1. The Demand for Education and Teacher Force
- One of the things you need to know is that the demand for education is one of the factors
influencing costs of education. In the year 2000, the number of students seeking admission into
Nigerian Universities was over 50,000 but in the year 2003, it might increase to 70,000. Politicians now use education as a vote catching weapon. Increased demand for education will inevitably mean expansion of educational facilities. Expansion of educational facilities at all levels, to a great extent, accounts for rising cost of education.
- A second factor influencing cost of education is teacher force This has been described by Nwadinani
(2000) as the most dominant factor. Education industry, as Nwadiani stated, is labour intensive. This
according to him is responsible for the rising salary bill of teachers which takes over 90 per cent of
recurrent cost of primary and secondary education put together.
2. Operation Techniques, Size of Enrolment of Learners and Institutional Variables.
- Let us take up the first issue that is the operation techniques. Let us start it by saying that most educational institutions, particularly, universities are very resistant to change. In other words, they are very conservation. They adopt their own operation technique and hardly change it. The adopted operation technique continues to be the same for many years relying on handicraft technology.
- You may be aware that some teachers are more resistant to change than illiterate rural farmers.
They fear to try out innovations, teachers know that they must be in the class to direct the learning
before the students’ However, with improved technologies and mass application of electronic system
to instruction, the presence of the teacher is diminishing. In pre-primary and primary school, the
teacher is still very much needed. He plays a very dominant role in this type of situation, the cost of
education increased.
- Another factor influencing cost of education is the size of enrolment of learners. It is obvious that
where enrolment increase then the unit cost of education decrease. In other words, the larger the
size of enrolment, the smaller the unit cost of education. In Nigeria, we have small schools in some states which are costly to run. However, because of government policy to provide for all, she (the
government) continues to maintain the small schools.
- Another factor influencing cost of education is what is called institutional variables. Institutional
variables will include such factors as age of school, design of buildings, curriculum in operation,
location of school and student- teacher ratio. Age of school has a strong influence on capital cost of
education. New schools need more learning facilities, equipment and instructional materials to make
learning process more meaningful. It is necessary to point out here that age also influences recurrent cost particularly with respect to maintenance.
- In situations where the design of the school building is very complex, we find an increase in the cost of education. Similarly, schools where the curriculum is technical oriented, the cost of education will increase.
Technical education requires more money to purchase or procure the inputs into the system.
Technical school require specialized structures and workshops.
- Student teacher ratio varies according to the educational level and courses offered. The student teacher ratio in a secondary school will obviously be lower than we find in a university. Student- teacher ratio actually has a strong influence on the cost of education. The higher the student-teacher ratio, the lower the cost of education.
3. National Aspirations and Inflation as Factor Influencing the Cost of Education
- You need to be aware that national aspirations are another factor influencing the cost of education. A nation’s aspirations may include the need to modernize, the need to acquire military powers, the need to excel in power and steel, the need to be self-sufficient in food production to all its citizens.
- Most national leaders feel that the shortest route to development is formal education. Kenya is one
of those countries whose aspiration is to use education to bring about development. This fact has
increased the nation’s budget for education. Coombs and Hallack (1987) and Nwadiani (2000) have
identified three indicators which show the level of national education aspirations. According to them, these are the proportion of Gross National Product that is devoted to public education expenditure, the share of the total public budget by education and the unit cost of education per citizen in any
country. These efforts, according to Nwadiani (2000), indicate the priority given to education which at the end of the day affects the cost.
- Inflation is another factor influencing the cost of education. Inflation means more money than the
available goods. In Kenya, inflation has brought a lot of damages to education. We discover that every
year, more funds are allocated to the education sector. One area where we have the greatest influence of
inflation on education cost is the area of personnel emoluments. In order to raise the salaries of teachers, to be in line with rising prices, other aspects of education industry suffer.
- The building of hostels, classrooms and purchase of equipment are slowed down or at times forgotten. Most educational institutions are unable to purchase technology equipment, video tapes, computers and its accessories.
The result is that the quality of education is seriously affected.
raphael answered the question on August 4, 2021 at 07:40