Educational Inputs and Internal Efficiency in Senior Secondary School, Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Edo State is regarded as one of the educationally advantaged states in Nigeria due to its records in national examination and the level of educational development in terms of infrastructure and high levels of school attendance, especially at the Basic and Post Basic education strata Successive governments in the State have continued to invest in education in areas such as teach recruitment, infrastructural development, prompt payment of salaries and pensions of retired teachers. Despite these efforts to improve education in the state internal efficiency indicated by dropout rate, inadequate resources and sub-standard learning environment still persist, and continue to pose serious challenges to effective public senior secondary education in Edo State. This situation, not only hinders smooth transition to higher education level, but also undermines the return on investment in education by government. This study investigated the relationship between educational inputs and internal efficiency of public senior secondary schools in Edo South Senatorial District. The study adopted Descriptive correlational Research Design. 124 Senior Secondary Schools, constituted the population, while 95 schools made up the sample, which was purposively selected from the seven local government areas in the District. A checklist titled: Educational Input checklist, and Internal Efficiency inventory were the instruments used to collect data. Descriptive statistics such as ratios, and percentages, and linear regression were employed in data analysis. Findings revealed that student-teacher ratio ranged between 1:10 and 1:15, which is below the national standard of 1:4. Material resources were found to be inadequate with 86% of the schools within this category. Physics, Maths, English and Biology were most affected. The internal efficiency rate was 68.20%; wastage ratio was 31.21. The combined influence of inputs on internal efficiency was F(3.72) = 688p  < 0.005 it was  recommended that teachers development strategies should be more transparent and derived of favouritism, while equally improving material supplies strategies to curb attrition and wastage in student years were also recommended.