A SURVEY OF BUSINESS SUBJECTS TEACHERS AND FACILITIES

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Business education started in the middle of the 19th century and this was due to the innovation of typewriter in offices in the United States of America at that time. Before the introduction of Business Education, book-keeping, typists, stenographers and clerks learned the ‘trade’ on the job. But as the Business structure of the United States becomes more and more complex, learning the trade on the job became less and less feasible. Consequently, in the later half of the 19th century, enterprising citizens established independent ‘private ventures’ or business schools to meet the demand for this level of workers. As the expansion of industries and government led the need for workers trained in typewriting and bookkeeping, these individual were required to posses high proficient skill in typing and shorthand. This new demand led to the establishment of not only business colleges but also the development of sound curriculum. Eventually, typewriting, bookkeeping and shorthand courses were established as part of secondary school curriculum to provide the business word with adequate supply of clerks, typists, stenographers and book keeps.

From the on-going brief history one can deduce the reason that led to the introduction of business in school curriculum as being continuous growth of clerical occupation contrary to the early period. The estimate today is that one worker out of seven is involved in clerical work and one quarter of this figure are secretaries, clerks or stenographers approximately 18% are book-keeps and about 6% to 7% are operators of newer typer’s of electronic machine.

With the coming of Lord Lugard into the administration of Nigeria in 1940, there arose the need for administrative workers, clerks and other office attendants. This was glaringly inadequate since he had to introduce indirect rule in some parts of the country only to use his British officials as administrators. The general shortage of facilities lingered until the end of the Second World War in 1945. it was at this time that Nigerians who fought on the British side oversea brought back the exposure they enjoyed there and stated to educate their Nigerians on the need for them to participate in the administrator of their fatherland. This training by the ex-service men stopped many Nigerians to look for white-collar jobs. As a result the need for more schools became urgent. Secondary schools therefore produced the workers for these clerical jobs.

With independence in 1960, Nigerians took over the complete administration of the country. At that time it became obvious that caliber of workers produced by the already existing curriculum, inclusion of business courses of workers for these clerical and secretariat jobs. The vacuum created by this carryover curriculum in quality of workers produced needed government attention. But unfortunately, government at that time could not finance technical and commercial schools because they required huge overhead capital for a proper take off.

It was only private men who could afford the means to run commercial schools that produced the desired type of workers for these clerical and secretarial jobs. Even in our secondary schools such subjects like Economics when Nigerian universities included it in their course programmes. It was only after this period that teachers who could be descried as qualified to teach the subjects that lead to the study of business in Nigerian universities were found in Nigerians secondary schools.

Vocational education comprises of business and technical education had suffered one or two problems in the Nigeria education system. Lack of proper information to the society had created a lot of problem to this art of education. The importance must be spelt out for the citizens so as to know the areas each individual can fit in.

The demand for goods and services by Nigerians in the late 20th century is diversely more numerous and the demand has continued to increase up till this present towards qualitative goods and services. To fulfill the various needs of the population of more than eighty million, the economy must be diversified. Diversifying the economy also calls for education the production sector of the economy (public and private) require quality inputs in the form of manpower, equipment and finance to meet the various demands of the people.

To meet its own needs for production, there must be,

1.      Skilled and shrewd businessmen who are highly trained to fit into the various industrial sectors. These skilled individuals are those who have received professional training.

2.      The office manager, sales managers, accounting manager, secretary and others need specialized training to enable them to function in the operation of the various responsibilities assigned to them.

3.      Skilled clerical officers both in the private and public sectors of the economy are required to acquire some training to enable them handle the numerous demands of the office.

The problems is that this caliber of workers are in short supply, hence the saying that Nigeria has the people but lacks highly skilled manpower to fill the vacancies that exist in various sectors of the economy. The need for highly trained technical manpower is necessary for the industrial and technological take off in the country. This led to the formation of the new national policy on education.

It is a common place that formal education is the function upon which the development of the nation’s manpower resources is built. Vocational education is a formal education, manpower is the nation’s most précis and critical resources such as assertion represents a relatively new understanding of the extent to which our national well-being is a function of the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of our human resources and, consequently, of the significance of soundly conceived, long-range policies which aim at the maximum development of our manpower and of its more effective utilization.

Business subjects facilities comprises of time, money, books, machines and buildings. The relationship between the teacher of business subjects towards the students could also be looked into briefly, because this can also go a long way to the study of business subjects.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS

Vocational education has been faced with a lot of problems. These problems centered mostly on the qualifications and the availability of teachers and also the equipment to achieve the aims and objectives of the programme in Nigeria.

This work is designed to find out the available number of teachers and facilities in Business Education. The relationship between the teachers and students in secondary schools in Oredo L.G.A. of Edo State.

RESEARCH QUESTION

In order to be able to know the problems to tackled in this survey the following research questions have been asked;

i.                    How many business subjects teachers do these schools have?

ii.                 How many of them are qualified?

iii.               Are there libraries in these schools?

iv.               How well equipped are the libraries?

PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

To give the importance of the facilities in the teaching of business subjects and the importance of qualified teachers in teaching business subjects.

To assess the available number of teachers and facilities in secondary schools in Oredo L.G.A.

SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY

The findings in this study will help in the employing of qualified teachers and also the relevant facilities that will foster the growth of business education in secondary schools in Oredo L.G.A.

SCOPE OF STUDY  

As a result of the factors mention above, the research has been limited to Edo State, Oredo L.G.A.

A total of 5 schools were sampled and the schools are;

i.                    Iyoba college, Benin City

ii.                 Asoro Grammar school, Benin City

iii.               Idia college school, Benin City

iv.               ICC school, Benin City

v.                  Edo college school, Benin City

DEFINITION OF TERMS

The following terms are defined for the purpose of understanding;

Facilities: These are equipment which make learning or doing of things simple for better understanding. In this study it comprises of timed, money, books, machines and building.

Qualified Teachers: This is the teacher who posses certificate in education or other higher institution in the area he is to practice or teach.

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