Education Expenditure and Economic Growth in Nigeria Essay Example for Free

Education Expenditure and Economic Growth in Nigeria Essay Education is a process in which knowledge and social capabilities demanded, are acquired. It is to a nation, what the mind is to the body, just as a deceased mind is handicapped in the co-ordination and direction of the bodily activities setbacks in the education system would act as a hindrance to economic development. Thus, the single most significant complex of social-control tools for national development is found in the educational system; be it formal or informal. (Uwadia , 2010). It is also accepted that the development of any nation depends largely on the development of the human population in that nation which can majorly be improved through education. Smith (1937) stressed the significance of education in human capital formation. Therefore it follows that a reduction in the investment in education would affect the stock of the overall human capital base and productivity. Thus investment on education is considered to be a critical element to alleviate poverty, reduce unemployment and increase economic growth (Chukwu, 2011). It is with this knowledge that The UNESCO recommended that 26% of the annual budget be allocated to the Education sector and the agreement between the Federal Government and Staff unions on October 22, 2009 was also aimed at the improvement of the education sector. However in our study we would realize that a country like Nigeria has been operating below the percentage recommended by UNESCO as our expenditure on education usually lies around 5.3%. According to the Federal Ministry of Education (2003), the educational system in Nigeria faced ill periods between 1979-1995 due to resurgence of instability and financial inadequacies in the management, and was affected by the general economic downturn of the 1980s. In response to this, the Federal Government subsequently increased the budget allocation to education in the following years. These increments can be observed from 1995-2004 whereby education expenditure increased from N12,816,400,000 in 1995 to N93,767,886,839 in 2004. A total increase in expenditure by 631.63%. Such a huge increase in education expenditure should initiate a relatively large increase in the Nigerian education system. It is however apparent that the growth of the Nigerian economy has led to an increase in the National budget allocation to education over the years but how this in turn has played a role in the development of the Education sector, remains a puzzle unsolved. All these provoked the conduct of this study. In this vain, it is expected that in a developing country like Nigeria that seeks to achieve economic development, the increasing amounts pumped into the education sector will be utilized effectively and in turn will result to the development of Education in Nigeria. However, this is not the case. A cursory glance at the quality of our education reveals that Nigeria is a long way from reaching neither the promised land of Education for all by 2015 nor its wide dream of being one of the 20 best world economies by 2020. With more money driven into the sector and nothing to show for it, one can then infer that the cause of our torpid education system is not financial inadequacy. On the other hand, it may be a contributing factor. Hence the need for our study arises. In the light of this, this study is carried out with the aim of highlighting the relationship between education expenditure and the development of the education sector. Also, we shall show how the education standard is deteriorating despite the increment in budgetary allocations from 1995 to 2004. Explicitly, the objectives are as follows; a.To determine and assess the pattern of Government expenditure on education. b.To ascertain the performance of the education sector in comparison to Government expenditure in the sector. This study is carried out on the Nigerian education sector with emphasis on Nigeria’s budget allocation to Education and so all resources and observations to be made are restricted to Nigeria. Data and information to be used in this research are secondary data obtained. These data are to be gathered between May 30th and June 17th, 2011. This research on the Nigerian Education sector shall be based on data from 1995 to 2004 (ten years). It was in this period that a steady increase in the budget allocation to the education sector was observed. Data required to carry out this research shall be extracted from; †¢The National Bureau of Statistics publications: Federal budgetary allocations. †¢Ministry of Education, Awka Zonal Office †¢The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) Zonal Office †¢The National Examination Council (NECO) – zonal office †¢The West Examination Council (WAEC). †¢The Central Bank of Nigeria –Annual publications on the National budget. In this research paper, the ordinary least squared method will be employed using annual time series data (1995-2004), in order to assess the impact of education expenditure on the development of the sector. This work will be done in the form of a research paper because it is an expanded essay that presents out own interpretation, evaluation and argument. We have succeeded in building upon what we know about the statement of the problem at hand.

Cybernetic Immunology :: Essays Papers

Cybernetic Immunology In the traditions of 'Western' science and politics--the tradition of racist, male-dominant capitalism; the tradition of progress; the tradition of the appropriation of nature as resource for the productions of culture; the tradition of reproduction of the self from the reflections of the other - the relation between organism and machine has been a border war. The stakes in the border war have been the territories of production, reproduction, and imagination. This chapter is an argument for pleasure in the confusion of boundaries and for responsibility in their construction. (Haraway 150) Cartesian circularities of self-identitical participants in a phallocratic order and ripples in a huge urban puddle renamed ‘lake’ from a fallen body, the machines may have already won. We know it was they who scorched the sky. Oshii Mamoru’s anime, turned American 1995 â€Å"Japanimation† classic, plays cyborg science fiction with flashing lights, outbursts of violence, and a plot fit for cyborgs to understand in a political world of simulations transferred without effluvia directly by air-port cybernetworking into unannounced awareness in each celluloid thin character, and on their demihuman coworker’s early 90’s military computer monitors. The narrative tries to entangle itself so thoroughly in a political rationality of an omnipresent culture of technicism devoid of scientific explanation on every green, glowing, digitally exported, and unrefined urban street corner that its revealing of the â€Å"real† puppetmaster/s uper-villain (a tool of someone still further up, â€Å"our heroes† presume) begs a sigh about technology coming to master itself without a care in the world for humanist restraint, much like the mostly good natured civilians who, it seems, don’t really mind an almost comically violent thug police presence that tears through their markets, melons, and minds chasing charlatans only it can see armed with overpowered bullets in outdated guns without any of the pleasant trappings of the polite police forces we imagine secure our very ability to sit in front of a glowing screen with electrically replicated pitches and decibels projected into right-angled chambers of passivity, and reflected in photons and waves to our media outlets - the doors of techno-perception. Calling Ghost â€Å"a film about† already misses that it is a film to as well. Mistaking cause for consequence, watching animated

Lean Management

LEAN IN PRODUCTION AND SERVICE The word term ‘’LEAN’’ was put together to describe and personalize Toyota’s business activity during the 1980’s by a research team headed by one Jim Womack, Ph. D. , at MIT’s international Motor vehicle programme. According to them, the concept of ‘LEAN’ was fathered by Taiichi Ohno of Toyota. Ohno developed a contrasting approach to the mass production methods of US car firms through necessity. Later, in 1996, Jim Womack’s team espoused the five lean principles and also lean tools that they believed were the secret for Toyota’s success. According to Oxford dictionaries, Lean means efficient and with no wastage. The core idea of lean is to minimize wastage and at the same time maximize customer value. Customer value is of utmost importance to a lean organization and the organization will focus on its key processes to continue increasing the value. Ultimately, the goal is to provide the perfect value creation process that has no wastage. To accomplish this value creation and zero wastage goal, lean thinking changes the focus of a management from optimizing separate technologies, assets and vertical departments to optimize the flow of products and services through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets and department customers. By reducing or eliminating waste along the entire stream of value, we will be able to come up with processes that would need less effort, less space, reduced capitals and reduced time in order to make products and services at prices far less than normal and with fewer defects. Organizations will be able to be responsive towards changing customer needs and wants with a lot of variety, higher quality, reduced costs and with less throughput times. Information management will also be much simpler and much more accurate. Lean management is a concept which can be applied in every business and every process. It should not be compared with a cost reduction program or tactic because it is a way of thinking and acting that applies to the whole organization. Nowadays, it is common that businesses across all industries and services, including the health care and even governments around the world are applying the concept of lean as the way they think and operate their business. Many of these organizations does not use the word lean out of choice and tend to label their practices as their own system, such as the Toyota Production System or the Danaher Business System. It is done to instill a point that lean is not a simple programme or a short term ost reduction solutions, but the way the company operates. the term ‘Transformation’ or ‘lean Transformation’ are usually used to characterize a company that is moving from an old way to a lean thinking way. this transformation requires a complete transformation on how a company usually conducts their business, thus, requiring long term perspective and perseverance through the changing time. It is also interesting to note that the concept of lean in production and servic e has the touch of one of the greater management thinkers, W. Edwards Deming who had great influence in Japanese manufacturing. He believed that the present manufacturing scenario is a prison of interacting people and stressed the importance of re-inventing the management processes in order to achieve higher efficiency and value. In implementing lean in production or services, I will be following the concept espoused by Womack’s team that stressed on three important business issues that will be able to guide the transformation process of an entire organization into a lean organization. In order to achieve lean objectives in an organization, it is important first of all to note that the organization and the people leading the transformation need to have a lean vision. In order to develop this lean vision, we can concentrate on three fundamental business issues which are Purpose, Process and People. By thinking deeply into these three aspects, a lean implementer can try to answer critical questions on the vision of the organization. If we are able to answer the key questions that I have associated with each of the aspects, I believe that we can develop a vision for lean implementation in our organization. The questions would be:- 1. purpose what are the customer problems will the organization try to solve in order to achieve their own purpose of prospering? 2. Process: how will the organization assess each major value stream devised to make sure each step in the value stream is valuable, capable, available, adequate and flexible? 3. People: how will the organization ensure that every important process in the value stream has someone responsible for continually evaluating it in terms of business purpose and also lean process? How will everyone involved in the value stream be engaged actively in the process of operating it correctly and continually improving it? As for the next step that I would take, it would be on the possible implementation of the core lean principle into my organization. This, I believe would involve the core of lean which is basically waste reduction. Usually, in an organization including production and service oriented organizations, we can find seven basic types of waste, which I am listing below. ? Producing goods and services beyond the immediate need of the customers. Unnecessary movement of products due to poor layout planning. ? Wasted motions when working. ? Time idling and wastage. ? Implementing processes that are unimportant to finish a product. ? Poor inventory management. ? Many defects in the finished product or output. Usually, waste will be present in any activity that does not add any value to the finished product or services. By trying to eliminate waste, the materia l velocity will be increase drastically. This means products will reach the customers hand in a very quick manner. This is an advantage because it delivers high strategic advantages beyond the obvious cost savings. Bad quality will be eliminated and lead times are shortened effectively. Eliminating waste can be considered as a strategic goal in service oriented and manufacturing oriented organizations. As I have mentioned before, elimination of waste will ensure increase in strategic advantages such as increased income and increased customer satisfaction. In adapting lean processes and services, we may be confronted by some constrains and challenges. The adaptability of lean depends on the nature of our business. We have to remember that there is a vast difference in between the service and production industries, and it lies in the source that creates the variation that causes waste to happen. Logically, manufacturing operations are far more controllable compared to service industry, because of its laboratory like settings compared to the service industry. Uncertainty usually does result from material and labor inputs, but we can still anticipate those uncertainties and take steps to control it to a great extent. For example, Toyota, pioneer in lean management is production/manufacturing based organization, and the employees, product esign and the production tools are usually under the control of the operations to a great extent, rendering it easier for implementers to anticipate uncertainty and implement the efficient lean management. In contrast, service organizations operate in a vast sea of uncertainty and risks and when uncertainty is present, it is much harder to anticipate and control variability that will be present together with it, For example, a project management company. We know that each project that the company will receive or implement will be different in nature. The volatility of the service industry, in particular a project management company, requires that lean management principles is implemented on a case by case method, i. e. different implementation and methods for different projects. This nature of the service industry is contributed by a few causes. Let's look at these causes one by one:- ? Uncertainty in task times. It is the nature of service products that the execution of each and every service delivery has some uniqueness. Taking the example of the project management company, each project taken may not be similar to each other, thus making it difficult to judge the task time needed. This variability in the service industry leads to a negative exponential distribution of task times. This simply means to say that most of the tasks execution will fall within a tight range, and some execution will take a longer time. Considering airplane boarding as another example, there is uncertainty present in the sense that it will take different amount of time among different groups of customers to board the plane. ? Uncertainty in demand. While there are ways to forecast demand in service industry, we can’t claim that it is 100% perfect. Usually, manufacturers buffer this forecast uncertainty with some finished goods inventory, but this is not the case in the service industry for example, we can forecast that reservations for a hotel will increase during peak seasons but it depends on many other fluctuating factors. Sometimes it is very hard to predict the demand of individual customer. As an example, a wedding planner essentially does planning job for customers wedding, but this lanning differs based on customer preferences, budget and also other factors. This uncertainty renders each wedding and the process that the organization goes through to put together the wedding, a unique one. ? Customers' production roles. As we can see from both the uncertainties above, we can summarize that it has much to do with customers. This is because typically, customers have some role to play in the production of a service, w e introduce variability based on how well we perform our roles. Customers almost always have to provide some information to the service agents to initiate service, and we usually have some tangible tasks to perform. So, as I have already stated it before, this condition create unique situations that needs personal implementations of lean in order to make sure wastage is reduced and value is delivered to each individual customers. Lean implementation involves finding solutions that will be able to offset the challenges and difficulties that we may face in our organization to achieve a successful outcome that will support a competitive operations strategy. Professors Kent Bowen and Steven Spear (HBS DBA '99), drew on a framework of 4 principles of the Toyota Production System that they believed will reduce the constrains, difficulties and challenges to a minimum in order to enjoy leaner productions and service. The framework contains 4 easily implement able rules:- Rule no. 1: all work should be highly specific as to content, sequence, timing and outcome. Rule no. 2: every customer-supplier connections must be direct, and there must be an unambiguous yes or no ways to send request and receive responses. Rule no. 3: the pathway for every products and services must be simple and direct. Rule no. 4: any improvements must be made in accordance with the specific method, under the guidance of a teacher, at the lowest possible level in the organization. Basically, my plan for a successful implementation of lean depends on the 4 rules given above, but I am going to give it some twist with adding some additional techniques that I feel would encourage faster and easier ways to overcome challenges faced by organizations implementing lean. I am going to add a three step initiative taken by Wipro, an Indian software developer, which can boost the implementation of lean, which are:- †¢ Abolish Hierarchies. Devise a bottom-up organization that allows many people to have a field-wide view of the process to spot problems and identify efficiencies. †¢ Continuous Improvement. Using â€Å"kaizen† initiative. Encouraging organizational level knowledge sharing through effective and efficient work improvement. †¢ Lean Tools. Use of tools specific to the process based on lean principles which can be utilized to pinpoint wasted time and effort. A combination of both these initiatives, I believe can lead to a lean flow which will be the tool that I would utilize to mitigate the challenges that can be faced during lean implementation. Drawing up a process flow chart that represents each step that a product/service would go through is essential. It is advisable to represent these sequential processes graphically in a flow chart. This is the first step towards an error and waste free production. For each and every products or processes that are present in the process flow charts, another level of details is required. This involves the task-level work with associated , with associated work-content times, with associated work-content times, quality verifications and worker qualifications. We can also produce a product/process matrix with products on the vertical axis and processes on the horizontal axis. At every intersection of product and process, this matrix, or spreadsheet should be recording the total reasonable validated work times that has been devised. We must also be able to calculate Takt. Takt is a German word which basically mean beat, pace or rhythm. Businesses, especially service oriented business must march to the beat of the customers and we must keep up with our customers pace.. Takt, can be calculated as, work time per day divided by customer requirements per day. This calculation represents how often each process must be performed, and at what capacity level, to take care of your customer’s needs and demands and be able to meet it as soon as possible. In order to have sustainable lean benefits, the implementation of lean must bridge the gap from project to project and also business practices. Quality documents procedures, policies and measures must reflect and drive Lean as a way of life. This will ensure success in reducing waste. Planning and procurement drives daily lean execution. Lean manufacturing is more responsive, with shorter lead time and greater mix and volume flexibility. We must be able to change our planning to take full advantage of lean. Bibliography Womack. J. P, Lean Enterprise Institute Inc. 2009, What Is Lean (Online) Available at: http://www. lean. rg/WhatsLean/ (Accessed 20th October 2009) Ahlstrom, P (2004) ‘Lean service operations: translating lean production principles to service operations’ International Journal of Services Technology and Management, Vol 5, nos 5-6 pp545-564 Spear and Bowen 1999 ‘Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System’ Harvard Business Review Sept-Oct Womack, J. P. and D. T. Jones 1996 ‘Lean Thinking’ New York, Simon & Schuster. Taylor: FW 1998 ‘The Principles of Scientific Management’ Dover Publications: New York. First published in 1911 Ohno, T 1988 ‘Toyota Production System’ Productivity Press: Portland, Oregon. Translated from Japanese original, first published 1978 David McPhetrige, 2009, An industry consultant provides guidance on implementing a basic Lean plan. MPO magazine. (Online) Available at: http://www. mpo-mag. com/articles/2009/09/meeting-the-challenges-of-lean-flow (Accessed on 21st October 2009) Hanna. J, 2007, Bringing ‘Lean’ Principles to Service Industry. Harvard Business School (Online) Available at: http://hbswk. hbs. edu/item/5741. html (Accessed on 21st October 2009)

Many Colleges Dont Require Students to Take Classes in Basic Areas

A report commissioned by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA) reveals that colleges are not requiring students to take courses in several core areas. And as a result, these students are less prepared to be successful in life. The report, â€Å"What Will They Learn?† surveyed students in over 1,100 U.S. colleges and universities – public and private – and found that an alarming number of them were taking â€Å"lightweight† courses to satisfy general education requirements. The report also found the following about the colleges: 96.8% don’t require economics87.3% don’t require an intermediate foreign language81.0% don’t require a basic U.S. history or government38.1% don’t require college-level math65.0% don’t require literature The 7 Core Areas Here are the core areas identified by ACTA that college students should take classes in, and why theyre important: Composition: writing-intensive classes that focus on grammarLiterature: observant reading and reflection that develops critical thinking skillsForeign language: to understand different culturesU.S. Government or History: to be responsible, knowledgeable citizensEconomics: to understand how resources are connected globallyMathematics: to gain numeracy skills applicable in the workplace and in lifeNatural Sciences: to develop skills in experimentation and observation   Even some of the most highly-rated and expensive schools are not requiring students to take classes in these core areas. For example, one school that charges almost $50,000 a year in tuition does not require students to take classes in any of the 7 core areas. In fact, the study notes that the schools that receive an â€Å"F† grade based on how many core classes they require charge 43% higher tuition rates than the schools that receive a grade of â€Å"A.† Core Deficiencies So what’s causing the shift? The report notes that some professors prefer to teach classes related to their particular research area. And as a result, students end up choosing from a wide-ranging selection of courses. For example, at one college, while students are not required to take U.S. History or U.S. Government, they have an Intercultural Domestic Studies requirement that may include such courses as â€Å"Rock ‘n’ Roll in Cinema.†Ã‚  To fulfill the economics requirement, students at one school can take, â€Å"The Economics of Star Trek,† while â€Å"Pets in Society† qualifies as a Social Sciences requirement. At another school, students can take â€Å"Music in American Culture† or â€Å"America Through Baseball† to fulfill their requirements. At another college, English majors don’t have to take a class devoted to Shakespeare.   Some schools don’t have any core requirements at all. One school notes that it â€Å"does not impose a particular course or subject on all students.† On one hand, perhaps its commendable that some colleges are not forcing students to take certain classes. On the other hand, are freshmen really in a position to decide which courses would be most beneficial to them? According to the ACTA report, close to 80% of freshmen don’t know what they want to major in. And another study, by EAB, found that 75% of students will change majors before they graduate. Some critics advocate not letting students choose a major until their second year.  If students aren’t even sure what degree they plan to pursue, it might be unrealistic to expect them – especially as freshmen – to effectively gauge which core classes they need to be successful. Another problem is that schools don’t update their catalogs on a regular basis, and when students and their parents are trying to determine the requirements, they may not be viewing accurate information. Also, some colleges and universities don’t even list definite courses in some cases. Instead, there is a vague introductory phrase â€Å"courses may include,† so the classes listed in the catalog may or may not be offered. College Graduates Lacking Important Skills However, the glaring lack of information gained from taking college-level core classes is evident. A Payscale survey asked managers to identify the skills that they thought college grads lack the most. Among the responses, writing skills are identified as the top skill missing in action among college grads. Public speaking skills are in second place. But both of these skills could be developed if students were required to take core courses. In other surveys, employers have lamented the fact that college graduates don’t have the critical thinking, problem-solving, and analytical skills – all issues that would be addressed in a core curriculum. Other disturbing findings: 20% of students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree were unable to accurately calculate the costs of ordering office supplies, according to the National Survey of America’s College Students.   While schools, boards of trustees, and policymakers need to make the necessary adjustments to require a core curriculum, college students cannot wait for these changes. They (and their parents) must research schools as thoroughly as possible, and students must choose to take the classes they need instead of selecting lightweight courses.