INFLUENCE OF POLITICIZATION OF EDUCATION SYSTEM ON QUALITY EDUCATION DELIVERY IN STATE UNIVERSITIES OF SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined the influence of politicization of university education system on quality education delivery in state universities in south east of Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study while two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted of 3,218 lecturers from the five (5) State Universities in the South-East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The sample for this study comprised 322 respondents (186 male university lecturers and 136 female university lecturers) sampled from the 5 State Universities in the South East geopolitical zone of Nigeria using proportionate random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Politicization of University Education System for Quality Education” (PUEAQE). The reliability co-efficient of the instrument was calculated using Cronbanch Alpha statistic. Coefficient value was found to be 0.86 indicating high reliability of the instrument. In answering the research questions, the researchers used mean and standard deviation while t-test statistic was used for testing the null hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that politics has effects on the appointment of members of Governing Councils in State Universities of the South East State Universities according to respondent’s ratings. Also, politics has effects on the appointment of Vice Chancellors in State Universities of South East Geo-political zone according to respondent’s ratings. The study recommended among others were made that, Appointments and recruitments should be based on merit and competencies even if the policy of representation, quota and federal character are observed. This should be publicly advertised to create opportunities for the best candidates to be engaged even when quota and representative systems are applied in selected cases.