ABSTRACT

This study set out to determine the factors affecting secondary school student choice of agriculture as a career in Ikwuano Local Government Area, Ahia State. This research was aimed at achieving the following objective; to determining level of interest of students towards agriculture, ascertain the influence of peer group on the students choice of agriculture as a career, to determine how parental influence affects students choice of agricultural science as a career, determining factors that makes students to shy away from agriculture, determining the level of encouragement by the school to students to pursue agriculture as a career. At a step in achieving these objectives m tioned. The population of the study was 2214 made up of 2059 student and 155 teachers. A sample of (206) of students and (16) of teachers was random selected from six schools in Ikwuano Local Government Area of Abia State. A questionnaire survey design was adapted. A structured questionnaire was developed from literature reviewed and the questionnaire contained 28 items and was validated by three experts two from department of agricultural education and one from Educational foundation all from Micheal okpara university of Agriculture Umudike. Test-retest technique and pearson product moment correlation coefficient reliability method was used to determine the internal consistency of the instrument. The data collected was analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer d research question and t-test statistics for testing the null hypotheses. The results from the study indicat: that factors such as parent choosing career for their children, parents seeing agriculture as an unpresentable career, parents always wart their children to be 1 Doctors, Engineer, Lawyer, Accountants, the. background of student parents affects their children choice of career, negative attitude of students towards agriculture discourage others, students seeing agricultural occupation as being full of drudgery, agricultural practical being stressful, agriculture not perceived as a noble profession, starting up a farm as stressful and. requires land and capital. The study ·l recommends that the following measures shoud be implemented. ; Parents should not discourage their children why they are making a -_i choice on any career, rather they should guide them, teachers should ; motivate students interests by allowing them to participate affectively or ! both theory and practical agricultural science lessons, the school administration and non government organizations (NGOs) should partner • and organize adequate orientation in career decision making for agricultural institutions should provide adequate information on opportunities at their disposal to further their career in terti institutions