Mechanisms for Enhancing Students’ Participation in Farm Practicals in Secondary Schools in Imo State

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify mechanisms for enhancing students participation in farm   practical in Secondary Schools in Imo State. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 108 respondents made up of 18 teachers and 90 SS2 students of Agriculture randomly selected from the three zones of the state. Three specific purposes, three research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The instrument for data collection was a 30-item structured questionnaire titled “Students Farm Practicals Enhancement Questionnaire” (SFPEQ) with an established reliability co-efficient (r) of 0.80. Data was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. Results indicated that school farm improves students’ participation in farm practical. Mechanisms identified for improving students participation in farm practical include encouraging students direct involvement in sales of farm proceeds, among others. Problems militating against effective use of school farm for practical in secondary schools were identified as lack of instructional materials for teachers, poor curriculum structure, ignorance of the roles of school farms in schools, lack of available land for practical, paucity of fund among others. The study recommended that the importance of school farms should be well emphasized in secondary school curriculum by curriculum planners, proper teaching of the subject by teachers to develop students’ interest and the school environment should be made agriculture friendly by providing adequate classrooms for teaching and land laboratories for practical.