Impact of Educational Management in Building a Skilled and Inclusive Society for National Development in Rivers State Universities

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of educational management in building a skilled and inclusive society for national development in Nigeria. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study, which adopted a descriptive survey design. The population of the study consisted of 360 Lecturers in Educational Management Department of the three public universities in Rivers State, Nigeria. A sample of 144 (82 male and 62 female) lecturers representing 40% of the population was drawn through a stratified random sampling technique. A questionnaire titled “Impact of Educational Management in Building a Skilled and Inclusive Society for National Development Questionnaire (IEMBSISNDQ)” was used for data collection. The instrument, which had 21 items, was adequately validated and the test of reliability index through Cronbach alpha method, yielded 0.86. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the research questions, while z-test at 0.05 significant level was used to test the hypotheses. The results showed that the impacts of educational management in building a skilled society for national development include, among others, enhancing the quality of education for adequate skills development and its impact on building an inclusive society for national development, including the promotion of culturally responsive education that values diversity of students. The study revealed that the challenges of educational management in building a skilled and inclusive society for national development include, among others, inadequate infrastructure and inadequate funding of education. Based on the findings, conclusion was drawn, and the following recommendations, among others, were made: government should increase budgetary allocation to education. School curricular should be adequately reviewed to reflect the needs of the learners and society in terms of building of skills and an inclusive society.