Policy Problems in Financing Vocational and Technical Education: Implications for Technological Advancement

This study was designed to investigate policy problems in financing vocational and technical education with implication on technological advancement. The study adopted a survey research design. The population of the study was 195 lecturers in Enugu State higher institutions. Two higher institutions were randomly selected and the entire 80 lecturers were included in the study. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire designed by the researchers. The questionnaire was validated by 3 experts, while the internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach alpha method which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88. The data collected were analysed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study found out that Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETFUND), students’ tuition fee, research grants, the Federal and State Government budgetary allocation are the major sources of financing vocational and technical education. Absence of direct policy on vocational and technical education financing, non-inclusion of vocational and technical education experts in policymaking and absence of policy to checkmate indiscipline and corruption of the leaders were found to be the policy problems in financing vocational and technical education. The researchers recommend among others that policy formulations relating to vocational and technical education should be handled by VTE specialist but not just education experts. Keyword: Policy, Policy problems, financing, vocational and technical education, technological advancement. DOI: 10.7176/JLPG/91-11 Publication date: November 3

financing the programme.
Financing of vocational and technical education is of increasing concern to governments as well as, in many countries to industries. Finance according to Amadi and Johnwest (2016), is a field that deals with the allocation of assets and liabilities over time under conditions of certainty and uncertainty. In the context of this study, financing simply means the process of providing funds for equipping vocational and technical education institutions with relevant technologically advanced tools and experts required in meeting the set objectives of the programme. In Nigeria, the Federal Ministry of Education, the Federal Ministry of Science and technology, the Federal Ministry of labour and productivity, and the Federal Ministry of finance are all agencies responsible for financing the development of vocational and technical education and related policies (UNESCO, 1996). Despite these, Ogbuanya and Okoye (2015) stated that Nigerian higher institutions lack the requisite tools to impart skills needed by the employers and this results to the shooting up of youth unemployment. Abie and Eya (2017) further pointed out that poor funding to ameliorate inadequate infrastructure and poor ICT facilities is among the basic challenges of vocational and technical education in Nigeria. Hence, the need to study the problems associated with policy in financing vocational and technical education.

Statement of the Problem
Financing is a crucial issue in vocational and technical education programme in any country, no matter at what stage of development. In Nigeria, several core governmental agencies are responsible for financing vocational and technical education and its related policies but none of the agencies enacted direct financing policy for vocational and technical education on the emerging technological advancement in Nigeria. As such, provision of fund meant to finance the programme is often diverted to unknown projects, thereby subjecting the present vocational and technical education programme in Nigeria to acute financing challenges. Towards proffering solution to improve this challenge, financing strategies through Education Tax Fund (ETF) and Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETFUND) was adopted among the tertiary institutions as sources of financing the education programme in general. However, appropriate policies were still not implemented to sufficiently finance and equip vocational and technical education programme. Thus, leading to an increase in the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. This, therefore, necessitated the study on policy problems in financing VTE in Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study
The general purpose of this study was to investigate the policy problems in financing VTE in Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to: 1. identify the sources of financing vocational and technical education 2. ascertain the policy problems in financing vocational and technical education 3. determine strategies for improving the financing of vocational and technical education through policy

Methodology
The study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The instrument used for data collection was structured questionnaire titled "Policy Problems in Financing Vocational and Technical Education Questionnaire (PPFVTEQ)" which was developed by the researchers from literature based on the three research questions formulated to guide the study. The questionnaire was validated by three experts from the Faculty of Vocational and Technical Education, Ebonyi State University Abakaliki, while the internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using Cronbach Alpha method which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88.
The questionnaire was administered to the respondents by the researchers. Eighty copies of the questionnaire were administered and sixty copies were correctly filled and returned showing a return rate of 75%.
The three research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation. The decision was taken using real limit of numbers based on grand mean. Any item with the mean value of 4.50 and above was regarded as strongly agree, 3.50-4.49 was interpreted as agree, 2 .50-3.49 as undecided, 1.50-2.49 as disagree and 0.50-1.49 as strongly disagree. Similarly, t-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.   (Table 1). Similarly, the respondents agree that vocational and technical education can be financed by the local government/host community support fund (3.9±0.81), company/non-governmental organisation support fund (3.7±0.79), endowment funds/donation (3.6±0.78) and research grant (4.4±0.91). The probability values of all the items were greater than 0.05 (Table 1). This implied that there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05=0.49, 0.15) in the mean responses of the lecturers on the sources of finance for vocational and technical education  Table 2). The respondents equally agree that absence of VTE policy on students/facilities carrying capacity (3.6±0.24), absence of policy to checkmate indiscipline and corruption of the leaders (4.4±0.18) and absent of policy and law against the diversion of fund meant for vocational and technical education (3.7±0.51) are the policy problems affecting financing of vocational and technical education. Furthermore, the p-values of the items were greater than 0.05 (Table 2). This signified that significant difference did not exist (p>0.05=0.30, 0.67)) in the responses of the respondents on the policy problems affecting the financing of vocational and technical education.  (Table 3). Similarly, the respondents agree that policy on direct vocational and technical education financing (4.2±0.66) and policy on non-interception of the government to foreign aids meant for vocational education (4.4±0.49) are the strategies of improving the financing of vocational and technical education. Furthermore, Table 3 shows that the p-values of the items were greater than 0.05, which implies that no statistically significant difference (p>0.05=0.17, 0.11) existed in the mean responses of the lecturers.

Discussion of the Findings
It was found out that tuition fee (4.8±0.63), alumni support fund (4.6±0.63), Federal and State government budgetary allocation (4.7±0.71), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (4.6±0.54), international aids (4.5±0.48), local government/host community support fund (3.9±0.81), company/non-governmental organisation support fund (3.7±0.79), endowment funds/donation (3.6±0.78) and research grant (4.4±0.91) are some of the sources of financing vocational and technical education. In a similar study, it was found out that funding can be improved for effective animal husbandry delivery through grants from the government, school fees from the students, alumni support and donation from the philanthropists (Omeje et al., 2018). Innovative financing such as academic facility user fees, solidarity levy and Value-Added Tax (VAT) proceeds generated by institutions offering vocational and technical education (VTE) should make VTE programme effective and efficient (Mokwena, 2015cited in Ezema et al., 2017. The vocational and technical education programme is expensive in nature and therefore, finance must be derived from the budgetary allocation of the government, students' school fees, and donations for the procurement of equipment and facilities, and maintenance of existing ones as well as training of personnel (Amadi and JohnWest, 2016).
It was equally found out that the non-inclusion of VTE specialists in VTE policies (4.6±0.66), no direct policy on VTE financing (4.8±0.38) and no policy for the creation of VTE ministry (4.7±0.38), absence of VTE policy on students/facilities carrying capacity (3.6±0.24), absence of policy to checkmate indiscipline and corruption of the leaders (4.4±0.18) and absent of policy and law against the diversion of fund meant for vocational and technical education (3.7±0.51) were the policy problems affecting the financing of vocational and technical education. Furthermore, a significant difference did not exist (p>0.05=0.30, 0.67)) in the responses of the respondents on the policy problems affecting the financing of vocational and technical education. Okolocha (2012) identified policy as the major challenges confronting the financing of vocational and technical education emphasizing that poor policy implementation has been the major bane to vocational and technical education development. The distortion in the quality of vocational and technical education can be attributed to the ineffective policy implementation engendered primarily by lack of political will, lack of continuity of programme and corruption among the implementers (Okoroma, 2006). This was emphasized by Viennet and Pont (2017) that the realization of quality vocational and technical education is affected by the insufficient focus on policy implementation which leads to the people losing confidence and patience with policymakers and implementers. Deviation in policy implementation can be linked to the non-involvement of specialists during policy formulation.
It was revealed that the inclusion of vocational and technical education specialist in vocational and technical education policy formulations (4.8±0.39), provision of VTE policy on students/facilities carrying capacity (4.7±0.73), transparent and accountable vocational and technical education leaders (4.6±0.57), policy on direct vocational and technical education financing (4.2±0.66), policy on non-interception of the government to foreign aids meant for vocational education (4.4±0.49) and policy on the creation of VTE ministry are the strategies of improving the financing of vocational and technical education through policy. It was equally found out that there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05=0.17, 0.11) in the mean responses of the respondents on the strategies of improving the financing of vocational and technical education through policy. It was found in a related study that task allocation and accountability mechanism, objective focus, systematic data monitoring and evaluation are the strategies policy implementers should adopt to ensure transparent and accountable financial prudent vocational and technical education (Viennet and Pont, 2017). Financial education policy was found out to be part of government literacy related to money management, planning and protection which involve planning, saving, prevention and protection against fraud and financial abuse (OECD, 2015). Financial education is used in many countries to control the fraudulent waste of public fund meant for the development of vocational and technical education.

Conclusions
Implementation of formidable and quality vocational and technical education needs huge financial involvements which can be acquired through government budgetary allocation, students' tuition fees, alumni and donations. Vocational and technical education is not given the proper place in Nigeria by involving specialists in VTE policy formulations, non-direct policy on VTE financing and non-implementation of policies to checkmate the indiscipline and corruption of the leaders of VTE. Improving the financing of vocational and technical education through proper policies is imperative so as to involve the specialists in policy formulation which will translate into proper implementation. Policy on direct allocation of finance to vocational and technical education is necessary to avoid financial competition with general education.

Recommendations
Based on the findings of the study, the following recommendations were made: 1. More innovative sources of financing vocational and technical education should be investigated and applied in addition to the existing ones. 2. Policy formulation relating to vocational and technical education must be handled by VTE specialists but not general education experts. This will make it possible for the core area of concern in VTE like provision of modern facilities/equipment; training and retraining of experts and institutions/industrial relationship to be taken seriously. 3. Provision of policy against the diversion of funds meant for VTE to other sectors should be made and strictly enforced. Such that any management or authority in the position found guilty shall be prosecuted.