Public Policy Implementation and Availability of Facilities/Infrastructures in Primary and Junior Secondary Schools in Rivers State, 2008 – 2018

Abstract

Educational policy implementation in Nigeria have been hit in the main by incidences of poor availability of physical facilities/infrastructures. This paper examines public policy implementation and availability of facilities/infrastructures in primary and junior secondary schools in Rivers State between 2008 – 2018. The paper is guided by the single proposition that, there is no significant difference in universal basic education policy implementation and the availability of facilities/infrastructures in schools in Rivers State. The paper is anchored on the Programme Evaluation Theory as its analytical framework. A sample of 600 schools was purposively derived from a population of 1,332 of both primary and secondary schools in the state. This was evenly distributed to the 3 senatorial districts in the state. Data for the paper was generated via questionnaire distributed to the 600 principals and head teachers of the selected schools, and via secondary sources such as books, UBE policy documents, etc. Generated data was analyzed using Gross Enrolment Ratio Growth Rate, Teacher/Pupil Ratio, T-test and Diagrammatic Representation. As part of its findings, the paper revealed that, the situation of education in the state is not in consonant with the objectives of the Universal Basic Education (UBE) policy. Also, that the state government’s stance for free compulsory basic education is only but an elusive agenda. As such the paper recommends that; the state government should devise more inclusive strategies that will ultimately seek to enforce the free education for every child within the UBE age. This can be done by adopting the “parent-teacher team” of monitors and enforcers of this policy