Challenges Affecting Content Coverage of Basic Technology Syllabus in Upper Basic Schools in Edo State

Abstract

Certain factor such as poor time management by teachers, frequent teachers’ strike actions, public holidays that usually shorten the number of weeks available for teaching in the school calendar. Other factors that could affect the extent to which content coverage of the syllabi of many subjects taught in secondary schools including basic technology include school closure for security reason and changes in school calendar which could lead to gaps in students’ knowledge and skills. Therefore, the need to ascertain the extent to which basic technology syllabus content is covered by teachers in secondary schools in Edo State necessitated this study. The purpose of the study was to determine the challenges affecting content coverage of basic technology syllabus in upper basic schools in Edo State. Three research questions were raised to guide the study and two hypotheses were tested at .05 level of significance. The research design adopted for the study was descriptive survey. Population comprised 224 basic technology teachers across Edo State. The sample of the study was 113 basic technology teachers selected using purposive sampling. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts in the Department of Industrial Technical Education, Faculty of Vocational and Technical Education, University of Benin and it has a reliability coefficient of 0.73. The research questions raised were answered with mean and standard deviation and the null hypotheses were tested with z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the content of the basic technology syllabus was covered to a high extent in upper basic schools in Edo State. There was a significant difference between content coverage in schools with low student-teacher ratio and schools with high student-teacher ratio. There was also a significant difference between content coverage of basic technology syllabus in schools located in urban areas and those located in rural area. It was therefore recommended that policies which would progressively reduce student-teacher ratios as well as bridge urban-rural resource disparities should be implemented.