The Relevance Of Ethical Principles On The Quality Of Nigerian Tertiary Education
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Date
2020-03
Authors
Kani, Umar Mohammed
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universiti Sains Malaysia
Abstract
The central purpose of this study is investigating the problem of quality in Nigerian tertiary education within the context of ethics, guided by pragmatism and utilitarianism, to theorise associated factors and offer suggestions from ethical perspectives for improvement. It followed from the perception of stakeholders and general public that quality of Nigeria’s tertiary education has declined and the problem has not been holistically researched from the ethical viewpoint. Being a philosophical study through empirical approach, philosophical and qualitative methods were employed. Philosophical inquiry was applied for comprehensive view of key concepts of the topic and theories that underpinned the study while qualitative method was used for data collection and analysis. Aspects of the philosophical method were applied again in discussion of the findings. Semi-structured interviews were administered to 22 purposively selected participants from 11 governmental agencies and institutions that represent Nigeria’s tertiary education system. In addition, document analysis supplemented the in-depth interviews as instruments for data collection. The data was analysed using a combination of thematic analysis framework of Braun and Clarke, positivism of Silverman and interpretivism of Miles and Huberman, in which categorised themes constituted by subthemes were derived using synthesis of the three models. Findings revealed that gap between document provisions and practice, conflict, and deformalisation are topical issues of ethical concern in the system which caused preventable difficulties in the modus operandi. Also the quality of Nigeria’s tertiary education is below the normative level expected by Nigerian society based on fitness for purpose yardstick. Themes as factors declared to have caused the quality decline are corruption, general system malfunction, admission manoeuvres, institutionalisation and politicisation, all linked to voluntary action or inaction of relevant stakeholders. The study also suggested that the factors that inhibit the quality are avoidable, against the operational guidelines provided by official documents of the government. The findings of the study also implicate that government is responsible, for its actions and inactions that bred the problem in question, also improvement steps would have to be initiated and supervised by it. However, the problem might have been exaggerated given that the country still survives on the strength of its tertiary education. By implication, it was observed and recommended that government should employ ethical means to improve the weakened quality by mending the improprieties that impede it. The reform task requires policy review and intensive campaign for attitudinal change and or imbibing new positive values to be orchestrated by government using force or courteous reorientation or both.
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Keywords
Education