ABSTRACT
The study investigates entrepreneurship education In Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria. The focus of the study was on the strengths, weaknesses, opportunity and threats in the management of entrepreneurship education in Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria. A descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The sample for the study was composed through a multi-stage sampling technique. This gave a sample of 763 respondents used for the study. Based on the review of literature, four research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. A questionnaire titled, Entrepreneurship Education Strategic Management Questionnaire (EEdSMQ) was designed and used for the study. This instrument was validated and the overall reliability ascertained to be 0.76. From data collected, mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while T-test statistic was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Results show that the strength of entrepreneurship education In Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria among others includes availability of funds by the government and for in-service training of entrepreneurship teachers; and high enrolment of students for the EED programme. It was found that Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria have weaknesses in the management of entrepreneurship education, but they also have opportunities of managing entrepreneurship education. Results further show that there is no significant difference between the mean responses of teachers and coordinators on the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats to entrepreneurship education in Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria. Based on this, the work recommends that, Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria authorities should make provision for teachers to go for workshops or seminars so as to be exposed to current trends in EED programme. The Federal Government of Nigeria should maintain a policy aimed at making adequate fund available for entrepreneurship education in Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria, and a supervisory team should be set up to take the responsibility of maintaining a judicious expenditure of such funds. The government should also set up a blueprint on punishment of offenders for misappropriation of entrepreneurship education fund. University authorities should be equipped with entrepreneurial centres to expose teachers and students to practical aspects of EED. Firms and industries should be more willing to accept students for industrial training as it strengthen the students’ interest in entrepreneurship education programme.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The standard of education and its functionality has been a major concern for educational administrators in Nigeria, especially in this 21st century. This is probably due to global interest in education which has been identified as a means of development by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) targeted towards eradication of poverty across the globe. In a bid to improve educational standards in Nigeria, different governments had come up with different policies in education, all aiming at solving inherent social and economic problems like arm-robbery, kidnapping, hostage taking, and graduate unemployment amongst others. Literature is replete with the fact that many Nigerian graduates leave the university without jobs and with little or no hope of securing any for many years. For instance, Dabalen, Oni and Adekola (2000) observed that, unemployment among graduates in Nigeria is high, and their prospects for job have been worsened over time and without hope. They recycle themselves as postgraduates. Others without such opportunity and no hope of self-sustenance engage in various antisocial and nefarious activities such as cultism, armed robbery and insurgency (Soludo, 2006). These challenges, according to Mando and Akaan (2013) are common among university graduates in the North central states like Kogi, Benue, Taraba, Plateau and Kwara. As a result, several graduates of Benue State University and University of Agriculture, both in Makurdi, have indulged in acts of cultism, armed-robbery and other vices not worthy of university graduates. This problem is indeed, a fallout of the inability of the government, especially in Benue State (since the inception of democracy in 1999), to provide job opportunities for the steaming graduates in the State.
As a result of the above problem, entrepreneurship education was introduced by the government in institutions of learning. The idea was to enable the students to appreciate the nature and dynamics of entrepreneurship, and subsequently, the acquisition of skills that would make it possible for them to develop functional skills which would enable them to depend less on government jobs, but rely on their own abilities to provide for themselves the means of livelihood. In this regard, Mando and Akaan (2013) contended that, entrepreneurship education (EEd) is central to national development as it prepares students for jobs and careers based on manual or practical activities, and help them develop skills in a particular trade that promotes considerable self-employment for socio-economic, cultural and even political advancement of a nation.
Entrepreneurship education has academic aspect (Curriculum and Pedagogy) and administrative aspect which determine the entrepreneurship institutional quality. Both aspects heavily contribute to the quality and success of the overall EEd (Lee and Wong, 2005). The ultimate goal of entrepreneurship education is to facilitate the creation of an entrepreneurial culture (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, 2010), which in turn would help potential students to identify and pursue opportunities. Aina (2007) also stressed that, EEd inculcates in trainees the ability to assess their strength; seek information and advice; make decisions; plan their time; carry an agreed responsibility; communicate and negotiate; deal with people in power and authority; solve problems; resolve conflict; evaluate performance; cope with stress and tension; and achieve self-confidence. These abilities are what could be termed employable skills.
Students could therefore, be trained to succeed in entrepreneurship irrespective of their gender and educational background so as to enhance the development of core entrepreneurship traits and skills such as: diligence and capacity for hard work (task orientation); confidence; risk taking; decision making skills; interpersonal skills; leadership skills; and goal setting to improve individuals (Chiaha and Agu, 2008). The benefits of EEd to students are numerous and include such positive outcomes as increased sense of locus of control; greater awareness of personal talents and skills; improved school attendance; higher academic achievement; enhanced creativity skills in business situations; enhanced business opportunity recognition skills; ability to handle business situations ethically; problem-solving skills; understanding of steps essential in business start up; enhanced awareness of career and entrepreneurial option; use of strategies for idea generation and assessment of feasibility of ideas; understanding of basic free market economy; enhanced basic financial concepts; increased awareness of social responsibility and entrepreneur’s contribution to society; and greater likelihood of graduating to next education level (Broecke and Diallo, 2012).
Entrepreneurship education therefore, appears to be a formal structured instruction which conveys entrepreneurial knowledge and develops in students, focused awareness relating to opportunity, recognition and the creation of new ventures. Nwosu and Ohia (2009) defined entrepreneurship education as the process of providing individuals with the ability to recognize commercial opportunities and the knowledge, skills and attitudes to act on them. Acknowledging the view above, Brown (2003) contends that, entrepreneurship education and training programmes are aimed directly at stimulating entrepreneurship which may be defined as independent small business ownership or the development of opportunity-seeking managers within companies. Brown added that, these innovative, creative, independent and self-reliant qualities are lacking in most university graduates, who have become mere white collar job-seekers rather than job-makers. However, entrepreneurship seem to be the hub of both small and medium enterprises in America, Europe, Asian Tigers, among other advanced countries where private sector compliments the efforts of government in provision of employment opportunities, social security and welfare services to the citizenry.
Based on the above, this study proposes a strategic management of the challenges facing EEd In Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria, , through the application of SWOT, which denotes Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threats. Johnson and Scholes in Hinde ( 2000, p. 14) stated that the aim of SWOT analysis is to identify the extent to which the current strategy of an organization and its more specified strength and weakness are relevant to, and capable of dealing with the change taking place in the management of university education. This means that, every university in the North Central Nigeria needs to increasingly become aware of their Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threats in managing the challenges of entrepreneurship education. To succeed in any field, weakness must be overcome through strength and threats must be transferred into opportunities.
On the other hand, strategic management of EEd challenges primarily entails responses to external issues such as in understanding the actual needs of students, and responding to them as appropriate. This is because strategic management provides overall direction to an organization. It entails specifying the organization’s objectives, developing policies and plans designed to achieve these objectives, and then allocating resources to implement the plans. It also includes a feedback mechanism which monitors execution and informs the next round of action.
Deriving from the above, the expectation is that, strategic management of EEd challenges would enable Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria to function effectively towards achieving the objectives of entrepreneurship education. Besides, Ibukun (1997) pointed out that, the relevance of university education in Nigeria generally, is the provision of much needed manpower to accelerate the socio-economic development of the nation. Higher education as an instrument of social change and economic development was considered relevant by the National University Commission as a means through which EEd should be inculcated to Nigerian university graduates.
However, many educationists and administrators have questioned the achievement of the objectives of higher education by these Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria. The objectives of university education as enshrined in the Nigeria’s National Policy on Education include contributing to national development through high level manpower training; providing accessible and affordable quality learning opportunities in formal and informal education in response to the needs and interests of all Nigerians; providing high quality career counseling and lifelong learning programmes that prepare students with the knowledge and skills for self-reliance and the world of work; reducing skill shortages through the production of skilled manpower relevant to the needs of the labour market; promoting and encouraging scholarship, entrepreneurship and community service; forging and cementing national unity; and promoting national and international understanding and interaction (Federal Republic of Nigeria, 2014).
1.2 Statement of the Problem
One observes with dismay, the deepening level of graduate unemployment in Nigeria, and this is in a country that is blessed with abundant natural resources such as ore, coal, chromium, cobalt, hydroelectric power, manganese and millions of hectares of uncultivated farmland and abundance of oil and gas. Regrettably, able-bodied men and women have become beggars on the streets of their fatherland. Realizing the above danger, entrepreneurship education was introduced and made a compulsory course in Nigerian Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria. The idea was to enable graduates to acquire skills for the development of functional skills which would enable them to depend less on government jobs, but rely on their own abilities to provide for themselves the means of livelihood. This, apart from addressing the problem of graduate unemployment, would also strategically position the Nigerian economy for leadership in Africa.
Ever since entrepreneurship education was introduced in Nigerian Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria, many graduates still remain unemployed for a long time after graduation. It appears that, the entrepreneurship education delivered to undergraduates does not meet the aims and the objectives of the course. Consequently, the challenge of graduate unemployment, with its attendant effects has continued to undermine chances of survival in Nigeria, thus making mockery of the content and philosophy of entrepreneurship education in the federal and state Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria in the North Central States. Such Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria are faced with the challenge of effective entrepreneurship education management. This research is therefore, an attempt towards understanding the above malaise in terms of the content of EEd; how the programme is managed; what impact it has on the socio-economic progress of university graduates , and how this problem could be addressed in the interest of achieving sound entrepreneurship education in North Central States Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria, and Nigerian Senior secondary school students in Kwara state Nigeria at large.
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