₦airaland Forum

ABSTRACT
This assignment is focused on revealing the role of communication to having the status of being a life-wire to organisations. It reveals how communication plays a pertinent role in its normal function.

ECOLOGY OF EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Ecology of Educational Management involves considering certain aspects in the school system that are managerial, pedagogical, organisational, and technological which enhances the educational organisation in its internal and external ecology.
Management of the educational ecology involves performing the strategic analysis that are educational. Making decisions managers should take into consideration both external and internal factors that influences the process of identification and evaluation of possible techniques and methods aimed at achieving their goals. From the holistic perspective, educational management needs multiple perspectives to be considered in the context of providing constant higher school improvement. Education managers must take every advantage of traditional management tools and approaches to both education and management.
Thus, educational managers take into account both external and internal tactical determinants that might affect their operation and influence the choice of actions and methods used for achieving their educational ecological goals. In order to collect and analyze necessary data managers employ environmental scanning: environmental factors internal to the organization are categorized as strengths and weaknesses; the external factors are categorized as opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis). In relation to the external environment, managers considers the following:
a) the main macroenvironment forces (political-legal, economic, socio-cultural, and technological - PEST;
b) microenvironment actors customers, suppliers, distributors, competitors.

WHO ARE EDUCATIONAL ADMINISTRATORS?
Oshemughen (2016) looks at Educational Administrators as those individuals or groups that initiates the process of implementing educational policies and programmes by utilising both human and material resources in order to achieve the set educational goals of effective teaching and learning by engaging in the POSDCORB activities at the micro level.

WHAT IS EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT?
Educational Management (Oshemughen, 2016) is the process of formulating educational policies and programmes by utilising both human and material resources, in order to achieve the educational goals of effective and efficient teaching and learning, by engaging in the activities of planning, organising, staffing, directing, coordinating and controlling, reporting and budgeting (POSDCORB) at a macro level.

WHAT IS ECOLOGY OF EDUCATION?
The philosophical-methodological basis of the various trends of modern human ecology became also the grounds for the development of ecology of education as an interdisciplinary trend of human ecology. Ecology of Education is one of the trends of human ecology; the interdiscipline integrating natural, social sciences, and the humanities, which studies the interaction between a human being as individual and/or social systems and the multidimensional environment from the holistic perspective, viewing education as the facilitator of the sphere, process, result, and development of human activity in the aspect of human and environmental quality/trait. Due to the variety of the trends of human ecology, the varied explanations and interpretation of the concept environment are also transferred to educational ecology:
1) environment — it is us (social environment);
2) environment is everything that surrounds us and is outside us;
3) environment — the totality of the reflections of real things, phenomena, processes in the human psyche;
4) environment is a multilevel ecological system (ecosystem), within which a human being is as an endosystem, sub-structure of ecosystem;
5) environment is a multi-component and multi-functional system of interaction, where a human being is an integral part of environment;
6) environment as an interaction process;
7) environment as the sphere of human activities;
environment as the field of semantics;
9) environment as a resource; and
10) environment as a means for social stratification.

WHAT IS ECOLOGY?
Ecology is the branch of biology concerned with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. The semantics of the concept ecology for many scientists is still related merely to the research in the field of natural sciences, first of all, in the field of animal and/or plant ecology as well as to the solution of nature protection and sustainability problems nowadays. It has its substantiation, since the term ecology in the scientific terminology was introduced by a German Zoologist E. Haeckel. During the 20th century there emerged and developed new scientific conceptions and theories, representing different sub-trends of human ecology, because the ecological paradigm became an transdisciplinary scientific paradigm. The new trends of human ecology began to develop on the basis of particular sciences, focusing the scientists' attention towards one or several environmental contexts. In human ecology we can distinguish psychological ecology/ecology of psychology, economic ecology, politecology/ecological politology, social ecology, cultural ecology, art ecology, family ecology, anthropological ecology, deep ecology/ecosophy as environmental ethics, educational ecology/ecology of education, etc.

INTRODUCTION
The school is a social system in a controlled environment where formal education is offered which is located in a well defined place. Ecology is surmountable to environment which is the surrounding in which a person objevts or situation exists or occurs. The ecology of education therfore, is a place where social interactions exist among pupils or students, teachers, and other workers within the school community and its surroundings.
The school is an extension of the home in the larger community. Invariably, the school is influenced by various factors. For better understanding, the keypoints of this assignment needs clarification which has been made lucid below:

Keywords - Educational Ecology (Ecology of Education - Educational Environment), Educational Management, Educational Administrator

ABSTRACT
The complex pattern of different contributory factors forms the background of educational management. Strategic decisions made by education managers are concerned with the entire educational ecology they are operating in, the main activities of the organization, the integrated resources and the people of the organization. The purpose of this oeuvre analyses the denotation of the ecology of educational management. The paper also reveals the relevance of the ecology of educational management to educational administrators.

REFERENCES:
Abagbodi Ibezimako. The Pointer: Funding Of Education In Nigeria: A Collective Responsibility Of Stakeholders. Retrieved on the 2nd of May, 2019 from: https://thepointernewsonline.com/?p=40771

Adams O.E. and Fidelis O.I. (2014). Educational Administration for Tertiary Schools: An Introductory Text. Benin City: Masega Publishers

Activista (2013). Right to Education: Education Financing. Retrieved on the 5th of May, 2019 from: https://www.right-to-education.org/issue-page/education-financing

Oshemughen H.O. (2016). Fundamentals of Educational Administration, Planning, and Supervision for Tertiary Educational Institutions. Warri: COEWA Publishers

Otive Igbuzor (2006). FINANCING QUALITY BASIC EDUCATION IN NIGERIA. Retrieved on the 5th of May, 2019 from: www.gamji.com/article6000/NEWS6345.htm

Paul Nwakpar (2016). Alternative Sources of Financing Secondary Education in Ebonyi State by the School Administrators. United Kingdom: European Centre for Research Training and Development. (  www.eajournals.org  )

Toluwalope (2016). GemAnalyst: Sources of funding Education in Nigeria. Retrieved on the 3rd of May, 2019 from: www.gemanalyst.com/sources-of-funding-for-educational-programs-in-nigeria/

CONCLUSION
Having gone through the sources of funding education in Nigeria, it is the belief of the writer that the government should not be the only epitome of source that needs to be watched; every other sources should be inculcated alongside the government to develop education in the country (Nigeria) for it's a joint responsibility.
Education is a huge capital venture. Annually, the educational sector is given some shares of the budget. A school needs huge sum of money to procure the necessary things for learning. No farmer does well in his farm without a cutlass and a good cutlass cannot be on hand without enough money. The performance of a School can be enhanced through proper funding if adequate funding is realised. It will be unfair to leave education funding to the government alone for not all schools are well funded.
There is no amount of money that is enough to fund education in Nigeria neither is there no amount of money that is too much to fund education. There is the rising need to involve co-operate and other private organizations to partake in the funding of education as the task of funding education should be a collective responsibility by all stakeholders and not the government alone.

20. LOCAL GOVERMENT ACTIVITIES
Nigeria is made up of 774 local government areas which generate fund through taxes from traders, motor parks, abbattoirs, etc. Part of the monies generated are sometimes used to finance education at the local level.

21. GOVERNMENT AGENCIES
Government agencies like Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), Universal Basic Education Commission (UBEC), which are specially set up for the purpose of education finance to finance education related activities, are also good source of finance for education in Nigeria.

22. CORPORATE EFFORT/ACTIVITIES
Bid corporate bodies in Nigeria like Central Bank, Niger Delta Development Commission, Oil Companies, etc. are veritable source of finance for education in Nigeria. Some of them actually sponsor building libraries and construction projects in schools.

19. ENDOWMENT/DONATIONS
Since endowment is the money given to schools, colleges, or any institution to provide it with income, thus, organisations and personalities in the society, sometimes, provide this kind of money which eventually acts as a source of finance for respective schools.

18. GRANTS
These are the sources of fund that comes through the government through budgeting allocation. Government provides allocation and funds for education through grants. Grants can be categorized into 3 groups which are:
I. Capital Grant: This is the bulk of payments to educational institutions for the construction of new buildings and major repair of old ones.
II. Recurrent Grant: These are for expenditure which occurs every year in the budget. They include salaries, allowance, maintenance, traveling and transport expenses, and expenditure on student meals and so on.
III. Special Grant: This is like an aid by the federal or state local government to the service school. Some government special grant enable schools improve the quality of education, structure special programs and much more. It should be noted that the grant is not meant for every school as it is only given after certain considerations. Grants for tertiary schools are usually received and disbursed by regulatory institutions such as NCCE, UBE,NBTE and so on.

17. STATE GOVERNMENT BUDGETARY ALLOCATION
Just like the federal government budgetary allocation, every state of the federation is expected to allocate money through the budget to be spent for education at the beginning of every financial year.

14. ALUMNI CONTRIBUTIONS
The effect put in place by old students of the educational institutions comes as alumni contribution. They meet from time-to-time and work hand-in-hand with school authorities. They identify significant projects and fund same.

15. EDUCATION TAX FUND (ETF)
Now known as Tertiary Education Tax Fund (TETFund). It was formally known as ETF (Education Tax Fund). It was introduced in 1993 to raise fund for the education sector. TETFund was established as an intervention agency under the TETFund ACT – Tertiary Education Trust Fund(Establishment, etc) Act, 2011; charged with the responsibility for managing, disbursing and monitoring the education tax to public tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The TETFund act requires all registered companies in Nigeria to pay a tax of 2% on their assessable profit. The money is shared in the ratio 50:25:25, with Universities getting 50% and colleges and polytechnics each getting 25% apiece.

16. RENTALS
Some staff quarters either built by the community effort or the state attract revenue through the rents paid by teachers but the amount derived from this source is usually insignificant. At the level of tertiary institutions such as the Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education, such rentals also constitute internal revenue base.

11. INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
International Organisations are external aids who gives assistance to educational institutions from outside the country. It may be in the form of equipment and manpower through bilateral and multilateral relations. External aids could come from organizations such as the world bank, UNESCO, USAID, Ford Foundation, PTF, (International Bank for Reconstruction and Development), British Council, UNICEF, etc.

12. SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
A large portion of economic activities which are internally generated activities, for example farming, large scale activities, baking, etc help finance school activities. For example in the university of lagos, there is a dedicated bottled water producer within the school premises, affiliated with the University of Lagos called UNILAG water. Also, there is a bread manufacturer affiliated with the University of Lagos known as UNILAG bread. Also, institutions run part time programs to generate funds. This is referred to as an alternative source of educational funding. Activities like Inter-house sports, graduation ceremonies, founder's day, etc. do act as avenues to generate fund which is used to supplement other sources for financing education in Nigerian basic schools.

13. COMMUNITY EFFORTS
The leadership of some communities endeavour to bring education closer to theor people, hence, efforts are put in place to donate lands, blocks of classroom, chairs and tables, and in some cases, influential persons help to attract special grants from government and other agencies.

2. USE OF DIRECT LABOUR
The Chief Executive can make use of direct labour in carrying out school projects in order to reduce expenses instead of using contractors. This is a good source of financing education.

3. PAYMENT FOR EXTRA LESSON
School Principals could organise extra lessons for students after the official school hours. The proceeds could be used to do some works in the school by the school authority after compensating the teachers for their extra efforts.

4. PROCEEDS FROM SCHOOL ACTIVITIES
School activities represents another good source of funding education. They include such activities as sales of students hand craft, sales of books and stationeries, staging of school plays and raffles, sales of farm products from the school farm, funds raising activities can be organised by the school authorities where parents could be invited to raise money for school projects.

5. APPEAL FUND RAISING
The school authority could appeal in writing to wealthy persons in the community where the school is located for financial assistance in order to develop their school. This practice could yield promising results if well articulated.

6. COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT
The school administrator cannot successfully run the school in isolation without the involvement of the community people. The community will help the school in carrying out its policies especially in the area of discipline and settlement of disputes involving both the students, staffs, and community. The community should be used to supply both free and cheap labour to the school if cordial relationship exist between the school and the community.

7. DONATION
A good school principal who has a good relationship with the community will be able to attract both financial and material donations from the people of the community where the school is located including scholarships., to his students. The principal should know when and how to organise fund raising in his school so as to get people's donations to his school.

8. ALUMNI
Effective use of the Old Students' Association (Alumni) by the school authority is always very helpful and healthy to the school. This association, normally, provides both cash and materials for the growth and development of their alma-mater. Every good school principal utilises this source to finance his school.

9. NON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGO)
Since the financing of education is a joint responsibility and involves the private sector, bringing an NGO which is an association registered under the societies registration act, public trust act, and the companies act with general body, executive, paid staff and volunteers, then a good school administrator must avail himself the opportunity of involving any of the NGOs in the state in funding his school in any form. Thus, every school principal should learn how to blow his trumpet and execute his school projects.

10. SCHOOL FEES
This is a source of financing education in Nigeria. Though tuition is free in all federal colleges and institutions, but for full time students in state and private institutions tuition is paid. Other components of school fees known as sundry & service charges include medical fees, examination fees, sport fees, and ID card fees.

1. PARENTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION (P.T.A.)
The P.T.A. helps the state government in one way or the other in managing the affairs of the school. Normally, every students pay the termly levy of the P.T.A. which is managed by the school authority in conjuction with the P.T.A. officials. In many cases, this P.T.A. levy is used in providing P.T.A. teachers, some school facilities, and to make repairs. Apart from provision of both human and material resources, P.T.A. motivates both students and teachers by giving awards and scholarships to exceptional students and teachers. This goes a long way to encourage hard work and commitment in the school.

SOURCES OF FUNDING EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
Sources of funding educational organisations/institutions in Nigeria are avenues through which finance come into the educational system. These finances are used to maintain the educational (secondary school) system. These sources includes the following:
1. Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A.)
2. Use of Direct Labour
3. Payment for Extra Lesson
4. Proceeds from School Activities
5. Appeal Fund Raising
6. Community Involvement
7. Donation
8. Alumni
9. Non-Governmental Organisation
10. School Fees
11. International Organisations
12. School Activities
13. Community Effort
14. Alumni Contributions
15. Education Tax Fund (ETF)
16. Rentals
17. State Government Budgetary Allocation
18. Grants
19. Endowments/Donations
20. Local Government Activities
21. Government Agencies
22. Corporate Effort/Activities

An educational organisation is made up of different human and material resources that needs to be financially catered for in order to achieve the educational organisation set goals. Basically there are two very broad entities in charge of funding educational programs in Nigeria which are Governmental and Non-Governmental.

Under international law, Nigeria have the obligation to use the maximum of her available resources to realise the right to education. Even when her resources are very limited, she is obliged to prioritise certain immediate obligations, such as the introduction of free primary education and to guarantee education for all without discrimination. She is also obliged to provide progressively free secondary and higher education and to continuously improve the quality of education. This means that she must take immediate and progressive steps to fully realise the right to education and must not take retrogressive measures.

CONCEPT OF FINANCING EDUCATION
One major question about financing education is who should finance education? The argument has always been whether the cost of education should be borne by government or by individuals receiving education. There has been a lot of debate about cost of education especially on who should bear the cost. The debate can be crudely reduced to three groups. The first group is made up of those who argue that cost of education should be borne essentially by parents with government providing the enabling environment. They are of the view that education should be subjected to free market discipline. This group posits “that families and individuals ought to pay fees in order to access nominally available public services, otherwise these services would not be available or their quality would become unacceptably low.”The problem with the position of this group is that those who are poor will not be able to pay and they will be denied access. The second group argues that education is a right, which must be funded by government. They argue that there are enough resources in the world to fund at least basic education for all children. They posit that the problem is that of corruption, misplaced priority, inequality and poor policy choices. They argue that education should not only be free but also compulsory. They are of the view that government should bear all the costs because even if the direct costs of education are borne by government, the indirect costs (such as uniform, transport and school meals) may be beyond the capacity of the family while the opportunity cost may be impossible to bear. They argue that no right could exist without corresponding government obligation and that government is obliged to make education available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable. The third group while coming from the rights based approach like the second group posits that education is a right and government must not only endeavor to remove all the barriers to education but must also take steps to utilize to the maximum of its available resources to achieve progressively the full realisation of the right to education and other social and economic rights. They argue that there are three layers of obligations in matters of social and economic rights: obligations to respect, protect and fulfill.

INTRODUCTION
The three tiers of government is publicly seen and believed to be the collective-entity behind dishing out the exclusive service when it comes to education in Nigeria. Those who believed that the funding of education will be too cumbersome for government alone, agitated that there must be a paradigm shift to imbibe new core values that would align with other global realities of the rapid technological changes.
On funding of education, one makes bold to say that the federal government owes it a responsibility to co-ordinate things that would promote educational growth and development in the country. Education in Nigeria is often times viewed as an exclusive service of the government. It has always been the belief of the public that the funding of education is the sole responsibility of the three tiers of government. Those who believed that the funding of education will be too cumbersome for government alone, agitated that there must be a paradigm shift to imbibe new core values that would align with other global realities of the rapid technological changes.
Education in Nigeria is often times viewed as an exclusive service of the government. It has always been the belief of the public that the funding of education is the sole responsibility of the three tiers of government. Those who believed that the funding of education will be too cumbersome for government alone, agitated that there must be a paradigm shift to imbibe new core values that would align with other global realities of the rapid technological changes.
Educational policies are not often government based. It has to do with demand. The fact is that policies cannot take place without conflict which is the brain child for new educational policies. It is based on the will of the people and since the policy makers in education and other stakeholders are in the business of providing education, it is, therefore, necessary for both parties to join hands in funding education and should not be exclusively left in the hands of the government.
There is no amount of money that is enough to fund education in Nigeria neither is there no amount of money that is too much to fund education. There is the rising need to involve co-operate and other private organizations to partake in the funding of education as the task of funding education should be a collective responsibility by all stakeholders.

SOURCES OF FUNDING EDUCATION IN NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this oeuvre is to thoroughly highlight the sources of funding Nigerian education by exposing its related concepts.
Keywords - Education, Funding, Government, Nigeria

REFERENCES:
Adams O.E. (2019). A Handbook for Effective Educational Supervision and Planning. Benin City: Masega Publisher

CSEA Africa (2018): Achieving Quality Education For All in Nigeria. Retrieved on the 10th of May, 2019 from: cseaafrica.org/achieving-quality-education-for-all-in-nigeria/

Rhealyn Pojas (2018). Island Times: Difference between output and outcome in educational context. Retrieved on the 10th of May, 2019 from: islandtimes.us/difference-between-output-and-outcome-in-educational-context/

Sunday Aikulola (2016). The Guardian: Factors that hinder quality education in Nigeria, by Ezekwesili, others. Retrieved on the 10th of May, 2019 from: https://m.guardian.ng/features/factors-that-hinder-quality-education-in-nigeria-by-ezekwesili-others/

REFERENCES:
Adams O.E. (2019). A Handbook for Effective Educational Supervision and Planning. Benin City: Masega Publisher

Ada Okoli (2018). FlexiSAF: Quality Education, Standards & the Factors Involved. Retrieved on the 7th of May, 2019 from: https://blogs.flexisaf.com/quality-education-in-nigeria/

National College for Teaching and Leadership. Understanding inputs, outputs and outcomes. Retrieved on the 3rd of May, 2019 from: https://www.nationalcollege.org.uk/transfer/open/adsbm-phase-5-module-5-managing-strategic-finances/adsbm-p5m5-s3/adsbm-p5m5-s3t2_M.html

1. Making provision for man power requirements: Smart schools focuses on teachers. It has been demonstrated that teacher quality affects a child’s education by as much as 70%. This means that not only does the teacher have to be academically sound, they should be trained in education i.e passing on their knowledge and they should ideally be motivated individuals with a passion for the occupation.
2. Ensuring proper allocation of resources: According to Dr. Oby Ezekwesili: "When I was the Minister of Education, we discovered that the more the funding for education, the less the success rate by students. That shows the issue was not funding." In some private schools where funds are more readily available, they still fail to invest in the right teaching aids and tools that will actually impact learning in this 21st century. A lot more can still be done when it comes to subsidizing the cost of education for schools' infrastructures (equipments and facilities), e.g. overcrowded classrooms, lack of laboratory equipment or even basic writing materials in some rural schools hinder quality learning and resources must be invested into these schools for them to be successful.
3. Accelerating the development of education in responding to the needs and goals of the society: In relation with the curriculum, some subjects simply do not reflect the times that we live in. A qualitative educational plan brews up a high quality curriculum which is one that meets the present needs of a society and equips the student for further life and work in that society. With the way the world is going, there definitely need to be a further plan for making a revised curriculum that scraps some less important areas and emphasise skills like STEAM thinking, project based learning, and other innovative areas.

The problematic scenario above which is related to a failing educational output could only be qualified through the implementation of a quality educational plan. In no particular order, these are some of the main areas in which educational planning influenced Nigerian educational output in great educational systems:

Unfortunately, many Nigerian degree holders, having passed through secondary and tertiary institutions, still fail to meet up to this standards. In fact, it has been suggested that a lot of tertiary degree holders of today are comparable to first school certificate degree holders of the past years.

One thing is clear: Over the past few decades, a lot is left to be desired with the output of Nigerian educational system – its graduates (overall educational output).
One don’t even have to go as far as comparing WAEC or JAMB pass-fail rates over the years. A significant look is taken at the educational output. The goal of a formal education is to churn out a well-rounded individual who at the bare minimum is fluent in writing, comprehending and speaking the language (English in this case), with sound numeracy and logical reasoning skills. Additional desirable traits would be a capacity to solve problems and create a positive impact in return on the society.