IMPACT OF INEQUALITY IN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ASPIRATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN AKOKO NORTH-EAST OF ONDO STATE

IMPACT OF INEQUALITY IN EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITIES ON SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ASPIRATION FOR HIGHER EDUCATION IN AKOKO NORTH-EAST OF ONDO STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Education is a process which is continuous throughout life, bringing about positive and remarkable changes in the totality of all life experiences that a learner (person) acquires in form of skills, knowledge, attitudes, values, knowledge competences and other forms of behaviours which fit the individual into the society in which he lives. In Nigeria there is a clear recognition of the fact that education is the greatest instrument for man’s economic progress and political survival (Johnson and Rahman, 2005).
Education is a major aspect which aims at human resource development. A person can increase knowledge and expand his/her vision only through education. The real aim of education is the unfolding of hidden potentialities of an individual. For John Dewey “education is the process of living through a continuous reconstruction of experiences. It is the development of all these capacities in the individual which will enable him to control his environment and fulfill his possibilities” (Dash, 2005).
Therefore, today, civilized societies consider the process of formal education with prime importance and all attempts are made to educate the masses. In Nigeria, the constitution has an elaborate provision for giving the right type of quality education for all. According to the article 21A ‘constitution guarantees opportunities for education to all children and needy and directs the government to take the necessary steps to the national goal of education for all.’ Recently education has become a fundamental right in the 86th amendment of Indian constitution. The lifestyle of human beings changes rapidly owing to the scientific inventions and consequent advances in technology. Our educational system should be able to equip the child with a potential to adapt him/her to the changing conditions. It should enable individuals to play their effective role in society with the objective of making it richer, better and more attractive. Educational aspiration is a significant factor for the enhancement of the education of any person. It is a craving for high achievement in education. It is a crucial aspect of individual’s intrinsic motivation, since it determines individual efforts towards attaining goals. High level of educational aspiration is an indicator of high level of achievement and success. Scholastic success of learners is significantly influenced by educational aspiration (Awoyemi, 2004).
Hence the demand for higher education in Nigeria, especially university education is becoming increasingly and unpredictably high. The unprecedented influx of applicants seeking to secure admission into universities each academic year is one of the most obvious reasons to justify the high demand for university education. Multiple reasons account for this increasing demand. These are: population explosion and mass aspiration for university education by all as well as the socio-economic /labour market demands (Ayorinde and Williams in Okojie, 2010).
The path to university involves aspirations and achievement through secondary school, requiring longitudinal data to study it. The importance of education in general and post-secondary education in particular in the process of individual human capital acquisition and fulfillment, the externalities that stem from post-secondary education and the significance of this fabric of knowledge for the process of economic growth are now well accepted. Apart from the many theoretical explorations, a large empirical literature has emerged. The empirical explorations focus on a number of important issues. Studies of the determinants of university attendance link the post-secondary education decisions of children to their cognitive and non-cognitive ability, their other characteristics, and the characteristics of their family (Day, 2009) (Day, 2009; Frenette, 2009). Others explore important gender dimensions (Jacob, 2002; Frenette and Zeman, 2007; Christofides, 2008). Some other studies focus on the important role of parental education and income (Zhao et al., 2003; Johnson and Rahman, 2005; Knighton and Mirza, 2002; Finnie and Mueller, 2008).
The Federal government has been playing the role of a major stakeholder in university education in Nigeria since independence. However, given the large population of Nigerians, rising demand for university education by plethora of applicants, as well as indiscriminate complaint from the general public, scholars and students over the plight of duly qualified candidates left without admission, it is obvious that the Federal Government alone cannot adequately meet the challenges. In other words, government needs to liaise and cooperate with other bodies and non-governmental organizations in providing quality university education to Nigerians. The approval for the establishment of state-owned and private universities was encouraged by the desire to overcome the problem of admission crisis and compliment government efforts in meeting the challenges. With the establishment of new universities in Nigeria, it was expected that the problem of admission would be addressed, yet, the problem still persists (Ayorinde and Williams, 2010). Furthermore, it must be highlighted that the newly established universities are in fact perceived as complementary rather than being competitors in developing socially-relevant academic programmes vital for competitiveness in an increasing globalizing knowledge society (Albert in Okojie, 2010).
Even when students had obtained the same secondary educational level, students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds more often chose for a lower tertiary educational track. This finding was supported for the cohorts between 1932 and 1995 (Tieben & Wolbers, 2010b). Van den Broek et al. (2011) even report a slight increase between the years 2003 and 2009 in the likelihood that students of higher socioeconomic backgrounds more often choose for a higher tertiary educational level than students of lower socioeconomic backgrounds, despite having the same prior education. This finding is striking, because they also found an increase of 100,000 students enrolled in higher education between those years, and a decrease in average socioeconomic level of students in the highest secondary educational track.
Statement of the Problem
Although the number of existing universities in Nigeria has increased tremendously within a period of 50 years of independence, from less than five to more than one hundred universities, enrolment is very low, as many qualified candidates are left each year without admission. For instance, out of the 1,046,950 candidates who applied in 2003/04, only 105,157 were admitted leaving 941,793 stranded. Also, in 2007/08, out of 1,054,082 candidates, only 129,054 succeeded in getting admission, leaving 925,028 without admission. One major reason which accounts for these trends in massive application and admission crisis as indicated by scholars such as Jibril (2005); Okebukola (2002); and Okojie (2010) is the static available space in universities, coupled with the deficiency of the existing universities to accommodate the ever increasing number of applicants. This neo-dimensional trend has precipitated the emerging problem of admission crisis or accessibility crisis in Nigeria. Having a university education in another country is becoming an important alternative for the students who is not able to get admission or who is not satisfied with the quality of the universities in Nigeria.
Despite educational expansion and reforms a large body of research found that inequality in education persists (Boudon, 1974; Lucas, 2001; Pfeffer, 2008; Raftery & Hout, 1993; Shavit & Blossfeld, 1993), also in tertiary education (Asplund, Abdelkarim, & Skalli, 2008). This means that children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to enrol and succeed in higher educational tracks than children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. The latter are more advantaged because of their parental resources, may that be financially, or otherwise. For Nigeria, the effect of parent’s education on highest obtained educational level declined on average from 1920 till 1980, but from the 1960s, a stagnation of this inequality was noticed (Rijken & Dronkers, 2001). De Graaf and Wolbers (2003) showed that almost all Dutch pupils who were eligible in 1997 to enter higher education did so (more than 90 percent) but that the choice for level of higher education still depends on socioeconomic background. This study is therefore aim to investigate the impact of inequality in educational opportunities on secondary school students aspirations for higher education in Akoko North East Local Government Area, Ondo State.
Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this study is to investigate the:
1. Impact of inequality in educational opportunities on secondary school student’s aspirations for higher education.
2. Determine whether the student’s social variables of family background, parents’ socio-economic status, and peer influence have direct effect on students aspirational for higher education.
3. Find out gender influence on aspiration for higher education
Research Questions
1. What is the difference in secondary school student’s gender inequality and aspiration for higher education?
2. Is there any relationship between inequality in educational opportunities and aspiration for higher education among secondary school students?
3. What is the effect of parents’ socio-economic status and aspiration for higher education among secondary school students in Ondo State?
Research Hypotheses
1. There is no significant relationship between socioeconomic status of parents and aspiration for higher education of senior secondary students in Ondo State.
2. There is no significant difference between the perception of male and female secondary school students on inequality in educational opportunities
Significance of the Study
This paper contributes to the literature by exploring the reasons for the social gap in aspirations. Building on the economic and sociological literatures, it rest provides a theoretical framework that formalizes how schooling aspirations develop in order to clarify what factors play a role in students’ ambition level. We consider three categories of factors: economic factors, social factors, and psychological factors, and in each category we hypothesize a causal effect of each factor on aspirations. Second, we use a lab-in-the-field experiment to provide empirical evidence on the role of the social and psychological factors: taste for conformity to peers, fear for peer sanction, limited set of education options in mind, and lack of self-esteem as a consequence of social stereotypes.
Despite qualitative evidence provided in the sociological literature, this paper is the first attempt to provide a comprehensive theory of how aspirations develop and to assess whether the social and psychological factors are indeed at work for a large proportion of individuals and are sufficiently important to contribute to the social gap in aspiration.
Delimitations of the Study
The study was delimited by a convenience sample of approximately 20 students each from ten secondary schools selected from Akoko North East LGA of Ondo State. This study examines the impact of inequality in educational opportunities on secondary school student’s aspirations for higher education in Akoko North East LGA of Ondo State.
Operational Definition of Terms
Gender: the social fact of being male or female. It depicts identities of masculinity and femininity in relation to patterns of human life.
Socio-economic Status: is an economic and sociological combined total measure of adolescent’s work experience and of an adolescent’s or family’s economic and social position in relation to others, based on income, education, and occupation.
Inequality in Education: An economic disparity that often falls along racial lines and in much modern conversation about educational equity conflates the two, showing how they are inseparable from residential location and, more recently, language.
Aspirations: Aspiration means a longing for what one has achieved with advancement on it’s as its end
Higher Education: This is an optional final stage of learning that occur after secondary school education.

Source

from EDUPEDIA247https://ift.tt/2XLqc6b
via EDUPEDIA