Impact of information on secondary school students’ knowledge, perception and attitude towards agricultural career in Ogun State, Nigeria

O.B Osuntade,O Ogunseitan,D.A Babalola

doi:10.4314/as.v20i3.2

Abstract

   Youths’ interest in Agriculture is daily declining due to lack of awareness and information about the prospects in agriculture, leaving the nation’s agricultural sector in the hands of the ageing population. This study examined the impact of agricultural career information on the knowledge, perception and attitudes of secondary school students towards taking agriculture, as a career choice. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 136 school science students in senior secondary schools and structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on their knowledge, perception and attitudes with respect to career in agriculture. Data was collected for pre-test (baseline) and post-test (end-line) after the respondents had participated in an intervention tagged “Agricultural Career Information Program” and analyzed using descriptive and inferential (using t-test at p ≤ 0.05) statistics. Result showed that the students had a significant change in attitude towards choosing agriculture as a career choice after being exposed to the intervention program, but no significant change in the students’ knowledge and perception after being exposed to the program. Agricultural career counselling should be intentional in the education of the youths, in order to influence their attitude and eventual choice of a career in agriculture. The study recommends that career guidance be included in the curriculum of primary and secondary school students, with a focus on agricultural sector. Information sessions on the agricultural sector can also be organized to improve students’ knowledge, attitude and perception in order to direct their choice towards agriculture.  

Highlights

Agriculture being the main economic activity in the Nigerian rural sector has suffered a steady decline in its productivity over the years
A lot of young people migrate to the urban areas seeking for white-collar jobs and those already in the urban areas do the same by choosing career paths in law, medicine, ICT and other non-agricultural professions that they believe to be more stable and less back breaking, leaving the agricultural sector in the hands of old peasant farmers that are set in their ways and unwilling to learn new methods of carrying out farm operations
Assessing how effective the curriculum is in determining the economic relevant career choice of the secondary school level students in Nigeria has become pertinent and a subject for research focus

Summary

Introduction

Agriculture being the main economic activity in the Nigerian rural sector has suffered a steady decline in its productivity over the years It has suffered neglect from demographic shifts, characterized by the changes in the economic structure of the federation as fuelled by the huge revenues from crude oil exports (Adebo and Sekumade, 2013). Over the past twenty years, value added per capita in the agriculture has risen and Nigeria has lost USD 10 billion in annual export opportunity from some cash crops (FAO, 2020). This decline is largely heightened by increase in the rural-urban migration of youths and the ageing of the farmer population in the country (Adebo and Sekumade, 2013).

Methods

Results

Conclusion