Appraisal of Management of Sandwich Programmes of Colleges of Education in South South Nigeria

Abstract

The objectives of sandwich programmes of colleges of education are to enable serving teachers to improve their knowledge, skills and competencies for effective performance of their duties. However, it has been claimed that the sandwich programmes of colleges of education are not properly managed as to accomplish the specified objectives. One then wonders whether these sandwich programmes are actually managed in conformity with the established NCCE guidelines. The general purpose of the study, therefore, was to appraise the management of sandwich programmes of federal and state colleges of education in South South Nigeria. The study adopted an evaluative survey design. It was guided by six research questions and four null hypotheses. The study population were nine colleges of education in the South South Nigeria. Through purposive sampling two colleges that run sandwich programme in the study area were selected. There were 231 respondents, comprising 67 heads of units, 144 senior administrative staff that are at the rank of Assistant Registrar and above in the two colleges of education in South South Nigeria that run sandwich programmes and also 20 sandwich students that were used for the Focus Group Discussion. Data for the study were collected with four research instruments that included A 40-item researcher-developed questionnaire, observation rating scale, focus group discussion guideline and documentary evidence. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while the null hypotheses were tested with t-test statistic at 0.05 level of significance. Some major findings of the study were that: The colleges of education in South South Nigeria to a great extent adhered to the NCCE guidelines on planning of sandwich programmes, financial management for sandwich programmes, personnel management, communication and supervision of sandwich programmes. Conversely, the colleges of education in South South Nigeria, to a little extent, adhered to the NCCE guidelines on provision and management of physical facilities and equipment for sandwich programmes. The results of the study also showed that there was no significant difference between the mean ratings of heads of units and senior administrative staff of federal and state colleges of education on the extent to which colleges of education in South South Nigeria adhere to the NCCE guidelines on planning for: sandwich programmes, personnel management for sandwich programmes, and communication for sandwich programmes, among others. From the research findings, some recommendations were made which include: the sandwich programmes of colleges of education should be planned well ahead of their commencement in order to have ample time for the procurement and allocation of the factor resources required for their effective implementation; in planning for sandwich programmes, the colleges of education should give adequate considerations to the availability of the required funds, personnel, physical facilities, equipment and instructional materials for the sandwich programmes; colleges of education should diversify the sources of funds for the sandwich programmes so as to have enough funds to run their programmes effectively and efficiently, among others.