Implementing Agricultural Education Programmes in Colleges of Education Through Effective Management of Institutional Resources in South Eastern Nigeria

In tertiary institutions in Nigeria, there is a serious financial challenge arising from government's under-funding and lack of executive capacity to judiciously spend earmarked funds and account for the expenditure satisfactorily. This ugly situation seems to be affecting the resources and quality of Colleges of Education and would continue to downgrade the quantity and quality of facilities of the institutions' programmes including Agricultural Education, if left unabated. The study, therefore, identified ways of managing institutional resources for effective implementation of agricultural education programme at the colleges of education in Southeastern Nigeria. Resources available to colleges of education (COEs) in Nigeria are limited, and balanced academic knowledge and practical skills are required of graduates of agricultural education. Therefore, there is need to evolve sustainable strategies for managing resources in agricultural education programme of COEs in Southeastern Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design with a total population of 98 respondents that comprised of 91 agricultural education lecturers and 7 provosts from Federal and State Colleges of Education in the study area. Questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics like Mean and Standard deviation, while t-test was used to test the hypotheses. Findings revealed 12 initiatives for managing institutional resources on facilities. In addition, the study revealed 7 initiatives for managing personnel resource and 3 initiatives for financial resource. Facility management initiatives recommended are: partnership and group models of facility acquisition, adoption of fixed-time maintenance strategy; while personnel management initiative was sending academic staff to agricultural firms to update their skills on the latest technology. On financial management initiatives, generating fund from the college farm was recommended.