STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF BUSINESS EDUCATION PROGRAMME FOR BETTER EDUCATION SERVICE DELIVERY IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study examined strategies for improving the quality of business education programme for better education service delivery in Nigeria. Two research questions guided the study and two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 109 business educators from five tertiary institutions in Anambra State. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire developed by the researchers. The instrument was subjected to a pilot test on 20 business educators in Enugu metropolis. The application of the Cronbach Alpha reliability test on the returned data yielded coefficient values of 0.84 and 0.88 for clusters B1 and B2 respectively with an overall reliability co-efficient value of 0.86 for internal consistency. Data collected from the respondents were analyzed using mean, standard deviation to answer the research questions and t-test for the hypotheses testing. Findings reveal that the challenges impeding the realization of quality in business education programme for better education service delivery include non- availability of contemporary equipment and tools for teaching and learning, inadequate funding, poor collaboration between business education and private sector, poor government attitude towards the management of business education, poor standards for enrolment of students into the business education programme and lack of professionalization of the business education programme  among others. Findings also reveal that improving synergy and collaboration with private sector, reviewing the business education curriculum, providing funds for the business education programme, providing effective students mentoring services, encouraging and funding research activities and recruiting quality business educators among others are strategies for improving the quality of business education programme for better education service delivery. Other findings showed that business educators in colleges of education and universities did not differ in their opinion. Based on these findings, the researchers recommend among others, that the federal government should as a matter of urgency be committed towards ensuring that business education programme is properly supported by making funds available, provision of teaching and learning equipments and sponsoring research activities.

Keywords: Strategies, Quality, Business Education Programme, Education Service Delivery