CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to Study

Nigeria has relied so much on agriculture after her independence in 1960, given its stage of economic development. The growth dynamics of the Nigerian economy have been propelled by the existence and exploitation of natural resources and primary products. At the onset, the agricultural sector was the base, as the country needed food and cash crops for advancement. Actually, Nigeria has been left by her contemporaries in the quest for development. A look at the Nigerian economy vis-a-vis that of China in recent past showed that, Nigeria was better in 1970. Nigeria had a GDP per capita of US$233.35 and was ranked 88th in the world while China was ranked 114th with a GDP per capita of US$111.82. But today, according to Sanusi (2010), China is very far from Nigeria in terms of economic advancement.

The problem of “growthlessness” can be attributed to inconsistent government policies, political instability, lack of creativity on the part of leaders, mismanagement of resources, underutilization of resources, brain drain, geometrical increase in population, loss of interest in agriculture as a means of livelihood, corruption, among others. The abundance of food production and raw materials for industries were among the attraction of colonial masters to Nigeria. Subsistence farming was predominant and agriculture provided a large proportion of the population with easy source of livelihood. Izuchukwu (2011) points out that Agriculture has been the backbone of the Nigerian economy, providing employment and source of livelihood for the increasing population. It accounted for over half of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Nigerian economy as at independence in 1960. Undoubtedly, one of the sources of national wealth and real income is essentially from agriculture. Consequently, development economists devoted much attention on how agriculture can best contribute meaningfully to aggregate economic expansion and modernization.

It is the invaluable contributions of agriculture to our nation that engendered our educationists and government to make provisions in the National Policy on Education for Practical Agriculture in the curriculum of the junior secondary school and Agricultural-science-projects/">Agricultural Science in the senior secondary school curriculum as core subjects (FGN, 1990). Despite efforts to promote agriculture in this wise, its impact is yet to be felt. The West African Examination Council and the National Examination Council, the major examination bodies in Nigeria have been recording poor results from candidates who sit for examination on Agricultural Science. Besides, the enrolment for the examinations in Agricultural Science is on the decline. These could be attributed to lack of interest in the subject and poor perception that Agricultural Science has no future prospects for those who study it or that those who choose to further in it will end up as mere farmers.

Ezewu (2007) asserts that governments, manufacturers and parents have exhibited concern about the quality and volumes of learning that have been acquired by their wards and children. This is because the volume and quality of an individual’s learning seems to be the parameter used to measure and predict the contributions that the individual makes to the society. The effect of what one learns should be seen in the individual, his environment and the society at large. Learning agricultural techniques and acquiring skills through various practical carried out in the school farm is the basis for this knowledge gained. According to Isangedighi (2007), exposure or training is important if learning must take place.

Learning refers to any relatively permanent change in behaviour, interpretation or emotional response as a result of previous experience. Similarly, learning can be defined as a change in behaviour or performance which is a result of experience and practice, and which makes individual face later situations differently (Denga, 2002).

Furthermore, the true test of learning can be seen in the positive improvement of the learner towards given tasks. Hence, an individual is assumed to have learnt techniques and skills if there is a remarkable change in his academic performance during and after the course of his programme. It can be said then that the success of an educational programme can be measured with regards to the degree with which its beneficiaries perform academically.

So many factors influence the academic achievement of students in their various school endeavours. These factors can be either be personal (poor self-concept, motive, readiness, emotion, attitude, maturational level of the student) or environmental. Studies have identified allied factors such as student individual differences (personal causal factors), teaching – learning strategy (system causal factors), family causal factors and the teacher (academic causal factors) as those that interfere with the performance level of students. This research work, therefore, will focus on the analysis of students’ attitude to Agricultural-science-projects/">Agricultural Science as a profession.