Idjawe E. Emmanuel
Department of
Metalwork Technology
School of Technical
Education
Federal college
of Education (Technical)
Asaba, Delta
State
Abstract
This study was
carried out in order to ascertain the factors responsible for inadequacy of
technical skills/competencies of graduates from technical teacher’s institutions.
On research question was raised and two hypotheses formulated to guide the study.
A survey research design was used for the study and the population for the
study was made up of final year technical education students, while a sample
size of 30 respondents was drawn from two universities and two colleges of
education (technical),that were used for the study. A – 28 item statements
questionnaire was used to elicit information from respondents. Mean statistic
was used to answer the research question and t – test was used to test the
hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study
revealed that lack of instructional machines, tools, workshop consumables and
much time spend on some educational courses are some of the factors influencing
the inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates from technical
teachers institutions. Conclusion was drawn and some recommendations were made
to include: Effort should be made to equip technical teacher’s institution
workshops with instructional machines, tools and workshop consumables, among
others.
Keywords:
Inadequacy of Technical skills and competencies
Technical Teachers institutions
Introduction
In the modern world of
today, education is redefined in line with international best practice where excellence
is the key requirement for success. Nations are now more concerned about the
quality of education that would provide opportunities for employment and income
generation for their citizens and the general wellbeing of their nations in
general (Arubayi, 2011). Educational curriculum and policies in higher
institutions are now being directed towards skills acquisition and competencies
so that recipients can have a mind-set for self employment and being employer
of labour.Although much stride has been made towards the expansion of education
in Nigeria, but it is doubtful if the same is said about the quality of the
products of the educational system in Nigeria (Baikie as in Gbenda,
2013).According to Gbenda (2013),the consensus of opinion of Nigerians is that
the standard of education as it is currently offered is far below acceptance. A
lot still needs to be done to make education an instrument of national
development and a means of improving modern living. Low educational standard is
a big problem in Nigeria and it is perhaps the most formidable threat facing
the nation today. However due to the
emphasis on paper qualification, students barely take their studies serious,
all they want is the paper
qualification; they do not acquire the appropriate skill and competencies
required from them, they pass through the school without the school passing
through them. This is because of the misconception attached to education,
people think education is synonymous with the acquisition of certificates at
the expense of quality training, and this has caused a lot of social problems
in Nigeria.
The skills needed in
our educational institutions are in tandem with the needs, problems and
aspiration of the contemporary society and hence citizens can then be well
equipped to contribute to social-political development of the country. However,
if education is to continue to play this pivotal role in stimulating national
development, then the organic nature of education must be taken into cognizance
in its planning (Ifelunni, 2014). Ukeji 1986 as in Ifelunni (2014),asserted
that the quality of teachers inevitably affect the quality of our educational
outputs, therefore one of the urgent problem that need to be addressed in our
educational system is the issue of teacher’s education, as NPE (2017) posited
that no nation can rise above the qualities of its teachers. Based on this
premise, the issue of teacher’s education is important to the factors affecting
education in general.
However, in Nigeria
technical teachers institution is a formal arm of Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) which has the aim of training technical teachers
that acquire technical skills to impact technological knowledge in Nigerian
schools. This career is offered in faculty of education in universities and
colleges of education (technical). TVET in Nigeria has been faced with a lot of
challenges that range from inadequate infrastructure, poor funding, poor
curriculum implementation etc. this is because according to Toby (2000), the
meaning of TVET in Nigeria is not yet understood by the government and those
responsible for the planning of TVET in Nigerian . Therefore it is extremely
difficult to organize and manage a truly TVET programme.
The graduates of
technical teacher’s institution in Nigeria have been faced with the problem of
inadequate technical skill and competencies to function effectively in their
respective places of employment. According to the National Policy on Education
(NPE, 2008), this type of education, is
to provide technical knowledge and skills necessary for economic development of
Nigeria to give exposure on professional studies in technology.Secondly,the
National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) minimum standard
(2012),states that the aim of this type of education is to produce qualified
technical teachers motivated to start the so much desired revolution in
technological development right from the Nigeria school. Consequently, there is
no way these objectives can be attained without adequate technical skills and
competencies. Because for one to function or serve as a technical teacher, that
person is expected to posses the needed skills and competencies for impacting
technical knowledge and skills to learners. Based upon this premise, Dike
(2013), asserted that TVET prepares learners for careers that are based on
manual or practical activities that are related to specific trades, occupation
or vocations. In other words, it is an education designed to develop
occupational skills and competencies. According to Olawole (2014),
unavailability of skilled and competent technical teachers will hindered the
execution of occupational programme that is geared towards manpower need of the
nation as teachers are prime factor in the quality of instructions; therefore
quality and competence go a long way in equipping students in TVET institutions
for the world of work. However, if technical teachers are not adequately
trained with skills and competencies in their occupational areas, then the
nation is yet to have a clear path to the desired technological development it
is yearning for.
To this end, this study is designed to
investigate the factors responsible for inadequacy of technical skills/competencies
of graduate from technical teacher’s institutions in south-south geo-political
region of Nigeria.
Statement
of the Problem
Technical teacher’s
institutions are saddled with responsibility of training technical teachers for
duration of three years for the Nigeria Certificate of Education (NCE)
programme and four years for a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc) in technical
education from the university with areas of specialization such as mechanical,
building and electrical technologies. During the cause of training, students
take courses in education, technology and workshop practice that would enable
them to acquire skills in their respective trades or options.
However, it is expected that after the
duration spent in school with the skills acquired during the period of
training, they should be practically competent in their respective chosen
trades. But there have been worries by employers that the graduates of
technical teacher’s institutions are not competent in practical skills as some
of them could not operate instructional machines in their places of
employments. Thus Adavbiele (2013), confirms that inadequate practical skills/
competencies of the graduate of technical teachers institutions has created a
skill gap in technical teaching careers,
that technical teachers institutions should look inwards. This skill gap is
currently having a wide- spread negative influence on both the teachers and the
graduates in terms of functions and productivity in their places of work. Lack of attention to tackle this gap could
make the young graduates less attractive to employers and this could create
higher unemployment that could cause negative effect on our economy and quest
for technological development. Based upon this, it has become necessary to
investigate the factors responsible for inadequacy of technical skills and
competencies of graduate from technical teacher’s institutions in south-south
geopolitical region of Nigeria.
Purpose
of the Study
The major purpose of
this study is to find out the factors responsible for inadequacy of technical
skill/competencies of graduate from technical teachers institutions.
Specifically, the study intend to:
1.
Find out if lack of instructional
machines, tools and workshop consumables for practical exercise are responsible
for inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduate from technical
teacher’s institutions.
2.
Find out if much time spend on
educational courses affect the time for practical exercise that cause
inadequacy of technical skills and competencies of graduates from technical
teacher institutions
Research
Questions
The following research question was
raised to guide the study.
1.
How does lack of instructional machines,
tools and workshop consumables for practical exercise responsible for
inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates from technical teachers
institutions?
Hypotheses
The
following hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.
1.
There is no significance difference in
the mean response of technical education students in universities and colleges
of education (technical) on lack of instructional machines, tools and workshop
consumable that is responsible for inadequacy of technical skills/competences
of graduate from technical teacher’s institutions.
2.
There is no significance difference in
the mean response of technical education students from universities and
colleges of education (technical) on much time spend on educational course that
affect the time for practical exercise that cause inadequacy of technical skills /competencies
of graduate from technical teachers institutions.
Significance of the
study
The findings of this
study should be of immense benefit to educational institutions such as
universities and colleges of education and their agencies, so as to make
available adequate instructional machines, tools and consumable materials and
to plan their curriculum considering the adequacies of technical skill
competencies of students in their institutions. The findings will also be of
immense benefit to students as it will enhance their practical
skill/competencies. Finally, the study would be a database for future
researchers in the field of education and other related studies.
Scope
of the study
This study was focused
on the factors responsible for inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of
students in technical teacher’s institutions. Therefore, technical education
students from Delta State University Abraka, University of Benin, Benin-city
and technical education students from the Federal Colleges of Education
(Technical) in Asaba and Federal college of education (technical) Omuku, were
used to determine the outcome of the study.
METHODOLOGY
The research design
adopted for this study is a descriptive survey; this study involves the
collection of data from a sample of final year technical education students
from universities and colleges of education (technical).A stratified random
sampling technique was used to select 15 students from the colleges of
education (technical) and 15 students from the universities, making it a sample
size of 30 respondents that was used for the study. The instrument used for
data collection was a questionnaire that was developed by the researcher and it
contains a 28 item statements and the questionnaire was structured to have four
point rating scale of: Strongly Agree (SA) = 4, Agree (A) = 3, Disagree (D) =2
and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1. The instrument was subjected to face and
content validity by two experts, the validats criticism; advice and suggestions
form part that guided the structuring of the instrument. However, to ascertain
the internal consistency of the instrument, a split-have reliability technique
was used as pilot study involving 15 respondents outside the study sample. The
instrument was administered once to the respondents and the data obtained was
computed using the spearman Rank order correlation coefficient and a
coefficient (r) of 0.92 was established.
In administering the
instrument to the respondents, the researcher with the aid of an assistant
personally administered the questionnaire to the respondents in the various
institutions. A total of 30 copies of the questionnaire were distributed in all
the institutions and all the questionnaires were found useable and this
represents a 100% return rate.
The
data obtained from the administered questionnaire were analyzed using mean and
standard deviation to answer the only research question, therefore 2.5 and
above was set as the bench mark to accept any item statement and 2.49 below is
to reject an item statement, while t-test was used to test the hypotheses at
0.05 level of significance.
Result
The results are
presented based on the research questions raised and the hypotheses formulated.
Research
Question 1:
How
does lack of instructional machines, tools and workshop consumables for
practical exercise causes inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of
graduates from technical teachers institutions.
Table 1: Mean ratings and standard
deviation of respondent’s response on lack of instructional machines, tools and
workshop consumables for practical exercise that causes inadequacy of technical
skills and competencies of graduates from technical teacher’s institutions.
|
S/N
|
Item Statements
|
SA
|
A
|
D
|
SD
|
X
|
SD
|
Remark
|
|
1.
|
There
is no metal lathe to practice with in our workshop.
|
14
|
8
|
6
|
4
|
3.00
|
1.1
|
Accept
|
|
2.
|
No
drilling machine to practice with in our workshop.
|
8
|
6
|
12
|
6
|
2.50
|
0.86
|
Accept
|
|
3.
|
There
is no flat sheet of mild steel metal for fitting exercise
|
13
|
8
|
7
|
4
|
2.93
|
0.80
|
Accept
|
|
4.
|
We
have no welding transformer in our workshop to practice arc welding.
|
10
|
8
|
6
|
8
|
2.62
|
1.96
|
Accept
|
|
5.
|
There
is no gas welding equipment and accessories.
|
9
|
11
|
7
|
5
|
2.53
|
1.01
|
Accept
|
|
6.
|
There
is no pedestal grinding machine in our workshop.
|
12
|
9
|
5
|
6
|
2.84
|
0.55
|
Accept
|
|
7.
|
We
have no welding electrodes in our workshop
|
8
|
9
|
7
|
8
|
2.53
|
0.71
|
Accept
|
|
8.
|
There
are no work benches in our workshop for fitting exercise
|
5
|
7
|
11
|
9
|
2.25
|
0.37
|
Reject
|
|
9.
|
We
have no wiring board to practice electrical wiring.
|
8
|
14
|
6
|
4
|
3.12
|
0.60
|
Accept
|
|
10.
|
There
is no galvanize sheet of metal to practice pattern development in our
workshop.
|
9
|
10
|
8
|
5
|
2.71
|
1.02
|
Accept
|
|
11.
|
We
have no shaping machine in our workshop.
|
14
|
5
|
9
|
4
|
2.90
|
0.38
|
Accept
|
|
12.
|
There
are no electrical cables to practice electrical wiring in our workshop.
|
7
|
19
|
4
|
2
|
2.96
|
0.76
|
Accept
|
|
13.
|
Our
workshop is not equipped with wood lathe
|
8
|
13
|
6
|
5
|
2.75
|
1.00
|
Accept
|
|
14.
|
There
is no wood planning machine in our workshop.
|
7
|
12
|
7
|
6
|
2.60
|
1.02
|
Accept
|
|
15.
|
We
have no log of wood to practice wood work exercise with.
|
11
|
10
|
4
|
7
|
2.78
|
1.13
|
Accept
|
|
16.
|
Our
workshop is not equipped with blow lamps for brazing.
|
5
|
8
|
12
|
7
|
2.34
|
0.43
|
Reject
|
|
17.
|
Our
work shop store room is not equipped with hack saw and files for fitting
exercise
|
9
|
14
|
5
|
4
|
2.67
|
0.95
|
Accept
|
|
18.
|
No
marking out equipment in our workshop
|
8
|
15
|
5
|
4
|
2.84
|
0.55
|
Accept
|
|
19.
|
There
is no measuring instrument in our workshop.
|
9
|
13
|
6
|
4
|
2.84
|
1.03
|
Accept
|
|
20.
|
Our
workshop is not equipped with oven for heat treatment
|
9
|
11
|
5
|
7
|
2.68
|
1.10
|
Accept
|
|
21.
|
We
have no spanners and the necessary equipment to dismantle an engine
|
10
|
7
|
8
|
7
|
2.62
|
1.13
|
Accept
|
|
22.
|
There
is no power saw machine in our workshop
|
7
|
12
|
6
|
7
|
2.59
|
1.05
|
Accept
|
|
23.
|
There
is no wheel balancing machine in our workshop
|
13
|
7
|
7
|
5
|
2.85
|
1.09
|
Accept
|
|
24.
|
We
have no cement and sand to practice block setting
|
9
|
8
|
8
|
7
|
2.59
|
1.11
|
Accept
|
|
25.
|
There
is no CNC machine tool in our workshop
|
14
|
13
|
0
|
0
|
3.43
|
0.19
|
Accept
|
|
26.
|
We
have no band saw machine in our workshop.
|
12
|
10
|
6
|
4
|
2.93
|
1.02
|
Accept
|
|
27.
|
There
is no wood pattern use for casting in our workshop
|
9
|
7
|
11
|
5
|
2.62
|
1.03
|
Accept
|
|
28.
|
There
is no milling machine and milling cutters in our workshop
|
8
|
10
|
8
|
6
|
2.62
|
1.05
|
Accept
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Source:
Field survey 2017
Table 1 show that the respondents accepted
26 items as factors responsible for inadequacy of technical skills
/competencies of graduates from technical teacher’s institutions as they were
2.50 and above. Items 8 and 16 were rejected because they were below 2.50.The
table show that item 9 has the highest score of 3.12 while item 8 has the
lowest score of 2.25 respectively. However the calculated grand mean for all
the item statements was 2.75 while the grand standard deviation for all the
items was 0.89 and this show a consensus of opinion by the respondents.
Hypothesis:
1
There
is no significance difference in the mean response of technical education
students from universities and colleges of education (technical) on lack of
instructional machines, tools and workshop consumables that causes inadequacy
of technical skills and competencies of graduates from technical teacher’s
institutions.
Table 2:
The t-test of mean response of technical
education students from universities and colleges of education (technical) on
lack of instructional machines, tools and workshop consumables that causes
inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates from technical
teachers institutions.
|
Institutions
with technical education Programme
|
N
|
X
|
SD
|
df
|
Difference
between mean
|
T
- cal
|
T
- crit
|
Decision
|
|
Universities
|
15
|
17.86
|
4.24
|
28
|
2.46
|
1.67
|
1.70
|
Retain
|
|
Colleges
of Education (technical)
|
15
|
15.40
|
3.58
|
Source: Field survey
2017
Table
2 present the t – test analysis of data from the comparison of the mean
responses of technical education students from universities and colleges of
education (technical) on lack of instructional machines, tools and workshop
consumables that causes inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of
graduates from technical teachers institutions. Results in the table shows that
the calculated value of 1.67 is less than the table value of 1.70 at an alpha
level of 0.05 at 28 degree of freedom. Therefore the null hypothesis is
retained. In conclusion, there is no significance difference in the mean
responses of technical education students in universities and colleges of
education (technical) on the perception of lack of machines, tools and workshop
consumables that causes inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of
graduates from technical teachers institutions
Hypothesis:
2
There
is no significance difference in the mean response of technical education
students from universities and colleges of education (technical) on much time
spend on educational courses that affect the time for practical exercise that
causes inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates from technical
teacher’s institutions.
Table 3:
The t-test of mean responses of technical
education students from universities and colleges of education (technical) on
much time spend on educational courses that affect the time for practical
exercise that causes inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates
from technical teacher’s institutions.
|
Institutions
with technical Education Programme
|
N
|
X
|
SD
|
df
|
Difference
between mean
|
t – cal
|
T – crit
|
Decision
|
|
Universities
|
15
|
17.53
|
4.86
|
28
|
2.27
|
1.29
|
1.70
|
Retain
|
|
Colleges
of Education (Technical)
|
15
|
15.26
|
4.57
|
Source:Field
survey 2017
Table 3 present the t –
test analysis of data generated from the comparison of the mean responses of
technical education students from universities and colleges of education
(technical) on much time spend on educational courses that affect the time for
practical exercise that causes inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of
graduates from technical teachers institutions. Results in the table shows that
calculated value of 1.29 is less than the table value of 1.70 with 28 degree of
freedom at an alpha level of 0.05.Therefore the hypothesis that states that
there is no significance difference in the mean response of technical education
students from universities and colleges of education (technical) on much time
spend on educational courses that affect time for practical exercise is
therefore retained. The implication of this is that both groups agreed that
much time spend on educational courses affect practical exercise that cause
inadequacy of technical skills from graduates of technical teacher’s
institutions.
Discussion
of Findings
The result of the study with respect to
the only research question of the study in table 1 shows that lack of
instructional machines, tools and workshop consumable materials are factor
responsible for inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates from
technical teacher’s institutions and table 2 shows that technical education
students from universities and colleges of education (technical) reaffirm their
stand about lack of instructional machines, tools and workshop consumables as
there was no significance difference about their opinion in the hypothesis formulated.
This findings was corroborated by Audu etal (2007),that the production of
skilled oriented graduates for the labour market required available physical
and material resources for teaching of TVET students which is presently
inadequate.Ogbuanya and Okoli (2014),further asserted that dependable and
sustainable TVET programme demand huge and enormous resources to succeed, that
having understudied the effect of equipment and facilities inadequacy on the
skill acquisition of learners in TVET institutions, that the problem will not
be allowed to persist for the assurance of sustainable development of Nigeria.
In table 3, the hypothesis that states that there is no significance
difference in the mean responses of technical education students from
universities and colleges of education (technical) on much time spend on
educational courses that affect the time for practical exercise that causes the
inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of graduates from technical teacher’s
institutions was upheld. Students from both institutions agreed that much time
spend on educational courses affect the time for practical exercise. However in
affirmation of this assertion, taking a cursory glance at the National
Commission for Colleges of Education minimum standard (2012),there are certain
educational courses that are segmented into different semesters, for example
educational psychology (human learning, child development, and adolescent
psychology) and curriculum I and curriculum II. From the view of this researcher,
these courses can as well be compressed into a semester each to give room for
practical exercise to strengthen the skill/competencies of students considering the nature of TVET
programme.On the basis of this Okoro (1998) earlier warned that all technical
courses irrespective of their level and objective, must stress on skills acquisition/competencies
that must be attained through practical activities, because any TVET course in which a large proportion of
allotted time is not devoted to practical work, experiment and projects, it is
not likely to be very successful as mere theoretical technical information can
not serve the demand of the need of would be technical teachers.
On the basis of the data collected and analyzed, the following major
findings were made;
(a)
Lack of instructional machines, tools
and workshop consumables are responsible for inadequacy of technical
skills/competencies of graduates from technical teacher’s institutions.
(b)
The study shows that there is no
significance difference in the mean response of technical education students
from universities and colleges of education (technical) on lack of
instructional machines, tools and workshop consumables that is responsible for inadequacy
of technical skills/competencies of students from technical teacher’s
institutions.
(c)
The study also shows that there is no
significance difference in the mean response of technical education students
from universities and colleges of education (technical) on much time spend on
educational courses that affect the time spend for practical exercise that
courses the inadequacy of technical skills/competencies of students from
technical teachers institutions.
Conclusions
Based on the findings
of this study, the following conclusions are made: Lack of instructional
machines, tools and workshop consumables are responsible for inadequacy of
technical skills /competencies of students from technical teachers institutions
and much time given to educational courses affect the time technical education
students are suppose to spend on workshop exercise. Though technical education
programme involves pedagogical knowledge and skills, but much time should be
given to core technological skills and competencies.
Recommendations
Based on the findings
of this study, the following recommendations are made:
1.
Technical teacher’s institutions
workshops should be fully equipped with instructional machines, tools and
workshop consumables; this will help to facilitate teaching and learning of
practical exercise.
2.
Some educational courses for technical
teachers programme should be review to ascertain that those segmented into
semesters should be compress into a semester to give room for practical’s
considering the nature of technical education programme.
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