Maintaining Quality in Office Technology and Management Programme through Improved Funding in Polytechnics in South West, Nigeria

Abstract

The role of funding in quality education has been a matter of consideration for stakeholders in recent times. To ensure education programmes are relevant, this study examined ways of maintaining quality of office technology and management programme through improved funding in polytechnics in South Western States, Nigeria. The purpose of the study was to find out if there is any relationship between funding and quality of office technology and management programme in polytechnics. Two research questions and one hypothesis were raised to guide the study. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. A sample of 80 academic staff and 205 graduating students were used for the study from the total population of 80 office technology and management academic staff and 427 higher national diploma graduating students in the department of office technology and management in six polytechnics in South Western States, Nigeria. The research instrument was a 4-point scale likert-type questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the research questions while Simple Linear Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that there was a significant influence of funding on quality of office technology and management programme (t = 8.465, p < 0.05). The study concluded that funding plays an important role in the quality of office technology and management programme in polytechnics in South Western States, Nigeria. The study recommended that government should give education sector priority in the national budget and increased allotment of funds should be given to educational programmes such as OTM which empower graduates for self-development. An increase in funding to OTM programme is recommended to increase its capacity for effective results.