ABSTRACT

The study focused on strategies for enhancing students' participation in practical agricultural in secondary schools in Abia state, Nigeria. The specific purposes of the study were to identify teacher strategies for enhancing students participation in agricultural practical work in secondary schools, administrators strategies; parental strategies, environmental strategies and government strategies for enhancing students participation in agricultural science practical work in secondary schools. Five research questions were developed in consonance with the purpose of the study and five null hypotheses were also postulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Survey research design was adopted for the study. The study was carried out in Abia state. The population of the study was made up of all the 560 Agricultural science teachers and the 263 principals of the public secondary schools in the 17 local government areas that constitute the three educational Zones of Abia state. A sample size of 269 respondents was used, using Taro-Yamene's formular to draw from the population across the education zones. The instrument used for the data collection was structured questionnaire titled; Strategies For Students Participation In Practical Agriculture Questionnaire(SSPPAQ) and face validated by three experts; two from Department of Agricultural and Home science Education and one from Measurement and Evaluation. The questionnaire was tested for reliability and a reliability coefficient of 0.80 was obtained for the instrument using Cronbach-alpha statistics. Arithmetic mean and standard deviation based on the 4 point rating scale were used to answer the research question while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that Fourteen (14)strategies were agreed on by principals and teachers for enhancing students participation in agricultural practical work in secondary schools; Fifteen (15)strategies on administrators; thirteen (13) strategies on parent; eight (8)strategies on environmental and fourteen (14) strategies on government for enhancing students participation in agricultural science practical work in secondary schools in Abia state. Based on the findings of the study and hypotheses tested, there was no significant difference between the mean responses of principals and teachers. However, the researcher recommended that agricultural science teachers handling agricultural science practicals should be engaged in in-service training programmes such as workshops and seminars to equip them with the current practices in teaching of agricultural science practicals and government should recruit adequate qualified teachers of agricultural science in secondary schools for practical work in secondary schools in Abia state, Nigeria.