By Doris Ushie & Dr Sunday Edinyang
Abstract
The thrust of this study was to examine teachers’ perception of the influence of corruption on provision of quality basic education in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State, Nigeria. To direct the study, three research questions and three hypotheses were formulated. Survey research design was adopted for the study. Stratified and simple random sampling techniques were used to select samples. Three Local Government Areas were selected from which 12 secondary schools were drawn. The sample of the study comprised 240 teachers drawn from a population of 3450 teachers using simple random sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire titled: Teachers’ Perception of the Influence of Corruption on Quality Basic Education (TPCQBEQ) which consisted of twenty (20) items of modified four point likert scale. The hypotheses were tested using independent t-test analysis tested at 0.05 level of significance and 238 degrees of freedom. The result reveals that corruption significantly impacts on the quality of basic education and that misappropriation of funds is a major corrupt practice that hampers quality basic education in Calabar Education Zone of Cross River State. It was recommended that school administrators should frequently give account of the financial statements of the school in order to bring about checks and balances, transparency as well as accountability.