Micro Economics Foundation Tools That Can Be Used To Stabilize the Degree Programme in Akwa Ibom State College Of Education

Micro Economics Foundation Tools That Can Be Used To Stabilize the Degree Programme in Akwa Ibom State College Of Education

INTRODUCTION

Microeconomic theory typically begins with the study of a single rational and utility maximizing individual. To economists, rationality means an individual possesses stable preferences that are both complete and transitive. The technical assumption that preference relations are continuous is needed to ensure the existence of a utility function. Although microeconomic theory can continue without this assumption, it would make comparative statics impossible since there is no guarantee that the resulting utility function would be differentiable.

Microeconomic theory progresses by defining a competitive budget set which is a subset of the consumption set. It is at this point that economists make the technical assumption that preferences are locally non-satiated. Without the assumption of LNS (local non-satiation) there is no 100% guarantee but there would be a rational rise in individual utility. With the necessary tools and assumptions in place the utility maximization problem (UMP) is developed. The utility maximization problem is the heart of consumer theory. The utility maximization problem attempts to explain the action axiom by imposing rationality axioms on consumer preferences and then mathematically modeling and analyzing the consequences. The utility maximization problem serves not only as the mathematical foundation of consumer theory but as a metaphysical explanation of it as well. That is, the utility maximization problem is used by economists to not only explain what or how individuals make choices but why individuals make choices as well.

The utility maximization problem is a constrained optimization problem in which an individual seeks to maximize utility subject to a budget constraint. Economists use the extreme value theorem to guarantee that a solution to the utility maximization problem exists. That is, since the budget constraint is both bounded and closed, a solution to the utility maximization problem exists. Economists call the solution to the utility maximization problem a Walrasian demand function or correspondence. The utility maximization problem has so far been developed by taking consumer tastes (i.e. consumer utility) as the primitive. However, an alternative way to develop microeconomic theory is by taking consumer choice as the primitive. This model of microeconomic theory is referred to as revealed preference theory. The supply and demand model describes how prices vary as a result of a balance between product availability at each price (supply) and the desires of those with purchasing power at each price (demand). The graph depicts a right-shift in demand from D₁ to D₂ along with the consequent increase in price and quantity required to reach a new market-clearing equilibrium point on the supply curve (S).

The theory of supply and demand usually assumes that markets are perfectly competitive. This implies that there are many buyers and sellers in the market and none of them have the capacity to significantly influence prices of goods and services. In many real-life transactions, the assumption fails because some individual buyers or sellers have the ability to influence prices. Quite often, a sophisticated analysis is required to understand the demand-supply equation of a good model. However, the theory works well in situations meeting these assumptions.

MICRO ECONOMICS FOUNDATION TOOLS THAT CAN BE USED TO STABILIZE THE DEGREE PROGRAMME IN AKWA IBOM STATE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, AFAHA NSIT

1. Lucrative Environment For Effective Teaching

Many communities recognize that in addition to school facilities being cost effective, they should be more learner- centered, developmentally and age appropriate, safe, comfortable, accessible, flexible, diverse, and equitable. By location of new facilities in residential neighborhoods and partnering with other community-based organizations, schools are becoming true community centers. In addition, schools are taking advantage of educational resources in the community, as well as partnering with museums, zoos, libraries, and other public institutions and local businesses. Based on mounting evidence that smaller schools lead to improved social climate as well as better achievement, school leaders have begun to create smaller schools or have created schools within schools. The design of safe schools increasingly recognizes the desirability of providing natural, unobtrusive surveillance mechanisms, rather than installing checkpoints and security guards. Smaller scaled school buildings allow for both natural surveillance and territorial ownership, where students and teachers are on familiar terms, thereby decreasing the possibility that any one student is overlooked.

The self-contained classroom can no longer provide the variety of learning settings necessary to successfully support project-based, real-world authentic learning. Research indicates that smaller class size is a factor contributing to improved achievement. Learning settings are being designed to support individualized, self-directed learning and small informal group learning, in addition to traditional large-group instruction. Rather than lining up classrooms along a long corridor, instructional areas are being organized around central cores of shared instructional support. A trend in the provision of professional space for teachers has emerged as well. Teacher office space, including desk and storage, phone/fax, and information technologies, is seen as essential to the development of teachers as professionals.

Information technology is precipitating a variety of changes in the organizational and physical form of schools. With respect to instructional processes, technology is facilitating the movement toward project-based, self-directed learning and individualized instruction.

As learning becomes increasingly virtual, web-based, and wireless, it still must physically take place somewhere. As information technology is becoming ubiquitous, more schools are decentralizing technology throughout the school building and across the community.

The trend toward smart buildings, or buildings that are designed and constructed to integrate the technologies of instruction, telecommunications, and building systems, will have increased responsiveness to occupant needs as well as the educational process.

Micro Economics Foundation Tools That Can Be Used To Stabilize the Degree Programme in Akwa Ibom State College Of Education

2. Strategic Planning:

Also, as micro economics students, it is advice that strategic planning is a detailed road map which enables an institution to efficiently and effectively manage its available resources in order to achieve its stated goals and objectives. It is reasonable, therefore, to assert truism to assert that Akwa Ibom State College of Education, Afaha Nsit without strategic planning would find it difficult to achieve stated goals and objectives in regards to her Degree Programme. Effective implementation of strategic plan would in no small measure improve the internal efficiency and invariably the effectiveness of the institution.

Strategic planning is a process through which an examination of the external and internal factors of an organization results in a set of mission, purpose, objectives, policies, plans and programmes for implementation and strategies to achieve them (Higgins,1993). Hunt (1998) elucidated that strategic planning provides a mechanism for enhancing communication between various units of an organization on its strengths and weaknesses in the pursuit of a common set of objectives. This would enhance the organization’s ability to prevent problems.

In fact, Fehnel (2000) aptly noted that strategic planning is a systematic process in which an organization assesses its basic reason for being (that is, its purpose or mission), what its strengths and weaknesses are, and what opportunities and threats it might face in the immediate and foreseeable future. The organization then uses this assessment to decide whether or not to make changes in what it does, how it does it, and with whom it interacts in order to fulfill its purpose. Yepwi (2007) concluded that strategic planning is a comprehensive statement of an organization’s mission, objectives and strategies, adding that it is a detailed roadmap that an organization intends to follow in conducting its activities.

Strategic planning is an exercise of foresight. It is a continuous rolling process of both planning and implementation of plans. It involves reviewing the institution’s mission and setting quantified targets in the context of the internal and external environment of the institution. It is also a collective exercise as all stakeholders should be involved in the process for it to succeed. As a medium to long term form of planning, it generally spans a period of three to five years (NUC, 2003). There is no gain saying the fact that strategic planning remains a veritable tool through which an institution can use to arrive at a desired destination within a short period of time based on analysis of both internal and external factors.

Micro Economics Foundation Tools That Can Be Used To Stabilize the Degree Programme in Akwa Ibom State College Of Education

3. Efficiency:

Efficiency   as a concept, has its origin in economics. It is the optimal relation between inputs and outputs. The internally efficient educational cycle/system is one which turns out graduates without wasting any student-year or without dropouts or repeaters. The system may be externally quite inefficient if the graduate turned out is not what the society, economy or higher level of education wants (Ayo, 1995).

According to Padmanghan (2001), internal efficiency refers to the number of students who pass from one grade to the other and complete that cycle within the stipulated period of time. It shows the relationship between input and output at a given educational level. Gupta (2001) noted that the question of internal efficiency is ultimately linked to the issue of resources allocation and utilization.

The indicators of internal efficiency used by Abdulkareem (1989); Durosaro (1991); Owolabi and Fabunmi (1999); and Afolabi (2006) are wastage rate and graduation rate. Wastage rate is caused by unsuccessful school leavers, who left school system before the completion of the course. Wastage may occur between grade level, among those students who repeated the grade and those who dropped out of the system. Wastage rate could be crude-cohort wastage rate or refined-cohort wastage rate. Crude-cohort wastage rate is the percentage of repeaters and drop-outs from the first year to the final year of academic sessions of a given cohort of students, while refined cohort wastage rate is the percentage of those who passed out or the graduates to the enrolment of the cohort. This is based on the basic fact that not all the students that reached the final year took the final year examination or passed.

Graduation rate refers to the percentage of the students that finally leave the system on completion of the course to the total number that enrolled in the final grade of the level. This is very vital to the work of educational planners because it enables them to compute the input-output ratio in determining the efficacy of the system. Owolabi (2000), in his study, submitted that it was unrealistic to compare the examination results of schools in terms of successful completion of a particular cycle, without at the same time considering the students inputs, and the incidence of drop-outs and the repetition in the institution, which is likely to have a great influence on their performance at their final year. Therefore, the number of students exposed to the available resources will count in their mastery of the content of what is being thought in the lecture room.

Institution with Degree programmes are expected to meet the manpower needs of the society as the products can only be useful by deploying themselves or being employed in the various sectors of the economy. It is, therefore, desirable that the general need for skills and the needs of the labour market be continuously scanned and tracked with a view to making academic curricula respond adequately to them (Chan, 1993). Strategic planning serves as multi-purpose, multi-dimensional and nebulous plan in improving and achieving internal efficiency in such complex organization as the universities. Strategic plan implementation would be of great value in the university in ensuring that there is effective mobilization of the available human and non-human resources to achieve the institution’s goals.

4. Human Relations Skill

Human relations skill is the ability of the educational manager to create a harmonious working relationship. The human relations skill is the ability of a manager to understand, communicate, work and interact harmoniously with the people. Human relations skill is an important skill a school administrator should possess because it enables the administrator to understand himself and others as well as helps him to understand communication process. This skill is quite essential for management of human resources in higher institutions. The administrator’s lack of human relations skill or the failure to use this skill could result in poor interpersonal relationship that can give rise to frequent conflicts.

Micro Economics Foundation Tools That Can Be Used To Stabilize the Degree Programme in Akwa Ibom State College Of Education

5. Conceptual Skill

This skill deals with the ability of the resource manager to think in terms of model framework and broad relationship such as long-range plans for provision and utilization of educational resources. It involves the educational manger working with ideas. The use of conceptual skill helps the educational manager to relate events or activities of resource management and trends in the environment to the school organization.

6. Technical Skill

Technical skill is the ability to use specific knowledge, expertise, and research procedure or technique in performing a job. School administrators and teachers need technical skills to be able to accomplish the mechanics of their job. The acquisition of technical skill enables the institutional administrator to effectively manage and utilize the available scarce resources for achievement of pre-determined goals. Much of the work of a school administrator requires the application of technical skill. He requires some basic technical skills in school financial accounting, budget preparation, school facilities maintenance and operation procedures and service activities to be able to lead his workers. Much respect from workers is derived from the managers technical competence. Without this skill the managers ability to lead and manage resources can be greatly hampered. This type of skill can be acquired through the college or the affiliated university (University of Uyo) courses and workshops or through experience on the job

8. Decision-making Skill

This skill involves the ability of a school administrator to differentiate among types of decision, determine the amount and type of data or information required to take decisions relating to resource management in higher institutions. It also involves the capacity of the administrator to determine the nature and category of people who should take part in decision making for a particular resource management problem. This skill helps the manager to establish priorities for action and to anticipate both intended and unintended consequences of decision taken.

9. Facility Management And Administration

While the planning, design, and construction of the school may take two to three years, the management of it will last the entire life cycle of the facility. At the beginning of the twenty- first century, the mean age of a school building in the United States as forty-two years, with 28 percent of school buildings built before 1950. Many of the building materials, furnishings, and equipment will not last half that long and will require constant upkeep, maintenance, and inevitable replacement to defer building obsolescence. The costs of managing school facilities have historically received much less attention than facility planning. The percentage of the operating budget for the maintenance and management of school facilities has steadily decreased, creating a capital renewal crisis as a result of years of deferred maintenance at all levels of education.

Best practice requires that a comprehensive facility maintenance program be established and monitored by the school district. The maintenance program often includes several distinct programs, including deferred, preventive, repair/upkeep, and emergency maintenance. Responsibility for facility management is divided between the district office and the school site, with the principal being the primary administrator responsible for the day-to-day operation of the school, including custodial, food, and transportation services. Custodians are typically hired by the school district but managed by the principal. Custodial staff is generally responsible for cleaning the building; monitoring the mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems; and providing general maintenance of both building and grounds. District staff is responsible for long-term maintenance programs and the procurement of outsourced services for specialized maintenance projects.

Several environmental quality issues have emerged over the past few decades, such as classroom acoustics, indoor air quality, water quality, energy conservation, and abatement of asbestos, radon, and other hazardous materials. Many of these issues require the services of facility consultants hired through the district. Other issues for the building- level administrator include safety and security, vandalism and threats, and acts of violence and terrorism. All of these functions must be conducted within a constantly changing set of government mandates, such as energy deregulation, accessibility guidelines, codes, and other regulations and guidelines at the state and federal levels.

CONCLUSION

Therefore, to sustain the degree program in the college , the following recommendations are hereby made:

1. The Nigerian Government should ensure that allocation of financial resources in Tertiary Educational Institutions is based on quality of research and number of students.
2. Twenty six percent of the national, state and local government annual budget should be allocated and properly managed for education as UNESCO demands.
3. The apex government should ensure that policy makers consider the full implementation of autonomy of tertiary educational institutions

3. All stakeholders must become involved in the financing – parents and guardians, the society in general, the private sector and non-governmental agencies.
4. Government should develop a realistic tertiary education data-bank as this will help in adequate planning and funding of this level of education, for its success will serve as a buffer for the development of the whole economy

REFERENCES

Abdu, P.S (2003) – “The Cost and Finance of Education in Nigeria “Education Today Quarterly; June, Vol. 10 (1); 12 – 16

Adeyemo, Bade (2000) – “Public School Funding. The Case of Community Mobilization and Effective Management”, in Journal of Educational Development Journal, Vol 1 (2) Pg 27-8

Adedeji, Segun and Babalola, Joel (Eds) (2003) – Contemporary issues in Educational Management: A Book of Honour, ~ Ibadan, Department of Educational Management.

Akintayo, M.O. (2004) “Public Financing and the Problems of Access to University Education” in International Journal of Literacy Education. January – June 2 (1-23).

Babalola. J.B. (1995) Education Costs and Financing Analysis ESP Distance Learning Centre, University of Ibadan.

Fagbulu, (2003) “Cost and Finance of Education” in Education Today Quarterly June 10 (1 ):2-5. 71

International Journal of African & African American Studies Vol. VI, No. 1, Jan 2007