Status of Biology Practical in Senior Secondary Schools in Edati Local Government Area of Niger State.

Abstract

The study investigated the status of practical biology in secondary schools in Edati Local Government Area of Niger state. The sample of the study consisted of 27 biology teachers and 120 SSIlIl students randomly selected from the six schools. The instrument used for data collection was a survey questionnaire named Status of Biology practical work Questionnaire (SBPWQ) constructed by the researchers. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation, while the null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using t-test. The results showed that the status of practical biology in the schools used for the study was so poor and insufficiently carried out. Facilities for practical biology are inadequate, for instance, there are poorly-equipped laboratories& libraries,inadequate laboratory staff etc. It also revealed that teachers often use lecture method during biology practical instead of practical oriented methods and there was no active and constant participation of students in practical classes. It was recommended among others that the government and other stakeholders in education should provide facilities and equipment for biology practical . Conferences, workshops and seminars should be constantly organized by the government and schools for biology teachers as to update their knowledge and Skills in practical biology, which in turn will improve teaching and learning of practical biology in secondary schools. This could go a long way in reducing the epidemic poor performance in WAEC and NECO examinations.