ABSTRACT
This study was designed to identify the influence of strikes on educational development in Nigeria, a case study of the University of Benin. The research was carried out as a survey research using relevant literature from journals, magazines, books and the internet. Three research questions were raised and analyzed for the purpose of the study.
Survey research design was employed in this study. The population of the study comprises of all undergraduate students drawn from the fourteen (14) faculties in the University of Benin. A propulsive random sampling technique was used in selection of two hundred and fifty undergraduate students from five faculties in the University of Benin. A self-structure questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. The instrument was title “Influence of strikes on educational development, a case study of the University of Benin”. The collected data was analyzed using simple percentage.
The result revealed that; The effects of strike actions on educational development of the University of Benin includes distortion and disruptions of school calendar and academic activities, unseriousness of students, irregularity of academic programmes, production of poor quality of graduates and reduction in productivity and loss of focus on university objectives, strike actions affects the performance of students as they engage in deviant behavior like prostitution, stealing, and raping during strike action. difficult to concentrate on their studies after the strike action, affects their study habits, lack motivation to attend classes after the strike action. Based on the findings it was concluded that within the context of this study that student performance and quality of teaching is influenced by ASUU strike and in order to build a working educational system in Nigeria, ASUU industrial action should be reduce to a bearable minimum. In line with the findings, it was recommended that the quality of teaching in our university will improve if the academic activities in the Nigerian university are uninterrupted. As such, effort should be made by the government to ensure that quick action is taken when the request is being made by the union as this will help in boosting the quality of teaching in the Nigerian university as well as the student performance. Also, Prompt resolution mechanism should be deployed so that students would not lose interest in education, as there is a popular slogan which goes thus SCHOOL NA SCAM.
