Provision and Effective Usage of Instructional Materials in Primary Schools in the Three Senatorial Zones of Niger State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study examines the provision and effective usage of Instructional Materials in Primary Schools in Niger State. The study was carried out in the three senatorial zones of Niger State. Descriptive survey designed was adopted for the study. Five null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The sample of three hundred (120) Teachers including the Head-teachers was draw from the population through random sampling technique from the three senatorial zones using ten (10) primary schools from each Senatorial Zone of Bida, Minna/Suleja and Kontagora. The instrument Provision, Availability and Effective Use of Instructional Materials in Primary Schools (PAEUIMP) was used for data collection after been validated by three research experts and pilot test was conducted to ascertain its reliability. The reliability was obtained using Cronbach Alpha with index of 0.79.Simple percentage was used to analyzed the demographic data while Inferential statistics of t-test was used to test the five the research hypotheses formulated. The results revealed among others that instructional materials are not sufficiently available in all the Zones while male teachers use instructional materials more frequently than their female counterparts’ and teachers qualification and teaching experience also do affect the usage of instructional materials. It is therefore recommended that government should intensify effort in the provision of more instructional materials to primary schools in the state, workshop should be organize for teachers on the effective use instructional materials and government should also supervise and monitor the fund allocated for the purchase of instructional materials.