2. CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.2 Examining Key Concepts
2.2.3 Physical Resources
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survive or carry out its functions effectively without adequate financial resources at its disposal. Money is needed to keep the services going. Thus sufficient money is needed to buy text books, establish new buildings, buy equipment and maintain other services that are required by a school to carry out its functions as an educational institution. Onuoha-Chidiebere (2011) adds that money is required to acquire the other resources. Ehiametalor (2003) agrees that, resources for achievement of school goals include equipment, buildings, learners, teachers, non-teachers, money and materials. These resources are very important such that no school system can give qualitative teaching and learning without them. Afolabi et al., (2008) emphasise that education should be relevant to the needs of the economy and society.
Accordingly, resources are essential tools needed in the effective performance of tasks in education.
In this study I focused on two types of educational resources namely, material and physical, since they are the foundation of education and without them there is no schooling that can take place (Ehiametator, 2003; Olagunju & Abiona, 2008; Onuoha-Chidiebere, 2011; Alaka &
Obadara, 2013).
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chalkboard and office assistants‟ tools such as brooms and cleaning materials. The availability of a library, school buildings, furniture, laboratories, textbooks, teaching and learning resources are symbols of high education quality (Sigilai, 2013). According to Owoeye and Yara (2011) the library is an essential resource in the teaching and learning process. The main purpose of a school library is to avail to learners, at easy convenience, all books, periodicals, and other reproduced materials which are of interest and value to them but, which are not assigned as basic or supplementary textbooks. In addition, as a resource, the library occupies a central and primary place in any school system. It supports all functions of school-teaching and provides service and guidance to readers. According to the EDSEC policy (2011) the government of Swaziland points out the importance of a library as a need that every public secondary school must be introduced to and be well resourced. Therefore, the library should be up-to-date and at the same time allow access to older materials. Sigilai (2013) admits that individual reading done in the library is beneficial to learners. It is where learners get to update class work with individual research and reading. However, the experience is not smooth because libraries are poorly stocked and most books are obsolete in other schools. On the other hand, in well established schools, libraries are well-built, modern and conducive for research.
A number of research findings have shown that the success of any educational endeavour rests on the availability of physical facilities especially the school buildings. For example, Owoeye and Yara (2011) observe that the availability of school buildings and other plans contribute to good academic performance and they enhance effective teaching and learning activities. The total environment within a school building should be comfortable, pleasant and psychologically uplifting. It should provide a passive physical setting that is educationally stimulating, produce a feeling of well-being among its occupants and it should support the educational process. But this can be met through the cooperative efforts of imaginative teachers and administrators.
Clarke (2007) succinctly puts it that school buildings are very vital input to the educational system and emphasises that even though they do not teach but their use may either facilitate or encumber learning. Clarke (2007) also stresses that education institutions from nursery to university require buildings for their effective operations. Classrooms, offices, assembly halls, laboratories and teachers‟ quarters are needed. So, important items like furniture for staff and learners, books, science equipment, games and sport equipment should be adequate in number and they should all be in good conditions for schools to function properly. The laboratory has been conceptualised as a room or a building especially built for teaching by demonstration of theoretical phenomenon into practical terms (Owoeye & Yara, 2011). A laboratory stimulates
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learners‟ interests as they are made to personally engage in useful scientific activities and experimentation. It promotes long-term memory for knowledge obtained through the laboratory work. The laboratory affords learners with basic skills and scientific methods of problem solving. It also helps provide a forum where learners are given the exercise to subjects, beliefs, ideas, statements or theoretical propositions to some forms of experiential test (Owoeye &
Yara, 2011).
Olatoun (2012) stresses that efficient management of school physical facility is mandatory in order to make the school a pleasant, safe and comfortable centre for community activities. The school administrator has to play a major task in the management of all the physical facilities.
Schools should be conversant with universal principles of managing physical facilities. Proper application and understanding of such principles would contribute to correcting deficiencies in physical facilities‟ management practices and in turn would facilitate instructional programmes in schools. Further, physical facilities are essential materials that must be put in place and into consideration for the objectives of the school system to be accomplished. Also, the availability of these facilities determines the quality of instructional and performance of learners in the school (Olatoun, 2012). Onuoha-Chidiebere (2011) confirms that physical facilities are very important in teaching and learning processes. Their effective management can yield good results. According to Ehiametalor (2003) in a school where the buildings are not enough, the classes will be overcrowded. In a situation where seats are inadequate, learners are forced to sit on the floor, thus learning becomes difficult. Facilities just like human resources need to be managed to increase productivity. Ehiametalor (2003, p. 14) further notes that;
“School facilities are the operational inputs of every instructional programme.
The school is like a manufacturing organisation where plants and equipment must be in a top operational shape to produce results. Efficiency in the production function depends on how well the plants have been maintained”.
Onuoha-Chidiebere (2011) adds that schools that have well managed physical facilities and instructional materials such as libraries with books, equipped laboratories, teaching and learning materials both visual and audio-visual will perform better than where the facilities are not available or where they are available but not properly managed. This is because learners learn better with their five senses. They like to see, hear, touch, smell and taste. So, facilities should be provided to schools. On the other hand, schools should make sure that the facilities
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are properly managed. This is because without effective and efficient management of teaching resources, the objectives of education will not be achieved.
Sigilai (2013) observes that schools with adequate resources such as laboratories stand a better chance of performing better in examinations than poorly equipped schools. The availability of teaching and learning resources enhance the effectiveness of schools and these are basic things that can bring about good academic performance in learners. Effective schools together with the availability of all educational resources can bring about learners that perform well academically. The implication of this opinion is that teachers should be effectively involved to transfer knowledge and facts to learners for good performance.
Thus, in this study, physical resources refer to educational inputs which include classrooms, libraries, laboratories and workshops necessary in aiding the teaching and learning process to facilitate the performance of any school organisation. The physical resource availability and contribution therefore, add to school performance and produce best outcomes for the schools.