An Evaluation Of The Contributions Of Non-Governmental Organisations To Non-Formal Education In Lagos State

 ABSTRACT

The study ascertained the extent to which Non-Governmental Organizations' culture influence on staff quality (i.e., commitment and motivation) as well as to determine the contributions of NGOs culture and effective programme delivery and achievement of non-formal education goals. The study was limited to sixty non-governmental organizations involved in non-formal education delivery in Lagos State, with the management and staff of these organizations serving as respondents. The beneficiaries of the non-formal education programme served as respondents. Stakeholders in non-formal education were also used as respondents. The research design employed in the study was a combination of Ex post facto and survey research designs. The ex post-facto research design was adopted because the phenomenon in question (that is non-formal education intervention programmes) has taken place before the study was undertaken. The survey research design was considered suitable due to its power to help ascertain the interrelationships among NGO 's culture, staff quality programme delivery and achievement of non-formal education goals. A total ofJou; hundred and sixty subjects were used as sample in the study. They were made up of 60 management staff, 120 field staff, 120 beneficiaries and 160 stakeholders from 20 Local Government Areas of Lagos State. They were selected using different sampling techniques such as simple random, equal sample size, systematic and purposive sampling technique. The instrument used in gathering the data is the questionnaire: four major sets of questionnaire were developed by the researcher. These are: management of NGOs questionnaire (MANGOQUESI), NGOs staff Questionnaire (NGOSTAQUEST), NGOs Non-formal education Beneficiaries Questionnaire (NGONFEBQUESI), NGOs Non-formal Education Stakeholders Questionnaire (NGONFESTAKQUESI). A pilot study was carried out before the main study and was used to test the reliability of the research instruments. Reliability coefficients of0.99, 0.99, 0.88 and 0.95 were obtained for MANGOQUEST, NGOSTAQUEST, NGONFESTAKQUEST and NGONFEBQUEST respectively. A total of four hundred and sixty copies of the questionnaire were administered to the selected subjects. The data collected were used to develop a frequency distribution table for analysis. The descriptive statistics of simple percentage was used in presenting the data collected. The operational statistics of Regression Analysis and the I-test were employed in testing all stated hypotheses at 0.05 confidence level. A conceptual model was developed to ascertain factors that contributed to staff quality and achievement of non-formal education goals. The model was tested and redesigned to reflect the outcome of the study. The findings obtained in the study are summarized below. From the analysis of data, it was revealed that NGOs' strong culture greatly influenced staff quality (commitment and motivation). Likewise, NGOs' strong culture and staff quality facilitated effective delivery of non-formal education programmes. Cumulatively, NGOs' strong culture and staff quality made the acquisition of vocational skills, development of health and psycho-social behaviour and promotion of political participation possible. It was discovered from the study that there is no correlation between personality trait,family, societal values and NGOs staff quality.. Lack offinancial and human resources constituted major limitations to NGOs' contributions to the achievement of non- formal education goals. Women education and empowerment programmes (health, literacy and vocational education) provided by NGOs had positive influence on the behaviours of the beneficiaries. Specifically, it has led to the development of behaviours (psycho-social, promotion of political participation, and development of health behaviour) among the recipients. However, the study found out that the socio-economic level of the beneficiaries was unaffected by the non-formal education programmes. The vocational education programmes delivered by NGOs contributed to acquisition of vocational skills, but there was no significant effect on the promotion of political participation level of the beneficiaries. Similarly, the health education programmes provided by NGOs made positive significant changes in the health behaviour and awareness level of the beneficiaries, but there was no significant effect on the psycho-social behaviour of recipients of the programmes. The literacy education programme provided by NGOs in the study made positive significant changes in the development of psycho-social, health behaviour, and increase in socio-economic level of the beneficiaries but not_in literacy skills.