Teachers And Students Perceptions Of Problems Of Effective Teaching And Learning Of Agricultural Science In Junior Secondary School

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The term agriculture is derived from two Latin words oger meaning field and culture meaning cultivation. Literally agriculture refers to the production of crops and rearing of animal for man use. Agricultural production involves series of activities which include the cultivation of other products into forms that could be used by man. The preparation of products include; processing, package, storage, marketing etc. agriculture is regarded as the live-blooded of a nations domestic economy and the mother of all other business occupations and professional. The development of agriculture in Nigeria will help minimize over dependence on crude oil, the market of which fluctuates. Types of agriculture are; subsistence agriculture and commercial agriculture.

The Subsistence Agriculture: As men advance from the hunting and gathering stage, they developed the art of cultivating certain plants and domesticating certain animals, this was a period of self-sufficiency which was the beginning of settled life and people began to group themselves in villages. They made crude implement to provide enough food for their family. This practice is found today in every isolated area where communication has been limited; the people have not been exposed to modern ways of forming and surplus capital for investment is not available.

The Commercial Agriculture: This is the type of farming which involve cultivation of large acres of land, because most operation is usually mechanized and yield term of money, skilled labour and management. It is mostly practice by very rich farmers. The practices also required application of agrochemical and may causes environmental pollution. It may also encouragement erosion and other ecological mishaps and special marketing strategies have to be planned for successful evaluation and marketing of farm produce.

Nigeria is an agricultural country before and after the discovery of petroleum. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization of United Nations (1999) agriculture is usually the mainstay of the economy and level of food consumption are relatively low. Lawal (2000) noted that agriculture is perhaps the greatest single innovation that made it possible for man to live in settled community which grew gradually in complexity from families through village and Cities to modern nations.

Similarly Makinjola (2001) observed that the transformation agriculture from nomadic life was made possible by modern agriculture. To this effect importance of agriculture in a developing nation such as ours, cannot be over-emphasized. As a source of food supply, foreign exchange earners and employment of labour, agriculture should receive a priority of consideration towards the maintenance of a healthy economy agricultural education therefore is imperative and should be taken more seriously so that it will wipe away ignorance with regards to practical agriculture and developed interest toward farming. It was in line with taught that Inoaya (2004), stated that food supply is generally inadequate in quantity and quality in the Country. According to him, there is at present a significant increase in the Country’s population. Thus with too many months to food and too little land to farm, Nigeria has resorted to importing a lot of her food with her foreign exchange earning.

It therefore, become pertinent at this juncture to state that lack of property agricultural, education in our schools and lack of properly qualified agricultural teachers has resulted to reduced interest and poor performance of students in agriculture.

Uchegbu (1993) rightly observed that poor remuneration situation of agricultural teachers with irregular payment of salaries as well as fringe benefits and lack of teachers motivation, attributed to their low moral. This point was further highlighted by Ayandele (2005), Babalola and Ezenwa (2010) who asserted that one of the mentioned reasons for teachers ineffectiveness in schools arise out of the frustration due to non-participation in the organization’s decision-making process. Similarly, students poor performance and lack of interests are attributed to so many factors.

According to Ayandele (2005), non-availability of school equipment, inadequate instructional supervision, socio-economic background of students, etc. hinder the effective performance of students in teaching and learning.

Furthermore Madike (2003), pointed out that most of the schools in Nigeria do not teach agriculture and even in schools where it is taught, there is no serious attempt to provide adequately qualified teachers and necessary facilities. Most of our students he noted, lack both interest and aptitude for agriculture. The syllabus are not oriented towards the need of the society and the society and the standard of teaching of many agriculture science teachers is nothing to write home about.

According to Mbanuju (1998), teachers of agricultural science make the subject boring. They use the farm as punishment ground for offending students, and this make students feel that the school farm is mainly for punishment. This goes a long way to kill interest of the students especially for practical work. As a result of this, students feel very proud to be associated with such subject like Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics and Additional Mathematics even when they do not have aptitude for such subjects. This makes them disregard subject like Agriculture science which they feel is for then never-do-wells. This impression of the youths about agriculture makes it difficult for the teachers to make any meaningful impact on the students both in the classroom and school farm during practical lessons.

Okoro (1999) pointed out that it is important to mention that there has been no evidence to show that secondary schools have gone into fulltime, on graduation because of the problems of finance, land tenure system, immature agriculture procedures, among others. According to him, the only exception is usually getting employed with ministry of agriculture. This observation, he tended to make some parent to choose for their children to take up agriculture. From the foregoing, one can infer that an exposure to agricultural science at the secondary school level is factor for higher studies in agricultural science.

In his own contribution Eze (1990), observed that teaching agricultural science in schools has been greatly lacking in their goals aspiration. Many agricultural educational institutions he pointed out should be established to educate and train people in the science of agriculture. He concluded that from this, young people will receive formal education and training which provides them with a career since agriculture is one of the main features of economic development of a country and a contributor to National income and employment, it should be accorded priority consideration towards the maintenance of a healthy economy.

In the light of the above problems the purpose of this study is to investigate the teachers and students perceptions of problems of effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools with a view of finding a way that will help generate a sound foundation for the improvement and development of agriculture in Nigeria.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Agricultural science today is regarded as one of the most important aspects of human life. It has greatly increased man’s knowledge of his environment together with basic needs of food, shelter and clothing. Nigeria being a developing country and in a great need to meet the food demand of her population requires effective and purposeful agricultural education in her schools.

Presently, performances of students do not predict the hope of fulfilling our agricultural expectation as regards meeting the food need of the population through schools inspite of the effort being made by government to improve standard of teaching agricultural science in our secondary schools.

It then became pertinent to look inwardly for a better way of having a solid base for effective agricultural education in secondary schools. This study uses the junior section of the secondary school system to discover the problems causing failure of student especially in external examinations as the senior school certificate (S.S.C.E) and junior secondary school Examination (J.S.S.E). The identification of these problems for lasting agriculture programme for secondary schools in turn meeting the national objective in food production is the subjects of this research.

1.3 Objectives of the Study

The general aim of this study is to examine teachers and students perceptions of problems of effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools. Therefore, the specific objectives include;

1. Find out the students related factors that affects the effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools.
2. Find out the teachers related factors that affect the effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools.
3. Find out the school related factors that affect the effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools.

1.4 Research Questions

This study will be guided by the following questions:

1. What are the students related factors that affects the effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools?
2. What are the teachers related factors that affect the effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools?
3. What are the school related factors that affect the effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools?

1.5 Research Hypotheses

Ho: There are no significant factors affecting effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools.

 Ha: There are significant factors affecting effective teaching and learning of agricultural science in junior secondary schools.

1.6 Significance of the Study

The findings of this study will be of immense benefit to science teachers and students.

This study will be significant to a number of Agricultural science teachers who will become aware of problems to teaching agricultural science, and guide them in making adjustment in their methods and techniques of teaching agriculture science. The teachers and students will have a true concept of, and develop positive attitude towards agriculture science. The Government, the researcher believes will come to realize the importance of agricultural development of the nation.

The need to provide the school with facilities relevant to the learning and teaching modern agriculture practices as secondary school level is very essential. It will also help in the acceptance new innovations in present day agriculture.

This information may be helpful in the evaluation of teaching and learning of Agriculture thus helping in putting in place the strategies aimed at improving teaching and learning of Agriculture in schools. Findings may be of value to teaching learning strategies and teaching learning resources in implementation of agriculture curriculum.

Finally, it will be helpful to farmer and creates in them the awareness of being part of the economy and contributing measures towards its development.

1.7 Scope of the Study

This study covers on the teachers and students perception of problems militating against teaching and learning agricultural science among junior secondary schools  with specific focus on selected local government in Sokoto State.

1.8 Limitations of the Study

In the course of carrying out this study, the researcher experienced some constraints, which included time constraints, financial constraints, language barriers, and the attitude of the respondents. However, the researcher were able to manage these just to ensure the success of this study.

Moreover, the case study method utilized in the study posed some challenges to the investigator including the possibility of biases and poor judgment of issues. However, the investigator relied on respect for the general principles of procedures, justice, fairness, objectivity in observation and recording, and weighing of evidence to overcome the challenges.

1.9 Definition of Terms

Agricultural Science: Agricultural science is a broad multidisciplinary field of biology that encompasses the parts of exact, natural, economic and social sciences that are used in the practice and understanding of agriculture.

Instructional Materials: These are materials that are used to aid in the transference of information from one student to another in Education arena.

Teaching: the act or profession of a person who teaches.

Job Performance: This is the work related activities expected of an employee and how well those activities were executed.

1.10 Organization of the Studies

The study is categorized into five chapters. The first chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, research questions and hypothesis, the significance of the study, scope/limitations of the study, and definition of terms. The chapter two covers the  review of literature with emphasis on conceptual framework, theoretical framework, and empirical review. Likewise, the chapter three which is the research methodology, specifically covers the research design, population of the study,  sample size determination,  sample size, and selection technique and procedure, research instrument and administration, method of data collection, method of data analysis, validity and reliability of the study, and ethical consideration. The second to last chapter being the chapter four presents the data presentation and analysis, while the last chapter(chapter five) contains the summary, conclusion and recommendation.