ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to identify the capacity building needs ofteachers teaching agriculture in handling secondary school students using Ikwuano Local Government as a case study. The study was guided by five research questions. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of this study was 64 agricultural science teachers comprising of 40 male agricultural science teachers and 24 female agricultural science teachers in the secondary schools in Ikwuano LGA. A 42 items structured questionnaire titled“Agricultural Science Teachers Capacity Building Questionnaire (ASTCQ) developed from literature reviewed”. The questionnaire items were validated by three experts; two (2) highly experienced lecturers from department ofAgricultural and Home Economics Education and one from Measurement and Evaluation Department. Cronbach Alpha method was used to establish the reliability of the items and a coefficient of 0.83 was obtained. Data collected were analyzed using weighted mean and Improvement Importance performance Index (IIPI). The findings of the study revealed that teachers of agricultural science in secondary school needed capacity building in the 11 items listed as capacity building needs of teachers in planning of agricultural instruction, teachers of agricultural science in secondary school needed capacity building in the 7 items listed as capacity building needs of secondary school teachers in implementing agricultural instruction, teachers of agricultural science in secondary school needed capacity building in the 8 items listed as capacity building needs ofsecondary school teachers in evaluation of agricultural instruction. The study recommended in -service courses, teachers of agricultural science should be trained in the use ofICT as well as other visual and audio visual instructional aids, teachers of agriculture should endeavor to participate in retraining programmes organized by stakeholders for improvement oftheir competence; among others.