Effects of Socio-Economic Determinants on Educational Outcomes in Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effects of socioeconomic determinants on educational outcomes in Nigeria. This study was done against the backdrop that the education sector of Nigeria has failed to produce quality educational outcomes needed for the growth of the nation’s economy despite enormous works on the topic by most scholars who failed to account for the combination and extent of the effect of infrastructure, ICT, per capita income, and corruption on education outcome in Nigeria. The study was carried out to investigate the effect of infrastructure, ICT, per capita income, and corruption on educational outcomes in Nigeria using time series data covering a period of 21 years (2000- 2020). The study employed the Autoregressive Distributed lag (ARDL) bounds testing approach to ascertain the relevant relationship while the ECM captured the speed of short-run adjustment to long-run equilibrium. The findings reveal that infrastructure and per capita income have a positive effect on education outcomes (with literacy rate as a proxy) in Nigeria with only infrastructure being statistically significant. The study also found that ICT and corruption negatively and insignificantly affect education outcomes in Nigeria. The study, therefore, recommends that emphasis should be shifted from education for all to learning for all, improvement in infrastructure, and incorporation of ICT in education to aid teaching and learning.