RELATIVE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENT IN INTEGRATED SCIENCE AND INTRODUCTORY TECHNOLOGY IN JUNIOR JSSCE FROM 2002-2006

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Education is an instrument “par excellence” for eecting national development. In Nigerian, it has witnessed active participation by nongovernmental agencies, communities and individuals as well as government intervention. Government has stated that for the benefit of all citizens, the country’s educational goals shall be clearly set out in terms of their relevance to the needs of the individual and those of the society, in consonance with the realities of our environment and the modern world. Government’s intention was that the far reaching provisions set out in all sections of the policy transform all aspects of the nation life over time. Integrated science is an in-depth, insightful look at how we are leveraging our strengths to continue growing into the future. It’s a combine study of all areas of the science for the improvement and upliftment of mankind and the benefit of the worlds around us as we know it today.

Integrated science is a revolution new introductory science curriculum developed at Princeton, intended for students considering a career in science. It is for some people a mean of studying old but unresolved problems and issues in science education. It is also a convenient platform for drawing attention to some research findings relating to learning and teaching science. It is a timely device for gaining some say in the fate or destiny of science education in a field that has traditionally been firmly held by scientist. According to Jegede etal (1989) integrated science is about finding out things, doing experiments and learning what others have found out before us. It is a subject that offers students the chance to look at science in a new way lot following the traditional divisions’ into Biology, chemistry and physic. Teaching integrated science gives students and teachers an opportunity to look at the ways in which science is important to our societies and to their development. Integrated science can be more relevant to developmental issues, and should be topical and useful, rather than dry and academic. Student study integrated science that is biology, chemistry and physics all combined as science.

Science is one of the ways man searches for the truth and to achieve understanding of his environment and the universe at large. Science is the search for knowledge about the universe and how it works. It is the search that never ends because, people who research never settle for the first explanation they obtain, but always the fundamental reasons why everything is the way it is. Science is offered as a core subject. It is a body of empirical, theoretical and practical knowledge about the natural world produce by researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, explanation and prediction of real world phenomena by experiment. In view of this, Colette Chiappetta in Otiji ( 2008) say that science may be viewed as a way of questioning or verifying the truthfulness of knowledge. Science also can be said to be the knowledge which is obtained through careful and systematic observation and testing of facts. It is what is produced through science that is applied in technology for the comfort of man.

This idea is that technology is the secret behind the development of many nations. As such introductory technology was introduced as a subject into the junior secondary schools. This subject covers many areas of vocational technical courses and expose students to the basic ideas of electricity, electronics, metal work, wood work, building technology, and auto. Mechanics, ceramics, technical drawing and some other fields of engineering. The elementary ideas of these subjects are introduced to enable students to develop interest in their areas of talents and to choose a life career. Fafunwa (1984) pointed out that the basic idea behind prevocational training in secondary schools is to develop in our children aptitude for technical, not necessarily making carpenters and masons out of them. He further said that we want our children to develop manipulative skills, inventiveness, self reliance and respect for dignity of labour. In effect some of them who are exposed to academic and vocational courses may decide to opt for technical.

Vocational/technical education must be pushed much more vigorously without any pretensions. This view is further strengthened by Ogbimi (1994) who said that the acquisition of fundamental theoretical and practical skills to an “appreciable level” and combining them to facilitate independent at thinking by the person acquiring it and by extension to the society. All these cannot be discussed without delving into the issues of the educational system the 6-3-3-4 system, which of course gave birth to the inclusion of introductory technology in the secondary school curriculum. Nigeria inherited the 6-3-3-4 system of education which was patterned with the lopsided emphasis on the famous 3-R’s-reading, writing and arithmetic’s form our erstwhile colonial masters. The system was designed by the British primarily to produce the type of manpower the colonial masters needed to administer the country. The emphasis of the system was on literary education while technology, agriculture and other practical subject particular subprofessional level were not reckoned with.