ALTERNATIVE FUNDING STRATEGIES FOR REPOSITIONING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION DURING ECONOMIC CRISIS IN NORTH-CENTRAL, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the alternative funding strategies for repositioning vocational education during economic crisis in North-Central, Nigeria. Survey research design was adopted. The area covered was three states out of the six states in the North-Central. The population of the study was 140 respondents (lecturers of vocational education in tertiary institutions in North-Central), out of which 114 lecturers of vocational education in federal and state tertiary institutions were sampled using purposive sampling technique. Structured questionnaire which was validated by four experts was used for data collection and the internal consistency of instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha with a coefficient value of 0.85. Data were analyzed using mean Scores (Grand mean 3.33>the assumed mean 2.50; SD=0.70) and the hypothesis was tested using t-test statistics ⌠alpha-val. (0.85) < t-table (1.96) ⌡.  Findings showed that the respondents agreed with all the alternative funding strategies listed in the questionnaire. Also, there was no significant difference between the mean rating of the respondents in federal and state tertiary institutions on the alternative funding strategies. It was concluded that since government alone cannot adequately fund vocational education in tertiary institutions, alternative funding has to be sourced. It was recommended among others that heads of institutions where vocational education is offered should liase with the political figures in their areas for benefit of using constituency development fund as a means of funding vocational education.