher college and University of Lagos. Funding of these institutions was not a problem because our country’s economy was one of the strongest amongst the third world countries.
Compared to the country’s population of 55.65million in 1963, the number of undergraduates were about 8,800, that is to say the country had very few undergraduates, hence, as a result of ample job opportunities for graduates, there came to be increase in demand for higher education.
Uche (2011:134) said that “over sixty tertiary institutions were established nation wide between 1970 and 1982. The funding of this higher institution rested squarely on the government which bore his neck-breaking burden without any compliant. Based on this, it could be observed that the funding of these institutions was principally shouldered by the government.
In support of this, Amadi (2010) pointed out that “during the oil boom the period of large profit in the petroleum oil sector, Nigeria was economically viable and there was boom in the financing of education. Many Nigerians received scholarship and bursary awards to enable them to be trained in various fields of education. New programmes and specialized areas were introduced and facilities for teaching and learning were provided.
The period of oil boom in 1980 was characterized by rapid disbursement of fund to institutions of higher learning as and when due, provision of money for research, oversea scholarship training and retraining of lecturers infrastructure apparatus for our laboratories etc.
However, like a flash in pan, the era of oil doom set in Uche (2014:135) said “by April 1989, there was a dramatic nose driving of the price of our major source of foreign exchange earner (oil). The colossal burden of financing the tertiary institutions become apparently uneasy and extremely unbearable.