Resource Allocation and its Impact on Quality Education Delivery Among Secondary School Teachers in Katsina State, Nigeria

This study investigates the critical nexus between systemic resource allocation and the quality of education delivered by secondary school teachers in Katsina state, Nigeria, a region characterised by persistently poor learning outcomes. Despite policy commitments, a significant gap exists between resource allocation plans and classroom reality, severely constraining teachers. Framed by the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) and Street-Level Bureaucracy theories, the research employed a concurrent mixed-methods design. Data was collected from 352 teachers, 72 administrators, and 14 planners across 36 public secondary schools, using questionnaires, interviews, and observational checklists. Quantitative analysis, including multiple linear regression, revealed that financial, human, and physical resource allocations are all significant predictors of teaching quality, collectively explaining 43% of its variance. Notably, human resource allocation encompassing equitable teacher deployment and relevant professional development emerged as the most potent single factor (β = 0.41). Qualitative findings illuminated the profound interdependence of resource streams; failures in one (e.g., lack of maintenance funds) cascade into others (e.g., dysfunctional laboratories), rendering isolated interventions ineffective. The study empirically validates teachers’ roles as street-level bureaucrats, who exercise constrained discretion, often resulting in a diminished “coping pedagogy”. The conclusion asserts that improving educational quality necessitates an integrated, system-wide overhaul of allocation mechanisms, prioritising strategic investment in teachers alongside synergistic support in financing and infrastructure. This research fills contextual, methodological, and theoretical gaps in the literature on educational resource management in Sub-Saharan Africa.