Transcript EDUCATION THAT CAN RAISE PRODUCTIVITY IN NIGERIA

EDUCATION THAT CAN RAISE
PRODUCTIVITY
IN NIGERIA
Joel Babatunde Babalola
Dean, Faculty of Education,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan,
Nigeria
Raising productivity means to increase quantity
and quality of outputs per person
SECTOR
MEASURE
Agriculture
Construction
Quantity and quality of yields per farmer
Quantity and quality of superstructures,
structures and infrastructure per construction
worker
Manufacture Quantity and quality of scientific ideas,
inventions and innovations leading to better
production process and products
Commercial More and better transactions, market
information and business communication per
person
Service
More and better delivery per person
The Problematic
• The Nigerian economy, with its huge labour force and
considerable capital factor outlay, still shows symptoms of
low productivity despite the various efforts by the
government at improving the situation
• It has therefore, become expedient to find ways to
encourage high output in the domestic production sector
• In this wise, the government has been making efforts to
enhance performance and improve productivity.
• In spite of various interventions, The issue of low
productivity in the manufacturing, service sectors, public
service and others has remained a major concern in Nigeria
• http://www.productivitynigeria.info/npc_last_001.htm
The Theoretic
• the relationship between education and productivity is complicated
and constrained by many intervening variables including basic inputs
• The basic-input theory explains that increase in productivity occurs by
employing more basic inputs such as labour, capital [physical and
financial], and material.
• The efficiency theory explains that, when basic inputs become limited,
one complementary solution is to utilize the existing resources more
efficiently.
• Human capital theory lays emphasis on investment on people rather
than on physical inputs to increase productivity and earnings
• Investment in people can focus on health, head, heart and hands when
the home ability is held constant
• human capital theorists believe that education is good in developing
the head, heart and hands of people in preparation for work and life
The Theoretical Framework
Labour Supply
Productivity
focus on earnings
focus on working smarter with high
productive workers
Human
Capital
Formal
Informal
Pesonal Ability
Nonformal
Health
Education
and
Training
Hour worked
and more employment
Knowledge
Capital
Organisational
Research
Designs
Network
Patents
ICT/Databases
Equipment
Copyrights
Teamwork
Performancebased Rewards
Synergy
Infrastructure
Software
experience
Capital
Social Capital
Relations
Physical
Capital
Structures
There is an overlapping relationship among non-human
inputs, education and productivity of workers
Physical capital
social capital
organizational capital
knoledge capital
Health &
Education
Productivity
Sweetman [2002] argued
– Our great-grant-parents worked at least as hard as
we do– certainly they worked longer hours and far more
strenuously on the average– but their material well-being was lower.
– This …is a result of productivity increases, and
education has played a central role.
– Working smarter involves…how society is
organized [institutions], governance, government
policies and property rights.
• [p.158]
A Typology of Productivity Factors by
Sweetman [2002]
•Education involves
inculcation of the right
attitudes, impartation
of useful skills and
acquisition of
knowledge
•Education
affects all the three
factors affecting
productivity through
people
•Being child-centre,
education is also a crucial
determinant of labour
productivity
Societal
factors
Individual
factors
Firmlevel
factors
Individual-level characteristics that education
can influence to raise productivity of workers
• ability
• productive
workers
• availability
happy
hours
hands
• academic
Home
head
Partial education that concentrates only on the
development of the head is not likely to raise
productivity as expected
• One lesson from Sweetman’s assertion is that the
difference in productivity between the traditional and the
modern workers is not just as a result of having the innate
ability to do work or being available for work, it is as result
of improvement in academic characteristics of workers.
• According to him, “Our great-grant-parents worked at least
as hard [ability] as we do… they worked longer hours
[availability] …but their material well-being [happiness] was
lower. “
• It thus implies that the observed difference in productivity
between the past and present generations of workers is
mainly attributable to the difference in academic
achievement which produces high skills and in the recent
times, high technology
Education that is not well resourced with efficiently
utilized physical and intangible inputs is not likely to
raise productivity of workers
• ICT
• Structures
• Infrastructure
Investment in
Physical Capital
Investment in
Intangible Capital
• Human capital
• Knowledge
• Organisational
•
•
•
•
Cost recovery
Allocation shifts
PPP
Leakage tracking
Efficiency of
Factor Use
Data show that financial input and contribution of
university education to productivity in Nigeria are
related
Year
Education as % public
total budget
University contribution
to National Productivity
University as % of public
recurrent budget
79/80
5.20
0.46 28.43
82/83
7.40
0.43 42.13
85/86
4.80
0.30 31.28
88/89
7.20
0.19 24.75
91/92
6.30
0.20 30.81
94/95
13.00
0.06 25.46
97/98
9.60
0.08 02.44
Corruption in the education process-allocation, administration,
admission, instruction, supervision, examination and graduation is
likely to lead to low productivity of workers.
4] High-ability but low academic
achievement
1] high-ability and high
academic achievement
[high-low productive workers]
[high -high productive workers]
Productivity
3] low-ability and low academic
achievievement
2] low-ability but high academic
achievement
[low-low productive workers]
[low-high productive workers]
A nation where rural development is not a priority is not
likely to witness improvement in agricultural productivity
irrespective of any amount it expended on education
• Agriculture used to be the main sector in Nigeria in the early sixties. Today,
migration [owing to some environmental factors] has left the rural sector
deserted and undeveloped.
• Schultz [Lewin, 1993] studied the influence of environment [modernising
and traditional] on the contribution of education to farmers’ productivity.
• He defined traditional environment in terms of primitive technology,
traditional farming practices and crops, and minimal reported levels of
innovation.
• He also defined modernising environments as those with access to new
varieties of seeds, innovative farming practices, control of erosion, the
availability of pesticides, fertilisers and farm machinery, access to
extension services and the existence of market orientated production.
• The results show that four years of primary education increased
productivity by a mean value of 1.3% in traditional environments and
9.5% in modernising ones.
• Increase in Productivity : Rural = 1 and Modernising = 10
Evidence from productive trends of the University of Ibadan
reveals the need to rebrand the curriculum to inculcate
culturally-accepted work ethics or the education of the heart
UNIVERSTIY OUTPUT
1990-1999
Un-weighted
productivity
+0.60
Weighted with NUC
ratings
+0.53
Weighted
+0.65
with
average earnings
Weighted
with
+0.58
Cultural output
Total weighted
productivity
+0.56
1999-2003
1990-2003
+0.10
+0.61
+0.09
+0.62 (increasing emphasis
on postgraduate)
-0.06
+0.59
economic
value
increasing at a decreasing
rate
-0.04
+0.59
+0.03
+0.59
several researchers are now probing the link between spiritual capital and scholastic
achievement, creativity and innovation. The world of business is not left out in the
search for spiritual solutions to business problems [Kouzes and Posner, 2002],
• Nigerians respect spirituality but the curriculum of schools pretends to be
devoid of it. The National Policy on Education recognizes the use of
indigenous language as a medium of instruction especially at the lower
levels of education in the country but schools and their teachers do not
implement this. Parents measure the mental development of their
children through fluency in English Language to the detriment of the
development of the thought process and enhancement of
meaningfulness.
• The use of indigenous language enhances the development of one’s
identity (including one’s cultural identity) moving toward what many
authors refer to as greater “authenticity;” how people construct
knowledge through largely unconscious and symbolic processes,
manifested in image, symbol, music, and other expressions of creativity
which are often cultural.
• The challenge is how to train future workers who would understand
spirituality in its real sense and be able to promote, preserve and
propagate it in an environment where imperialism has made parents to
become ignorant of the cultural and educational values of indigenous
language and knowledge.
Best practices on the kind of education that can raise
productivity reveal that quality of thinking and learning
[positive change in behaviour] are key factors
Kind of education
Evidence
Sources
Reasoning skill
Small labour market return to reasoning
Knight and Sabot
ability in Kenya and Tanzania as measured by [1990]
Raven’s Coloured Progressive Matrices.
Cognitive skill
[numeracy and
literacy]
In Kenya, cognitive skill accounts for 3 times Knight and Sabot
more variance in earnings [productivity] than [1990]
do ability and years of schooling combined.
Attainment
[Tertiary]
A 1-year increase in the stock of Africa’s HE
would boost economic growth by 0.63
percentage points.
Quality of Learning
How much is learned in primary and
Knight and Sabot
secondary schools has a substantial influence [1990]
on performance and income at work in
Kenya and Tanzania.
Materu [2007]
Working smartly requires smart learning [acquisition of
adaptive skills] using smart technology, smart teachers,
smart time, smart textbooks and smart tasks
•
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•
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The digital revolution and globalization have brought a new business culture in
which people talk about doing business in an unusual manner, doing business as
business, and making sure that people are down to business.
People talk about working smartly instead of working hard. The “SMART theory”
becomes the order of business such that the “hurry-up culture” or the “speed and
‘accuracy’ culture” appears to be replacing the “slow and steady culture”.
Today, we talk about smart classroom, smart board, smart objectives, smart library,
instant messages, instance response, instant tea, chalk-less classrooms, smokeless
engines, topless dresses, headless things, noiseless cars, fatless food, costless
products, backless dresses, wireless phones, etc.
All these have their economic advantages but they could also lead to having less
quality time with teaching, learning and learners. Unfortunately, these teachers
grow and are groomed under this culture of “speed”. Moreover, the learners of
today usually turn to the “smart teachers” on the Internet for information and
guidance. The issue is how teachers should be prepared to value speed and
accuracy in environment where parents and the society do not have quality time
to attend to the education and training of their children. Moreover, how do we
train a teacher to pay attention to unmotivated learners who do not have time for
learning through the face-to-face approach but are constantly in contact with their
“Web teachers”? Furthermore, how do we train teachers to customize teaching
and learning to fit an environment of speed where everybody is rushing up?
Working Smartly requires thinking smartly
and strategically
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Somebody described the core curriculum of the National University of Singapore as capable of
producing “graduates, who are lateral thinkers ...” [IBRD/World Bank, 2000:90].
Lateral thinkers are capable of taking a concept out of its original context and applying it on all
sides and in different contexts.
They are skilful in all wisdom and understanding of all concepts.
Experience has shown that most of the Nigerian university students have problems with
application and adaption of knowledge
Although, comprehension is one of the language skills being emphasized in Nigerian
secondary schools, most of these students only listen to their teachers or read books,
download relevant information, memorise with shallow comprehension and recall verbatim
during examinations.
Consequently, most of our graduates are more of literal or verbatim thinkers than lateral,
imaginative or creative thinkers. In fact, it is like Nigerian universities are graduating tankers
instead of thinkers.
When these graduates encounter life problems requiring the creative use of the knowledge
they have acquired, many of them fail because they are not skilful in art of digesting,
transforming and transferring knowledge.
Many of these graduates cannot interpret real life situations in the light of the knowledge
they have acquired.
Once they are challenged with problems outside their comfort zones, they are lost and
become as if they have never attended a university.
These characteristics are certainly against the spirit of knowledge revolution.
END NOTE: there is need to strategically address the current over-education
at the university level in Nigeria. It is a threat to labour productivity and the
earnings of skilled workers
Manpower
Level
Graduates
produced
Manpower
ratio
University
[High skills]
67,024
(1999)
7 [over-education]
Polytechnic
9,344
(1998)
1 [under-education]
Craftsmen
[Low skills]
37,376
4
Effects of over-education is that wage will no longer reflect the marginal
productivity of labour. Thus lowering efficiency of the individuals and that of
the firms. There is need to rebrand polytechnic education to make it
attractive
4]
Highly productive but
lowly paid workers
1]
highly productive and
highly paid workers
Wage should
reflect marginal
productivity
3] lowly
productive and
lowly paid workers
2] lowly
productive but
highly paid worker as a
result of over-education
End Note: There is need to incorporate environmental
education to the curriculum at the tertiary level of
education in Nigeria
• The resource-curse theory in which people think that the existence of
petroleum has brought a curse rather than a blessing to Nigeria has made
the issue of environmental management a topical discuss in Nigeria.
• Since the Tbilisi Intergovernmental Conference on Environmental
Education held in 1977, there has been a consensus among educators that
environmental education should form part of workers’ education and
consider the environment in its totality (economic, political, technological,
cultural-historical, moral, and aesthetic).
• The National Environmental Education Act of 1990 in the United States
represents an effort to encourage postsecondary students to pursue
careers related to managing the environment. Furthermore, Huey-li [2006]
argued that because rational management of environmental resources can
no longer be confined within national or regional boundaries in the age of
globalization, planetary management has emerged as a popular agenda of
the contemporary environmental movement. The question is how do we
train the teacher beyond the traditional knowledge of nature study to
become informed and proficient on rational management of
environmental resources for the purpose of sustainable productivity
among workers?
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