Challenges of Commercializing Education in Nigeria in a Dwindling Economy: Implication on Educational Managers

KIU Journal of Social Sciences KIU Journal of Social Sciences Copyright©2020 Kampala International University ISSN: 2413-9580; 6(4): 205–213 Challenges of Commercializing Education in Nigeria in a Dwindling Economy: Implication on Educational Managers DINAH SUNDAY OSAAT, I.F. JACK University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria Abstract. This paper is a theoretical paper Keywords: Commercialization, which examined the challenges of commercialization of education, dwindling commercialising education in a dwindling economy, management. economy in Nigeria. It described commercialisation as synonymous but with little 1. Introduction difference to privatisation. While privatisation is the process of transferring ownership and Education is the knowledge that is imparted in control of a government owned business to schools and colleges that makes us to be private individuals for profit maximisation, independent and stand on one own feet. commercialisation means that the government Education is a basic need. Every child has a while retaining ownership, will hand off the fundamental right to acquire education. It is funding and management of those enterprises often the duty of the country and its government leaving them to tend for themselves with to give back to the country and take care of its whatever expertise they may have. The paper people in the context of giving education that is highlighted the goals, types, rationale, positive free to the people, which in turn, help the and negative impacts of commercialisation. It country grow and prosper. also looked at the concept of dwindling economy and its characteristics. From the Management of education however is no longer negative impacts of commercialisation of what is used to be. Most countries such as UK education, its challenges in the face of dwindling and US have commercialised education and economy become obvious. Among others, is the more countries are following the trend. In hike and high rate of school fees to the level that Nigeria the history of commercialization of if quality education is to be achieved through education began with the private schools that private institutions it therefore means that it is were operated by the missionaries before they only for those who can afford leaving the less were taken over by the government. The privileged in the hands of the mercy of God. The Nigerian government later performed badly or paper therefore recommended among others, disappointingly in maintaining and managing that if every citizen is to enjoy quality education these schools. Educational sector really suffered then the government should continue to take full a lot of setback including inadequate funding by risk and responsibility of giving quality state and federal governments, poor educational education to her citizens for the betterment of planning of preschool, primary, secondary, our society and development. vocational and universities, non-functional facilities, disruption of academic calendars by academic staff etc. To arrest the failures of 205 KIU Journal of Social Sciences educational system many private universities attempt to do that, concepts such were been licensed in the country while various commercialization, commercialisation of primary and secondary schools are also education, origin of commercialization of proliferated thus given rise to commercialisation education, impacts of a commercialised and privatisation of education. It is believed that education, dwindling economy and its the rationale of commercialisation of education characteristics will be reviewed. among others are to achieve quality of education through quality learning environment and 2. The Concept of Commercialization infrastructure, manage economic recession, to reduce financial drain on the state in the form Commercialization is the process of managing mobilisation of private resources to finance or running something principally for financial investments that can no longer be funded from gain. It is the process of introducing new product public finances and the development of or service to the general market. It can also be professional efficiency of teachers to be more seen as the process of introducing a new effective to produce better results than public production method into commerce making it schools. available on the market (Wikipedia) Zayyad (2004) defined commercialisation as the Unfortunately, in attempt to have quality reorganisation of enterprises wholly and education, through commercialising education in partially owned by government in which such the hands of private individuals, it is no longer commercialised enterprises shall operate as the case as usual especially about the knowledge profit making commercial venture without the students gain, but about how much money subvention from government. can be extracted to get what one wants. Commercialised education is characterised with Commercialization is also somehow high cost of fees and seems to be made the synonymous but with little difference to exclusive preserve of the rich and for the highest privatisation. According to Ayodele (2004) in bidder especially when it comes to private own Chukwuma, Odiwo, Kifordu, (2016) institutions which are there to supplement the privatisation is the process of transferring government efforts. In the face of dwindling ownership and control of a government owned economy characterised with unemployment, loss business to private individuals. It is a transfer of of jobs, high cost of living, loss of business, fall ownership right from a public agency to the in investment and production of capital goods, private sector. It is the sale of government reduction in income and aggregate demand, fall owned assets and the opening of certain markets in business and profit (Amarachukwu, Friday & to the private sector. Privatisation has also been Timothy) etc, caused by oil fall and now defined by privatisation and Commercialisation pandemic virus, what is the fate of less Act of 1988 and the Bureau of Public privileged Nigerians of having the chance of Enterprises Act of 1993 as the relinquishment of getting the basic education they need. part or all of the equity and other interests held by the Federal Government or any of its Rather than helping to manage economic agencies in enterprise whether wholly or partly recession and to help in achieving quality owned by the Federal government. education in Nigeria, commercialisation of education becomes the other way round. Though Privatisation is the transfer of ownership of commercialization of education might have its enterprise to the general public through sales of advantages, the author is of the feelings that in their shares on the stock market or private the face of a dwindling economy, it is posing placement. Privatisation can be said to ensure many challenges especially when coming from the elimination of inefficiency and the injection the angle of the cost involved. The aim of the of efficiency in the management of the paper therefore is to highlight the challenges of enterprise. When this is done it will have a new commercialization of education in the face of a lease of life, price, of products, services will dwindling economy in Nigeria. However in tend to be competitive. 206 KIU Journal of Social Sciences On the other hand Commercialization according recovery and control and prudent Chukwuma, Odiwo, Kifordu, (2016) is the financial management. practice of making a profit from services or - To provide enhanced operational activities formerly offer free or at low price to autonomy at the enterprise level the public. To Chris (N.D) it simply means that - To remove bureaucratic bottleneck and the government while retaining ownership will political interference through clear role hand off the funding and management of those definitions between the supervising enterprises leaving them to tend for themselves ministry, the board of directors and the with whatever expertise they may have. Whether management of public enterprises (pp 4- commercialization or privatisation the focus is 5). profit maximisation. How can government own an enterprise and will not fund and manage it. 3 Origin of Commercialization in Nigeria Handing over the funding and management leads to privatisation. Therefore, in this paper In Nigeria, as already said, the history of commercialisation and privatisation are used as commercialization of education began with the one, as our discussion is focused on private schools that were operated by the commercialisation of education in the hands of missionaries before they were taken over by the private individuals. government. The recent trend of the emergence of private institutions in Nigeria emerged largely 2.1 Rationale of Commercialisation as a result of the incapacity of the government to satisfy the increasing educational demands. According to (2016), the following are some of They have evolved during two historical periods. the rationale of commercialization in The first during the period of Nigeria’s second government enterprises or agencies: republic experiment (1979-1983) private universities emerged without any defined - To overcome inefficiency enterprise educational planning for their development and - To manage economic recession were later abolished by a military regime in - Bringing about a reduction in 1984. Both prior to and during this period government expenditure and imports official thinking followed mainly two - Reduce financial drain on the state in the presidential commissions on higher education in form

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