ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to identify policy initiatives for improving the administration of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) in Nigeria. Nine research questions were developed and three hypotheses formulated to guide the study. Survey research design was adopted for the study. A structured questionnaire was used to obtain data from130 respondents. The population comprised eight middle level and senior officials of the Federal Ministry of Education involved in the administration of the TTTP; 48 academics made up of Coordinators, Deans and Heads of relevant Departments of participating institutions and 74 Directors and their Deputies from State’s Ministries of Education. The questionnaire was validated by experts, from NUC and NBTE and tested for reliability with a coefficient of 0.87. The
130 respondents were given the questionnaire and 126 copies of the questionnaire were retrieved. The data collected were analyzed using Mean and Standard Deviation to answer the research questions. The Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance and relevant degree of freedom. The findings showed that: the 20 existing policy guidelines for the administration of the TTTP were ascertained as still relevant and appropriate. The study also identified 11 policy gaps in planning, five in coordinating, 15 in implementing, and five in evaluating TTTP. It was found out by the study that 16 policy initiatives for planning, seven for coordinating, 13 for implementing and eight for evaluating could be put in place for improving the administration of TTTP. It was found that the three groups of respondents did not differ significantly in their opinions on all the items on the existing policies for administration of TTTP. It was also found out that the three groups of respondents did not differ significantly on 32 out of 36 items on policy gaps but differed significantly on three in planning and one on implementing. The study also found out that the three groups of respondents did not differ significantly in their opinions on 34 out of 38 policy initiatives that could be put in place to improve the administration of TTTP, but differed significantly on two in planning and two in co• ordinating. The findings of no significant difference among the three groups of respondents indicated that their professional characteristics and experiences did not influence their responses significantly, while the reverse was true for those items on which they differed significantly. The study recommended that the existing policy guidelines that were found to be still relevant and appropriate should continue to be utilized, while those initiatives on the improvement of the programme be accepted and developed to full policy guidelines for improving the administration of TTTP in Nigeria.
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CHAPTER I
Background of the Study
INTRODUCTION
The Federal Government of Nigeria implements her programmes and obtains feedback on them for purposes of development and progress as well as needed adjustments through the relevant ministries. The means of doing this is through well• developed policy guidelines. The Federal Ministry of Education is one of such ministries that implement Federal Government programmes in Education through well formulated policies.
A policy therefore, is an all-embracing operational guideline that helps to control and direct the activities of an individual, organization or a programme. A policy contains the general principles of operations, designed to be applicable over a considerable period of time. It specifies the objectives, responsibilities and division of authority that promote continuity and consistency in the programme of government, institution or an organization (Famiwole, 1997). Policy has also been defined as a prepared guide that specifies the philosophy, goals, aims, objectives, contents, scheduled and directed activities towards the realization of set objectives (Ekong,
2000). It is therefore, an articulated plan that incorporates the details and operational strategies for implementing a programme or scheme. Deriving from the explanations
15 of policy  above,  it  therefore,  means  that  the  success  of the  administration of a
programme or scheme depends on the policies initiated to serve as guides in the activities of such programme or scheme. This is relevant to the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) of the Federal Ministry of Education which was initiated by government to meet felt needs in the school system.
Policy initiative on the other hand, describes an articulated idea that provides guidelines or directions as preconditions for starting a programme or a scheme. Initiative means a plan or process that has been started in order to achieve a particular aim or to solve a particular problem. An example is government initiative to train technical teachers for the implementation of the 6-3-3-4 system of education through the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP). Also another example of initiative is NEPAD (2004) as a project intended to link schools to website to facilitate learning for students in their various subjects. This initiative is useful to learners in African environment to help them make use of information technology to learn more about their societies. Policy initiatives could be developed into policy guidelines by somebody in authority for use in administering programme or scheme. Policy guideline, according to Homby (2001) is a device developed from articulated initiative into functional rule or instructions by somebody in authority to guide the implementation of a programme. This idea could be used for articulating policy formulation or for making decisions on policy issues. In the context of this study, the understanding of policy initiative is that guidelines in form of rules or instruction and directions can be developed from the initiatives generated by this study to help
16 improve the administration  of TTTP in Nigeria.
Administration on the other hand, as practiced by governments or institutions connotes the management of the affairs of an initiated programme, such as the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) to ensure steady growth, sustainability and achievement of set objectives. Administration according to Jordan (1970), is a process involving planning, organizing, supervising, decision making, programme coordinating, controlling, appraising and stimulating a programme. The National Policy on Education of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN, 2004) expressed administration in the context of the function of an organization, structure, proprietorship and control, inspection and supervision. Olaitan, Nwachukwu, Igbo, Onyemachi and Ekong (1999) described administration as the process of making decisions, planning, organizing, communicating, influencing, coordinating and evaluating a programme. It involves the role perform ance of administrators in leading and managing of human and material resources towards the accomplishment of set objectives of a programme. Administration of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) could therefore, be considered as the planning, implementing, coordinating and evaluating the programme activities based on an all-embracing operational stipulations that would be regarded as policy.
The Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) is a Federal Government sponsored initiative through the Federal Ministry of Education. The goal is to train and update professional kn owledge and skills of Technical and Science teachers for effective role performance in the field. The philosophy of the programme is based on
17 the  need  for  an  enduring  industrial  development  of the  country  predicated  on
technological skill acquisition and development of the citizens through the contributions of competent technical teachers. The development of the Technical Teacher Education programme in Nigeria can in the 1960s can be associated with the establishment of the department of Vocational Teacher Education at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; the National Technical Teachers College (NTTC) at Yaba and Gombe. There are technical education programmes in some polytechnics such as the Yaba College of Technology, Yaba; Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu; and the Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna. The Polytechnic, Ibadan also developed the Technical Teacher Training Programme but was non-functional due to constraints on the administration. The implementation of the 6-3-3-4 system of education in 1977 has the credit of initiating technical components into the curricula of secondary school system in the country. This implementation required large numbers of relevant and qualified technical teachers for the achievement of the objectives and their sustenance.
The Federal Government then in its determination to implement the technical content of the Policy, took the initial step of procuring technical equipment for the nation’s secondary schools. The action necessitated the immediate and long-term need for technical teachers. The shortage of qualified and skilled technical teachers to handle and manipulate the equipment and machines became apparent. The government then took the initiative of signing a bilateral agreement with the government of the United States of America in 1981 to train 500 technical teachers
18 yearly for 10 years (Taylor, Â 1986). Â The focus of the programme was the production
of technical teachers who can effectively teach pre-vocational, vocational and technical subjects to meet up with the increasing demands in the schools and colleges.
After some of trainees had commenced their training abroad, the Federal Ministry of Education empanelled a team of experts in 1983 to visit all the institutions that were involved in the TTTP training, to appraise as well as evaluate the quality and appropriateness of the programme abroad. On return, the team made a comprehensive report to government and one of its recommendations was that government should consider starting the TTTP training locally in Nigeria. In considering the Panel’s recommendation, the then Hon. Minister of Education Prof. Jibril Aminu, directed that the TTTP Abroad should continue but that arrangements should be made for its rapid phasing out and be taken over by local training establishments.
The agreement was terminated after ten years when the cost and the benefits were not commensurate, and as noted by lkwuagwu (1992), the cost became unbearable for the government. Also commenting on the termination of the United States based Technical Teacher Training Programme, Olaitan (1996) stressed that as a result of the introduction of the Second Tier Foreign Exchange Market as a strategy for the deregulation of the economy, the value of the Naira declined sharply. To lay credence to this assertion, the report of the Commission on the review of higher education (1999) observed that the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) introduced by government in 1986, had the most serious blow to the real value of the
19
Naira impacting on both capital and recurrent grants to all higher educational
institutions, resulting in low real value of the money actually spent and by implication low level of achievement of goals programmed for specific time framed. This phenomenon was true in the case of the TTTP abroad. The incessant downward reduction in the value of the naira gingered the need to look into ways and means of conserving the nation’s foreign exchange resources to be utilized for the training of the needed technical teachers and for other capital needs within the country. Records from the Federal Ministry of Education indicated that a total of 1,892 technical teachers were trained during the 10 year period, and an amount of $45,357,444.60 (USD) was expended on the TTTP programme abroad. (see Appendix E).
The training of technical teachers under the TTTP span through such levels as:
1. The Technical Teachers Certificate (TTC) in the participating Colleges of
Education (Technical); and
2. The Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral Degree levels in the co-operating
Universities.
Despite the continued government sponsorship of the training programme abroad at the vanous levels, the realization of the goals and objectives of the programme were yet to be actualized. In view of the negative feelers being received by government on the production of technical teachers abroad and the dwindling resources, government in 1986, set up a study panel on the production of technical teachers locally. The Panel, in its report recommended that the TTTP abroad should be reviewed and that such training should be commenced locally in selected Nigerian
20 institutions to conserve resources as well as produce teachers that would be readily
adaptable to local conditions in Nigeria.
This view was expressed by Fafunwa (1990) who remarked that 10 years after the take-off of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) abroad, it became obvious that only Nigerians can bring about technological revolution in Nigeria and that only “made in Nigeria” technical teachers can foster the desired development into technical education. Fafunwa’s observation and remarks, initiated the domestication of TTTP in Nigeria which took off in 1991/92 academic session and has continued since then.
The programme started with the initial identification of participating institutions, and working out the running cost. Advertisement was made for interested candidates and selection interviews were organized. Five hundred (500) students were placed in four Nigerian institutions as the foundation students of the domesticated TTTP students in their choices of disciplines. The four initial institutions were University of Nigeria, Nsukka; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; Federal University of Technology, Yola and Kaduna Polytechnic, Kaduna. These four institutions were to, and are still providing, the teacher training programme leading to the award of postgraduate diploma in technical education (PGDTE), the Bachelor’s, Master’s and Doctoral Degrees in Vocational Technical Education disciplines as well as in the sciences. There had since been yearly selections and awards for qualified candidates who were sent to institutions through the coordinators. The coordinators most times relate government intentions to the institutional policies. Institutional and students
21 allowances  are being  provided  on  yearly  basis,  but  the  institutions  running  the
programmes have varying coordinating strategies.
At the inception of the domesticated TTTP programme in the various Institutions in Nigeria, government did not put in place any hard and fast rules in terms of policies on the institutions for running of the programme. Rather, each institution was allowed a wide administrative latitude of operation to be used, that will not be in conflict with institutional rules and regulations. This varying administrative freedom has however resulted in difficulties in the co-ordination of the programme.
Furthermore, there was no clear stipulation by government for the provision of the training expenses in terms of equipment, workshops, tools and training materials that were so much needed by these institutions. These situations resulted into myriads of problems in the various cooperating Institutions, the Federal Ministry of Education, the State Governments as well as for the trainees.
There seem to be little or no policy for providing training facilities and equipment, monitoring and supervision to ascertain progress, and problems. All these deficiencies have made the administration of TTTP become rather clumsy, inefficient and difficult to manage. The effectiveness of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) is expected to hinge on an efficient administration guided by well-articulated policy guidelines. The present administration of the programme calls for clear and detailed policy as a condition to ensure effectiveness and improvement in the administration, continuity and sustenance of the programme. Such policy will go a long way to provide operational strategies and directions, in-built assessment
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strategies and structures, relevant provisions for training of beneficiaries,
remuneration, funding, accommodation, and trainees retention at their employment after training. It is therefore, hoped that if policy initiatives are put in place for improving the administration of the TTTP, then its realization of the desired goals and objectives and the philosophy as well as its sustainability would be assured.
Statement of the Problem
Successive governments in Nigeria have realized that the level of technological acquisition and development is a precursor to social, economic and industrial development of the country through technical education. The actualization of such vision of the government would be to the extent of producing and ensuring high quality and quantity of technical teachers in the education system. The Federal Government therefore, emphasizes the need for the success of Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) under the supervision of the Federal Ministry of Education. It has been observed that participating institutions device independent administrative structures and strategies to run the programme.
There are many observable experiences militating against the effectiveness of the administration of the programme. They include: (a) re-postings of TTTP award beneficiaries by cooperating institutions to other institutions at will with no clearance whatsoever from the Federal Ministry of Education; (b) variations in demands by cooperating institutions for inputs in terms of equipment and materials for similar courses by the institutions and participants (see Appendices F and G); (c) incessant
23 requests by the beneficiaries  for improved  allowances  and other motivations  (see
Appendix H). In some cases beneficiaries suffer the problem of regularizing admissions and registrations due to deficiencies in qualifications. There have been some administrative inconsistencies at the governmental sponsorship and institutional administrative levels. They include: (a)reluctance to release awardees or beneficiaries for the programme by the employers; (b) irregular payment of salaries of awardees or beneficiaries by employers while on the programme as against the conditions of the in-service agreement; (c) abrupt withdrawal of beneficiaries by employers before the expiration of the agreed years of absence; (d) transfer of beneficiaries to new stations by employers while still on the programme and so on.
There are controversies and inconsistencies in the functions of the Federal and state governments on the TTTP with regard to responsibility for meeting the needs of the students while on the programme which had not been clearly delineated. Also there were inconsistencies by states on the utilization of TTTP graduates to improve technical education in their states. There are observations of lack of understanding by students of their roles and commitments to the technical teacher education programmes and their states institutions. Different participating institutions developed and used their own guidelines for running the TTTP, some of which clearly brought about conflicts between governments, students and the institutions at the detriment of the objectives of the Programme. Furthermore, the relationship between the Federal Government as an awardee and the benefitting states as co-sponsors of students for the programme in terms of students employment and benefits such as salary, study
24 leave with pay and replacement  of the benefitting  trainees while on study leave all
require further clarification and sustained policy. In addition, the needs of the states in terms of type and categories of programmes are not clearly defined and articulated. Also, students appeared not to have guiding policies on their mode of study in the training institutions, for example movement when there are problems such as strikes in the co-operating institutions and limits of their demands from institutions and governments and reporting back to their duty posts after completion.
It is not also clear to students beneficiaries, training institutions and co• operating states, as to how long individual trainees could stay after an award before changing objectives or re-applying for another benefit of the award without much consequences. The above issues and practices have created some gaps in the effective administration of TTTP by the stakeholders such as the Federal Ministry of Education, state governments, participating institutions, students, co-ordinators. It therefore, becomes necessary that effort be made to put in place some policy guidelines that could help improve the administration of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) in Nigeria towards the full realization of the aims and objectives of technical teacher education as contained in the National Policy on Education.
Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this study was to identify policy gaps in the administration of TTTP in planning, implementing, co-ordinating, evaluating and to
25 articulate policy
initiatives that could be put in place to help improve the administration of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) in Nigeria. Specifically, the study sort to achieve the following:
1. ascertain the relevance and appropriateness of existing policy guidelines for the administration of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP);
2. determine the policy gaps in the planning of the TTTP;
3. determine the policy gaps in coordinating the TTTP;
4. determine the policy gaps in the implementation of TTTP;
5. find out the policy gaps in the evaluation of the TTTP;
6. identify the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving the planning ofTTTP;
7. identify the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving the co- ordination of TTTP;
8. find out the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving the implementation of TTTP;
9. identify the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving evaluation of TTTP.
Significance of the Study
The issue of great concern to the Federal Government of Nigeria is solving the problem of acute shortage of technical teachers through effective administration of the Training Programme initiative. It is believed that the individuals or groups that
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served as targets for this study will benefit from the results in a number of ways.
Primarily, this study would be of benefit to the TTTP officials in the Federal Ministry of Education, co-sponsoring states, participating institutions, administrators of states school boards and the coordinators from participating institutions. Through the results of the study they will become aware of the policy guidelines for administering the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP).
The officials of the state Ministries of Education and the co-operating institutions will have a better knowledge of how the programme should be run for effectiveness and to the benefit of all the stakeholders. The co-operating states would have a better knowledge of their functions and responsibilities towards the programme and the awardees while on the programme.
The findings of the study of policy gaps would highlight the administrative areas that have not been catered for by the existing policy guidelines. This would help the officials of the Federal Ministry of Education in identifying relevant areas of policy needs for policy restructuring to ensure uniformity in the administration of the TTTP in the country. The findings would specify clearly the roles of governments, participating institutions and state governments. It would also help awardees to adjust to the TTTP policies with reference to their entitlements from and their responsibilities to the Federal Ministry of Education, their employers and co• operating institutions.
The policy initiatives to be put in place, it is believed, would be useful to the
TTTP officials in the Federal Ministry of Education and participating institutions in
27 terms  of ensuring  uniform  programme  implementation  standards,  monitoring  and
evaluation of the TTTP programme. It will help to provide means of streamlining the monitoring and supervision of the programme in participating institutions. The policy initiatives will be useful to the co-ordinators and the Administrators in participating Institutions in terms of having definite instructions on how to operate the programme towards the achievement of set goals and objectives of the TTTP. Furthermore, the Co sponsoring states, Federal Ministry of Education officials and the administrators of states schools boards will find the policy initiatives beneficial, as it is hoped that through the results, they will be better informed of their roles and responsibilities in sponsoring the benefitting trainees as regards the fulfillment of their obligations of releasing, payment of salaries and protection of the teachers and their jobs while on the in-service training by helping to re-absorb them after the training as provided by the policy.
The findings of this study will be of significance to benefitting awardees in understanding their role expectations, responsibilities and their relationship with other stakeholders while they are on the programme. It is also believed that the findings of the study will serve as a guide for improving the confidence and harmony existing between the Federal Ministry of Education as the initiator of the TTTP and other stakeholders since the existing gaps could have been bridged by this initiative.
Hopefully, the results of this study will go a long way to help in bridging information gaps between the actual practice on the ground and future expectations in terms of data and literature that might have existed in relation to the Technical
28
Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) which are presently obscure.
Research Questions
The following research questions guided the study:
1. How relevant and appropriate are the existing policy guidelines for the administration of Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) in Nigeria?
2. What are the policy gaps in the planning of the TTTP?
3. What are the policy gaps in the co-ordination of the TTTP?
4. What are the policy gaps in the implementation of the TTTP?
5. What are the policy gaps in the evaluation of the TTTP
6. What are the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving the planning ofTTTP?
7. What are the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving the co•
ordination of TTTP?
8. What are the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving implementation of TTTP
9. What are the policy initiatives that could be put in place for improving the evaluation of TTTP?
Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were tested by the study at P:S0.05 levels of significance:
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Ho, There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of responses of TTTP officials in the Federal Ministry of Education, co-ordinators in co-operating institutions, and Ministry of Education officials of co-sponsoring states on the relevance and appropriateness of the existing policies for implementing the TTTP.
Ho, There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of responses of TTTP officials in the Federal Ministry of Education, co-ordinators in co-operating institutions, and Ministry of Education officials of co-sponsoring states on the policy gaps in the planning, implementing, co-ordinating and evaluating of the TTTP.
Ho, There is no significant difference in the mean ratings of responses of TTTP officials in the Federal Ministry of Education, co-ordinators in co-operating institutions, and Ministry of Education officials of co-sponsoring states on the policy initiatives that co uld be put in place for improving the planning, implementing, co-ordinating and evaluating the TTTP.
Scope of the Study
The study was restricted to the identification of policy initiatives for improving the administration of the Technical Teacher Training Programme (TTTP) in Nigeria. It involved the TTTP officials of the Federal Ministry of Education, Ministry of Education officials of the co-sponsoring states, co-ordinators and heads of relevant departments of participating institutions.
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Questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. The study involved
ascertaining the relevance and appropriateness of existing policies for implementing the TTTP; identification of policy gaps in the planning, implementing, coordinating and evaluating as well as the policy initiatives that could help in improving the administration of the programme in Nigeria.
Assumptions of the Study
1. The Federal and States Ministry of Education officials were considered competent in supplying reliable information on the administration of TTTP through the questionnaire because of their long term experience and participation in the implementation of the TTTP.
2. The coordinators of TTTP from participating institutions were considered competent in supplying dependable information because of their involvement and institutional experience in the administration of the programme.
This material content is developed to serve as a GUIDE for students to conduct academic research
POLICY INITIATIVES FOR IMPROVING THE ADMINISTRATION OF TECHNICAL TEACHER TRAINING PROGRAMME (TTTP) IN NIGERIA>
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