Relevancy of Basic Science and Technology Curriculum in Preparing Students for Basic Science and Technology Subjects at Senior Secondary School Level

Abstract

The Revised Basic science and technology (BST) curriculum was introduced at Junior Secondary School (JSS) level of Nigerian Education system recently. The objectives of the curriculum is to reduce the number of subject offered at JSS and prepare students for science and technology (ST) subjects at senior secondary schools (SSS) level. However, there has been a lot of criticism on the achievement of these objectives. This study therefore, assessed the relevancy of BST Curriculum in preparing students for SSS Science and technologysubjects. Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the students. Survey research design was used for the study. The sample for the study was257 ST teachers in Federal Capital territory, Abuja. The instrument used for data collection was Relevancy of BST curriculum questionnaire. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was found to be 0.78 using Cronbach Alpha. Mean was used to answer the research questions; while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at .05 level of significance. The findings revealed major gaps in relevancy of the curriculum. The study found out that most of items included in BST Curriculum are relevant to ST Subjects at SSS level, there was no significant difference between the mean responses of male and female ST teachers on the relevancy of thecurriculum. The study recommended review of BST curriculum by Nigerian Educational Research and Development Council to ensure its responsiveness to emerging issues in the STeducation and also address the gaps identified by this study.