TEACHERS AND LABORATORY FACILITIES AVAILABLE IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR EFFECTIVE HOME ECONOMICS TEACHING AND LEARNING

TEACHERS AND LABORATORY FACILITIES AVAILABLE IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL FOR EFFECTIVE HOME ECONOMICS TEACHING AND LEARNING

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1    BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Home Economics is one of the required prevocational disciplines offered at the junior secondary level in the Nigerian educational system. According to Anyakoha (2007), home economics is a skill-oriented subject of study that is intended to provide learners with survival skills that will allow them to be self-sufficient, gain employment, and earn a living. Occupational skills are best defined as a set of resourceful abilities that allow a person to be self-reliant, autonomous, and productive in the face of life’s challenges. According to Creese (1976), occupational skills are life survival abilities that an individual requires in order to operate effectively and handle life’s problems. Home Economics occupational skills include food and nutrition knowledge, home management knowledge, and clothing and textile knowledge. Program for Home Economics Education By teaching vocational skills, an individual is able to study, investigate, and prepare for a profession or trade. As a result, Home Economics may play an important role in achieving the objectives of the National Economic and Development Strategy (NEEDS). These objectives include wealth creation, job creation, poverty reduction, corruption elimination, and a general reorientation of values. Home Economics programs at tertiary institutions face significant challenges. Teachers become irritated when there are few or no facilities to teach and conduct practicals. When this occurs, the products are found wanting when they are sent to the job market because they have not thoroughly and confidently comprehended the course material and course work (Maxime, 2002). A lack of facilities has been a problem. serious problem, and most of these products must be purchased by students on their own. Home Economics is relatively expensive in higher schools due to these issues (Flock 1974). In confirming the government’s neglect of vocational and technical education, Anyakoha (2005) stated that a lack of modern equipment has been a major issue, as students read more about sophisticated equipment and have no opportunity to explore such equipment for first-hand information, instead relying on pictures in books. According to Anyakoha (2007), work in the Home Economics Department has become tedious as a result of the combination of other courses, making it difficult to plan field trips, visits to industries, institutions, and organizations where this equipment can be found to aid learning and facilitate class work. Students Due to a lack of funds and aid from the government and donor agencies to help build more practice houses, modern equipped food laboratories, textiles and sewing rooms, spacious demonstration centers, and lecture halls, students and lecturers are clinging to old laboratories and out-of-date facilities. The library’s facilities are inadequate, volumes are scarce, and the few books that are available are outdated, making it difficult for students to conduct research and learn. It is clear from the preceding that Home Economics Education has not received the same level of attention as other professions in our country’s development (Esther, 2004). In today’s world, science and technology are inextricably linked to global culture. With Nigeria’s high unemployment rate, primary education is essential.

Individuals would have a functioning and productive life that contributes to national progress if home economics was taught in schools (David, 2001). The goal of this research is to look into the issues of a lack of instructors and laboratory facilities for effective home economics teaching and learning in Rafi junior secondary schools (a case study of Rafi L.G.A)

1.2 THE PROBLEM’S STATEMENT

Home Economics is a skill-oriented subject that aims to teach students self-reliance, employment, and paid work skills. Occupational skills are best defined as a set of resourceful abilities that allow a person to be self-reliant, autonomous, and productive in the face of life’s challenges. Creese (1976) defines occupational skills as “life survival abilities that an individual requires.” in order to operate effectively and handle life’s problems. Home Economics occupational skills include food and nutrition knowledge, home management knowledge, and clothing and textile knowledge. By teaching vocational skills, the Home Economics Education Program enables an individual to study, explore, and prepare for a profession or trade. As a result, Home Economics may play an important role in achieving the objectives of the National Economic and Development Strategy (NEEDS). These goals include the creation of wealth, the creation of jobs, the alleviation of poverty, the abolition of corruption, and a general shift in values. Despite these admirable characteristics of Home Economics as a talent, it faces a number of challenges that prevent it from being one of the paths to national transformation. Some of these are

The Federal Government’s ambivalent attitude toward vocational and technical education programs in Nigerian universities in general, society’s perception of Home Economics graduates as those who could not fit into any other challenging course, a lack of candidates’ interest in the program because it is expensive, and a lack of manpower to teach Home Economics at the junior and senior secondary school levels; as well as frustration (Janik, 2006). The purpose of this research is to investigate the availability of instructors and laboratory facilities for effective home economics teaching and learning in Rafi junior secondary schools (a case study of Rafi LGA of Niger State)

1.3 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVES

i. Discover what Home Economics is all about.

ii. To create

the characteristics of effective Home Economics instruction.

iii. To look into the availability of instructors and laboratory space in Rafi LGA for effective Home Economics instruction in junior secondary schools.

1.3 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH

i. What exactly is Home Economics?

ii. What characteristics distinguish effective Home Economics instruction?

iii. Are instructors and laboratory facilities available in Rafi LGA for successful Home Economics instruction in junior secondary schools?

1.5 THE STUDY’S SIGNIFICANCE

The paper proposes a research methodology for developing and implementing policies to address the issues of teacher and laboratory availability in junior secondary schools for successful Home Economics teaching.

It also serves as a resource for students, teachers, and home economists.

1.6 STUDY OBJECTIVES

The research looks into the availability of instructors and laboratory space for effective Home Economics instruction in junior high school.

1.7 TERMS AND CONDITIONS

HOUSEHOLD ECONOMICS DEFINITION

The Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) approved Home Economics as a vocational topic in the junior secondary school curriculum in 2007. This course is intended to provide students with a foundation of knowledge, skills, and attitudes about various aspects of family life. It is intended to help students connect fundamental information with skills and to introduce them to a variety of effective homemaking options. According to NERDC (2007), junior secondary students studying Home Economics should strive to achieve the following objectives: • Help to maintain a healthy family environment

• Create a healthy environment

• Develop a spirit of inquiry and a scientific approach to everyday living, as well as an appreciation for the dignity of labor, as well as the ability to adapt to changing environments.

RETENTION DEFINITION

Retention refers to the ability to own, use, and retain knowledge, as well as the ability to replicate previous events or previously familiar items. Many memories that people believe they have forgotten were never stored in the long-term memory system.

THE LECTURE METHOD IS DEFINED

The lecture approach is the most popular teaching style, according to Blair (2007), but it does not promote critical thinking, creative thinking, or problem solving. It provides the student with a wealth of information.

The lecture format discourages students from being creative, inquisitive, or scientific. It aids children in remembering information that is easily forgotten.

TEACHING DEFINITION

Teaching is a form of creation, with the end result being the human personality. Teaching is defined as a systematic action taken by a teacher to assist the student in acquiring the desired information, skills, and values, as well as receiving appropriate feedback.

DEFINITION OF DEVELOPMENT

The process by which something becomes more advanced and powerful over time is known as development. This means that development entails a gradual or progressive change or progression, which some scholars regard as multidimensional, encompassing changes in structures, attitudes, and institutions, as well as economic growth acceleration, inequality reduction, and the elimination of poverty.