FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR LOW ENROLLMENT OF STUDENTS IN CHEMISTRY EDUCATION IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION

Abstract

This research work is a survey of Factors Responsible for low Enrolment of Student in Chemistry Education in Enugu State. It aims at finding out the various factors responsible for low enrolment of students in chemistry education in colleges of education in Nigeria. Five (5) research questions were raised. Data were collected using questionnaire which were distributed randomly among students and lecturers from two government owned colleges of education and one private college of education in Enugu state. The data collected were analyzed using mean and percentage statistics. 2.5 was adopted as the criterion mean and item whose mean value is less than this value was unaccepted and that beyond this value was accepted. Also a criterion percentage of 50 were established for analyzing teachers’ responds. The findings indicated that the factors responsible for low enrolment in chemistry education in colleges of education in Enugu State are parental influence, peer group influence, Poor background knowledge of students in chemistry and social value attached to chemistry. It was recommended that parents and guardians should not enforce courses on their wards, School guidance and counselor should be made to organize regular career guidance to students, teachers salaries should be paid regularly, parent and guardians should monitor their little ones interest and ability before enrolling into institution of higher learning, only qualified teachers should be employed to teach chemistry in College of Education were the foundation of chemistry is laid, chemistry laboratories should be well equipped, Science education inspector in both state and federal government should pay regular visits to the schools as this will help both the teachers and their students to work harder.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Chemistry has been one of the basic sciences offered at College of Education level in Nigeria since the grammar school era. Students have nearly always had the option to choose the subject or not. And fortunately enough, the prospects offered by some knowledge of chemistry have always remained broad. For example, no candidate can be offered admission in any institution of higher learning to study engineering, medicine, pure and applied sciences, environmental studies or science and technical education without at least a credit pass in chemistry. The annual JAMB Brochure (1996) attests to this fact. Also, job advertisements on the pages of newspapers and elsewhere show that companies, hospitals, maintenance outfits, oil and gas industries, etc. employ artisans, attendants and technicians who have at least a pass in chemistry. Even on grounds of direct personal benefit, a basic knowledge of chemistry enables one to rectify minor faults in home appliances, personal computers (pc’s), private cars, etc.

On a broader scale, the level of development of any nation is hinged on the extent of its acquisition and utilization of technological innovations, which in turn cannot be attained without a working knowledge of chemistry. In line with this fact, the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology (1977) states under the aim of chemistry that every area of chemistry is characterized not so much by its subject-matter content as by the precision and depth of understanding which it seeks. The aim of chemistry is the construction of a unified theoretical scheme in mathematical terms whose structure and behaviour duplicates that of the whole natural world in the most comprehensive manner possible. Where other sciences are content to describe and relate phenomena in terms of restricted concepts peculiar to their own disciplines, chemistry always seeks to understand the same phenomena as a special manifestation of the underlying uniform structure of nature as a whole.

Thus chemistry is a unifying factor for all disciplines in life, being beneficial to the learner, his catchment environment (or discipline) and the world (or knowledge) at large. But surprisingly, students’ enrollment of this vital subject which largely defines the development status of any nation has been on the decline in Nigerian College of Educations over the years. Several feelers point to that fact, as exemplified for the case of the University of Nigeria College of Education, Enugu Campus: out of 126 students who sat the 1995 SSCE, 82 offered chemistry, but in 1996, only 65 out of 130 students offered the subject. In some schools, there were even no candidates for the subject for some years. At tertiary level some institutions enroll only a scanty number of students in their chemistry departments, because the few students who offered chemistry at senior secondary certificate (SSC) level, thereafter opt for medicine, engineering and other seemingly prestigious and lucrative fields of study. The problem is one of the reasons why it is difficult to have university graduate teachers of chemistry, chemistry and mathematics is because the good students of these subjects invariably go in for engineering and medicine. In fact, one of the most depressing problems colleges of education in Nigeria face is the perennial loss of good students in the sciences to the universities after one session, not to study education but invariably medicine, engineering architecture or pharmacy (Ukeje, 1986). This is not peculiar to Nigeria, according to Wenning (2002), Samela (2010) and Taale (2011) in their submissions agree that the situation as a universal one, creeping up to university level.

This state of affair is unacceptable because in complementary sciences like biology and chemistry, enrollments are comparably higher. For example, the data from the University of Nigeria College of Education, Enugu Campus, showed that all the 126 students who took the SSCE in 1995 and all the 130 students who took the same examination in 1996 in the school offered biology. The question which then arises is ‘What is the reason behind this unhealthy disparity?’ At junior College of Education (JSS) level, integrated science which is the prerequisite subject for all the senior College of Education (SSS) science subjects is offered by all students compulsorily. And a look at the curriculum of integrated science from JS1 to JS3 reveals that all the component science branches – chemistry, chemistry, biology, agricultural science and earth science – are given comparably equal attention and basic introductory presentations. One then wonders why on entering the SSS, majority of the students tend to opt more for the other science subjects than chemistry. Notably also, mathematics which is complementary to the study and prerequisite to the understanding of chemistry is compulsory for all students both at JSS and SSS levels. Something therefore seems to be fundamental to the low enrollment of students in chemistry.

In terms of choice satisfaction there is no doubt that everyone enjoys the outcome of the study and knowledge of chemistry. People who offer chemistry as one of their subjects are always happy they did, more so as even their contemporaries in the other branches of knowledge usually esteem them highly, and more so if they are females. Chemistry experiments and results are appreciated by all and sundry. Percentage failure in SSCE in chemistry is usually the least when compared with the other science subjects (WAEC, 2014). More so, future prospects for physicists are even wider than for the other subjects. These facts make one wonder all the more why less people offer chemistry in their choice of subjects. Talking in terms of facilities, chemistry is not the worst off, compared with the other sciences. Once a school has been accredited to offer chemistry, the school usually establishes and equips laboratories that serve both as lecture rooms and as demonstration and experiment bases. Although some of these laboratories may be ill-equipped, one must also agree that for most schools, chemistry is usually given preference among the other subjects in terms of attention and facilities. These developments should therefore be points of attraction for most students to opt for chemistry; but alas, the contrary is observed.

The effect of this abandonment of chemistry is more than expressible because it triggers a chain of consequences on our national outlook as a whole. It stalls our technological advancement, leads to inadequate number of chemistry teachers for the present and future generations, leads to a proliferation of the arts subjects and excessive demand for admission and jobs in those areas, while such demands in the area of chemistry remains low and sometimes totally lacking. The repercussion of the neglect remains prominent, as people who avoided chemistry often, later in life, operate or supervise the use of gadgets that require basic knowledge of chemistry. Such people eventually get frustrated or muddle up things, and this in turn leads to inefficiency, low output, or even disaster. Thus the low enrollment of students in chemistry is an ill-wind that blows nobody any good. The root causes of the problem are investigated in this study, so that proper solutions can be proffered for its remedy.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Nigeria is a vast country, having a considerably large number of College of Educations which evolved from a single mission school by 1859, to a presently estimated figure (by 2014) of around 10,000. Observation showed that these schools evolved at various rates with time, majorly out of necessity to absorb the relatively teeming number of candidates yearning for post-primary education at those times. However, in recent times (say in the last ten to fifteen years), the school proprietorship trend appears to be borne out of desire to show affluence, create class distinction for the pupils, invest accumulated wealth, fulfill parochial, ethical or moral standard, or meet admission and consistent academic calendar gaps. As expected, the total enrolments in the schools have also appreciated over time.

The final examinations (Senior School Certificate Examination, SSCE) of the College of Educations are presently conducted in Nigeria mainly by the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) and the National Examinations Council (NECO). WAEC started it all as early as during the colonial era, and covers all the English-speaking West African countries. The SSCE has therefore also evolved with time, and some of the relatively recent participation figures are shown in Table 2 (WAEC: 2014). More complete records show that not only is the percentage of students offering chemistry low for over 80% of the schools in Nigeria, but in addition, for over 50% of the schools, the enrolment figures continue to fluctuate and diminish on the average. This trend is seen as dangerous for the future of a developing country like ours; and if nothing is done now to find out the root causes of the situation with the aim of countering them, it might even degenerate to a point whereby we might have no chemistry teachers at all, or enough people going into advanced courses requiring chemistry as prerequisite.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

1. To discuss the low enrollment of students in chemistry education in colleges of education
2. Investigate the immediate and remote causes of the low enrollment
3. Prescribe possible solutions to arrest the ugly situation of low enrollments in chemistry.

1.4 Research Questions

1. What are the factors responsible for students’ low enrollments chemistry education in the College of Education?
2. Do College of Education students avoid chemistry as a result of fear, uncertainty, hindrances or otherwise?
3. What special points do biology and other science subjects have that attract students to them more than chemistry?
4. Are there things which chemistry teachers, parents, school authorities and other concerned agencies could do to manage or solve the problem?

1.5 Significance of the Study

This study has both explicit and multiplier expositions for students, teachers, school administrators, parents and education planners. The study will hopefully:

Help students to develop awareness for chemistry and avoid a repulsive approach to it in relation to other subjects;

Point out what chemistry teachers can do to broaden the awareness of students in chemistry and make the subject attractive to them;

Highlight the role of the principal and other relevant school leaders in the task of making the students to like and opt for chemistry;

Make parents realize their roles to encourage their children, show interest in their competences and help them in choosing their careers properly;

Sensitize the zonal boards, ministries of education and education planners about the anomaly, for them to act appropriately to remedy it; and

Enhance the chances for rapid technological advancement of Nigeria, after the problem has been properly addressed.

1.6 Delimitation of the Study

The present study did not include the effect of poor planning and supervision on the causes of low enrollment in chemistry by prospective students. It also did not delve into the reasons why prospective school leavers would not undertake to study chemistry or education. Although gender factor in low chemistry enrollment in schools was highlighted, it was not thrashed in full.

1.7 Limitations

The researcher was partially handicapped in his study by limited fund and wide geographical spread of the study area. This resulted in the study being limited to a single local government area (LGA) in each of the states studied, and limiting the states to four out of five, in the studied geo-political zone (South-Eastern Nigeria). The sampling however, was deemed representative enough for objective assessment of the topic and generalization nationwide.

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