CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the study
The central idea underlying manpower development in any sector, including the education sector, is how best to keep employees current, vibrant and versatile so that they can continuously perform their roles effectively in this age of rapid socio-economic, political, scientific and technological changes and globalization. As Lassa (1992) rightly emphasized, in education, teachers are the foundation of quality; they hold trust for the implemented curriculum of formal education and therefore, are at the centre of the educative process. In fact, no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers (NERDC, 2004). This is even all the more important with the institutions of higher learning whose mission include research – the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge, teaching and community services.
Manpower development has become an accepted phenomenon in organizations. In tertiary institutions, lecturers’ development programmes are considered very critical. They are planned activities which focus on increasing and enlarging the capabilities, improving the technical and conceptual skills of lecturers so that they can posses the necessary abilities to handle complex situations and better perform their job. Through renewal activities, lecturers avoid becoming rustic.
The need for lecturers to improve their knowledge, skills, attitudes and behaviours while on the job is even more critical now in developing nations than ever before for a number of reasons. For instance, academic programmes in our universities rarely adequately prepare candidates as “finished” products for their future positions and their accompanying responsibilities (Heiss 1970, Peretomode and Peretomode, 2001). There is also the issue of knowledge explosion. Tertiary institutions are also in constant flux and there are willing and unwilling lecturers to be trained and retrained on regular basis (Johnson 1976) as globalization and the economy and competition for talents is becoming worldwide (Fanny, 2001).
The above situation implies that lecturers need to keep abreast of the time and the trends of knowledge development in their discipline so as not to become obsolete and made redundant. The ultimate goal of self-development is the enhancement of individual’s job satisfaction and the optimization of skills, talent and task accomplishment. The relevant of training and development of staff in Nigeria tertiary institutions has become more obvious due to the growing complexity of the work environment, the increasing changes in institutions and technological advancement which further brought about the need for continuous training and development of staff to meet the current challenges.
Staff development has been described as activities which aim at improving, updating or maintaining employees’ skills and abilities (Elnaga & Imran, 2013; Malaolu & Ogbuabor, 2013). It is also a set of systematic and planned activities designed by an organisation to provide her members with the opportunities to learn necessary skills to meet current and future demands of work (Werner & DeSimone, 2006). Participation in staff development programmes by an employee is to begin immediately as a person is employed and should continue throughout a person’s career. The objective of staff development in organisations like universities is to increase the skills and knowledge of the lecturers. Planned development programmes add value to organisations in terms of increased productivity, morale and greater organisational efficiency (Nassazi, 2013; Muzaffar & Malik, 2012; Rashid, 2008).
Jones (1994) stressed that manpower development of lecturers in tertiary institutions should be geared towards acquiring or sharpening the capabilities of lecturers required in performing various obligations, tasks, and functions associated with or related to their present or future expected roles. Similarly, Peretomode and Peretomode (2001), have identified the benefits of training and development of lecturers to include increase in knowledge, skills and the development of positive attitude to work, increased personal and organizational productivity, and quality services. It can bring about improvement in morale, inculcate sense of belongingness, reduce absenteeism and turnover rate among lecturers, and importantly lead to better coordination of both human and material resources within institutions of higher learning.
Improving lecturer knowledge and teaching skills is essential to raising student performance (Owolabi, 2012). It is in recognition of the importance of staff development in educational institutions that the Federal Government declared in its National Policy on Education, “that teacher education and re-training will continue to be given a major emphasis in the nation’s educational planning, as no education system can rise above the quality of its teachers” (FGN, 2004).
Several initiatives have been put in place for the development of lecturers in the universities by government, the administrators of universities as well as support from other organisations. Government funded initiatives include sponsorship of staff development programmes through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund).
The Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) originally established as Education Trust Fund (ETF) by the Act No 7 of 1993 as amended by Act No 40 of 1998 (now repealed and replaced with Tertiary Education Trust Fund Act 2011) is an intervention agency set up to provide supplementary support to all level of public tertiary institutions with the main objective of using funding alongside project management for the rehabilitation, restoration and consolidation of Tertiary Education in Nigeria. It is charged with the responsibility of managing, disbursing and monitoring the education tax to government owned tertiary institutions in Nigeria. It is an education intervention agency of the federal government. The mandate of the TETFund under the TETFund Act, 2011 is to improve staff productivity and standards of tertiary institutions through provision of basic infrastructural facilities to encourage excellent environment for teaching and learning, instructional materials and equipment, quality research and publications and development of human resources for national economic development.
The human resources development strategy adopted under the TETFund Act, 2011 involves sponsorship of teaching staff for manpower training and development in Nigeria or abroad for Masters and Ph.D Degrees; Research grants to academic staff and sponsorship of teaching and non-teaching staff in tertiary educational institutions for conferences at the ratio of 70:30. In fact, the sponsorship is basically on human capacity development towards increasing staff skills and knowledge to ensure better international ranking and competitiveness of government owned tertiary institutions. The categories of infrastructural intervention are normal Intervention, intervention on special projects, intervention on projects of high impact; while categories of contentbased intervention are development of institutions libraries, training and development of academic staff, sponsorship of staff for Conferences.
Besides, Ajayi and Ekundayo (2006), also remarked that the Nigerian government over the year, has not been meeting the United National Educational Scientific and Cultural (UNESCO), recommendation of 26% of the local budget allocation to education sector in view of this, the tertiary education trust fund (TETFUND) was established as an intervention agency under the education tax Act No. 7 of 1993, (ETF, 2011).
It was borne due to the decay of all tiers of education. Facilities had almost collapsed, teachers and lecturers morale was at its lowest. Enabling environment for conducive teaching and learning was absent. The administration of President, Ibrahim Babangida mindful of the reality of the situation took measures to arrest the rot.
Nkwede (2009) aptly pointed out that university education and other tertiary institution in the contemporary Nigeria has focused itself at the cross-roads in the wake of continued inadequate funding from the traditional sources even when it is explicitly clear that education is one of the most viable and biggest industries in almost every modern economy. Inadequate funding has resulted to poor infrastructural facilities, teaching/learning facilities; library, research etc. are also in very short supply.
It is against this backdrop, this study tends to look into the impact of training and development on workers’ productivity through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) to staff of Akwa Ibom State University.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
A major problem faced by most organizations including Akwa Ibom State University is the role of staff development as it affects productivity; and this can traced down to lack of necessary skills and knowledge on the part of the employees and the inability of the management to fully appreciate the role of training effectively in enhancing the employees productivity. Although a few of the organizations’ executives in Nigeria assume that improving the skills and knowledge of employees aid in improving effectiveness and productivity at the work place, but a reasonable percentage of these executives do not see the need for thorough training, hence training is given less attention and eventually lead to insufficient training of employees in organization. This is evidently observed in the uncooperative attitudes of the top executives denying the subordinates the opportunity to acquire further skills and knowledge through self study; part-time tertiary courses, professional courses and so on.
Achievement of objectives and good returns on investment could only be attained if human resources aspects of the human enterprise are properly developed through training and manpower development. An organization may have employees of ability and determination with appropriate equipment and managerial support yet productivity falls below expected standard. By and large, the missing factors in many cases are lack of adequate skills and knowledge which are acquired through manpower training and development.
In the light of the foregoing, any organization, no matter how advanced in science and technology cannot be represented by its building, plants and equipment; rather it is the achievement and development of human resource capital that is responsible for its increase in productivity. It is against this backdrop, this study tends to look into the impact of staff development and productivity through the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) Academic Staff Training and Development.
1.3 Objective of the Study
The major objective of the study is to assess the relationship between staff development and productivity in Akwa Ibom State University. However, specific objectives of the study are as follows:
To determine the impact of Tetfund intervention on staff development in Akwa Ibom State University
To assess the challenges associated with the implementation of staff development policy in Akwa Ibom State University.
To examine the relationship between staff development and productivity in Akwa Ibom State University.
1.4 Research Questions
Does Tetfund intervention have an impact on staff development in Akwa Ibom State University?
What are the challenges associated with the implementation of staff development policies in Akwa Ibom State University?
Does staff development have any relationship with productivity?
1.5 Hypotheses
The following hypotheses were formulated in the course of carrying out this research.
HYPOTHESIS ONE
H0: Tetfund intervention has no impact on staff development in Akwa Ibom State University.
HYPOTHESIS TWO
H0: There is no significant relationship between the implementation policy of staff development and productivity of Akwa Ibom State University.
HYPOTHESIS THREE
H0: There is no significant relationship between staff development and productivity.
1.6 Significant of the Study
Staff development is very important in organizations. It enables people to achieve goals, influence output and to a great extent, it enhances productivity and without it little will be achieved in the organization. The findings from this study will be significant in the following ways; the study will help top management in taking strategic decision that affect staff development for the overall growth of the organization. Also members of Akwa Ibom State University will have adequate knowledge of the importance of training and development. Future researchers will also find this work very useful as reference materials for further studies. In all, this study will contribute to existing stock of knowledge in the area of staff development and productivity.
1.7 Scope and Limitations of study
This study was conducted to determine the effect of staff development and productivity in Akwa Ibom State University. Materials used were mainly based on management sciences field while considerations were also given to ideas from other field related to this study.
There is no endeavor without constraints. During this research, several challenges were encountered. First, the research topic was very useful but difficult to research due to its broad nature that required deep investigations. Second, materials for the research were insufficient which slowed down the research. Also, the cost of financing the project was too high and this became a major setback.
1.8 Definition of Terms
Organization: A social unit of people systematically structured and managed to meet a need or to pursue collective goals on a continuing basis.
Performance: The accomplishment of a given task measured against preset known standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed. In a contract, performance is deemed to be the fulfillment of an obligation, in a manner that releases the performer from all liabilities under the contract
Productivity: The amount of output per unit of input (labor, equipment, and capital)
Human resources: This refers to all categories of employees, skilled and unskilled workers, supervisors and managers in an organization.
Training: This is a planned organizational effort or activity concerned with helping an employee to acquire specific and immediate useable skills, knowledge and attribute that will enable him to be more efficient on his present job.
Development: This is a planned activity which is focused on increasing and enlarging the capacity of the employees so that they can effectively handle higher positions in the organization.
1.9 Organization of the Study
Chapter one consisted information such as the introduction, background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions, research hypotheses, significant of the study, scope and limitation, historical background, definition of terms and finally organization of the study.
Chapter two contained the reviews of related literature which provide concrete framework for the study. Chapter three dealt with research design and methodology, which explains the framework for gathering, analysis and interpreting the research data.
Chapter four was designed for data presentation, analysis and interpretation. It discusses the data collected in the course of the research. It present, analyze and interprets the data through the use of tools. The final chapter which is chapter five was concerned with the summary, conclusion and recommendation.
