IMPACT OF GOVERNMENT EDUCATIONAL SPENDING ON PERFORMANCE OF STUDENTS IN SSCE IN KADUNA STATE

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to analyze the Impact of Government Educational Spending on Students Performance in SSCE In Kaduna State, Nigeria. Education remains the largest industry and government funding for education in the state is low compared to some other states such as Cross-river, Lagos, FCT, Enugu and Kwara. The impact of government spending on students’ performance in SSCE in Kaduna State is an unresolved issue, yet, the modality at which government spends on education has enormous effects on how students perform in secondary schools especially in SSCE. This research used questionnaire to collect data on the socioeconomic factors that affects students’ performance in SSCE in Secondary schools. This study made use of WAEC results to obtain the general performance of students relative to government spending on secondary education. Based on the nature of data, a multi-staged sampling method was used to select three local government areas from each senatorial zone so as to ensure that the sample size is a good representation of the population of the study. The study employed questionnaire method with both descriptive and inferential statistic (Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and cross tabulation techniques as means of analysis. The results showed significant relationship between government expenditure and academic performance, significant difference between academic performance of students who had access to educational facilities such as textbooks and other learning materials and those students who do not have. The major recommendation of this study is Successive Nigerian governments must give top priority to education financing. A situation where the country spends an insignificant proportion of total government expenditure and gross domestic product on education leaves much to be desired. As a matter of urgency, government should massively invest in education.