ABSTRACT

This study examined the influence of federal government policy on the extent of implementation of universal basic education in Abia state, Nigeria. The study adopted an ex-post facto research design. A sample of 345 teachers drawn from a population of 624 teachers in fifteen upper basic schools in the three education zones of Abia state was used for the study. The sample was arrived at using proportionate stratified random sampling technique. The instrument for data collection was a 30-item researcher developed questionnaire titled: Federal Government Educational Policies and School Management Questionnaire (FEGEPSMQ). The face validation of the instrument was carried out by three experts: two in educational administration and planning and one in measurement and evaluation all from college of education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia state. The internal consistency aspect of the reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach alpha statistic which yielded an overall index of 0.72. The instrument has six clusters with 4-point response scale of Very High Extent, High Extent, Low Extent, and Very Low Extent with 4, 3, 2, and 1 ratings respectively. The data was collected by the researcher with the help of three research assistants. Out of the 345 copies of the questionnaire administered, 315 representing 91% of the entire instrument distributed were returned and used for data analysis. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviations to answer the six research questions raised for the study while t- test statistic was used to analyze the six hypotheses that guided the study at 0.05 level of significant. The results showed among others that manpower training and adequate funding influence the implementation of Universal basic education to a very high extent while good physical facilities, work force recruitment, supervision and evaluation of overall policy on education respectively influence the implementation of Universal basic education to a high extent.