1.1 Introduction
In Nigeria today, applied electricity technical education had become a thing of National Interest because it has been realized that it has efficacy in producing the dreamed and desired manpower for the nation. Until recently applied electricity technical education was meant for those who could not cope effectively with conventional academic pursuits. Performance in school is evaluated in a number of ways. For regular grading, students demonstrate their knowledge by taking written and oral tests, performing presentations, turning in homework and participating in class activities and discussions. Teachers evaluate in the form of letter or number grades and side notes, to describe how well a student has done. At the state level, students are evaluated by their performance on standardized tests geared toward specific ages.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
At the twentieth century Nigeria with her abundant human and Natural resources has not been able to achieve much technologically. The inability to achieve much at this period is not unconnected with history since we attained independence; policies and strategies of the various levels government have not been far reaching enough to involve a sound technological foundation for the country.
Since the advent of poor economy in Nigeria funding of education by three tiers of government (Federal, state and local government) has never been what it used to be in 70s particularly Applied Electricity in technical colleges which is capital intensive, consequently, the materials tools equipment and facilities required for training are sparingly provided. In these circumstances, it will be very difficult for Applied Electricity students to meet the maximum standard required for a meaningful Applied Electricity development.
Paramount among other sectors of the economy, we have technical education essential to technological breakthrough of the country if she has to meet up with present day development required of a country that survives the challenges of the new millennium. The depreciation of Naira to affects technical students in Applied Electricity due to non-availability of the training equipment, tools and other facilities. Also, the abrupt stoppage of the foreign Applied Electricity studies are malfunctioning of the local alternative, Electrical Engineering (EE) offered in Nigeria, few universities, polytechnics and colleges of technology has fallen due to poor economy.
Furthermore, the withdrawal of external aid to Nigeria as a result of the political imbroglio between 1992 and 1998 did not help matters. Among the foreign organization, which withdrew scholarship opportunities from Nigeria are the United Nations education scientific and cultural organization (UNESCO) United National Development Programme (UNDP) World Bank and common wealth. Education is largely a matter of a learning process that involves interactions between teacher and learner. In the past, academic performance was often measured more by ear than today.
Teachers' observations made up the bulk of the assessment and today's summation, or numerical, method of determining how well a student is performing is a fairly recent invention. Grading systems came into existence in the United States in the late Victorian period and were initially criticized due to high subjectivity. Different teachers valued different aspects of learning more highly than others, and although some standardization was attempted in order to make the system fairer, the problem continued.
The welfare and motivation aspect of Applied Electricity Technical Student services was adversely affected by the ever-escalating dual exchange rate. With the present changes of emphasis on the part of government, policy wise, electrical technology has been accorded the priority and the deserved attention to its relevance to the technology development and needs of the society as enshrined in the current national policy on education. The societal attitude which perceives technical education as an education for the under privileged who cannot cope with academic rigours in the secondary school, college or technology also looks at the technology students as early levers of their academic pursuits.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Factors Militating Against the Performance of Student in Applied Electricity.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed that job satisfaction among Electrical Engineering Students after graduation from the technology school is very poor, also there is lack of tool and equipment to do their practical work in Electrical Engineering. Without these things there will be poor performance in practical work. The Electrical Students are also lacking of industrial training because of poor performance and poor standard workshop arrangement, curriculum arrangement on the performance of technological students.
In Applied Electricity is not well addressed. This student addresses these problems:
- Due to lack of learning environment which contributed to the performance of students.
- The job satisfaction of the electrical engineering student has affect the performance of electrical technology student.
- Lack of competent Electrical engineering teaching has affected the performance of technical students.
- Lack of electrical engineering workshop has affected the performance of Applied Electricity students.
- Lack of insatiable curriculum has affected the performance of students in Applied Electricity.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the Factors Militating against the Performance of Student in Applied Electricity. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To identify the problems posed by performance of the Applied Electricity workshop in terms of practical;
- To determine the working condition of Applied Electricity workshop in terms of practical;
- To assess the condition of learning environment; and
- To assess the effectiveness and efficiency of the Electrical workshop teachers.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What are the effects of poor economy on provision of training facilities and equipment on Applied Electricity Students?
- What is the relevance of Applied Electricity student’s competence to the emergency of industrial growth of Nigeria?
- What are the effects of skilled manpower requirement for industrial growth?
- What are the important of (NBTE) National Business of Technical Education Syllabus to the manpower training need in Nigeria?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
In order to pursue the objective of this study, the following generalized statements have been designed to guide and aids in obtaining the result for the experiment to be conducted. For this work, the null hypothesis will be represented with H0 while the alternative hypothesis will be represented with hypothesis H1.
Hypothesis One
- H0: There are no significant problems posed by performance of the Applied Electricity workshop in terms of practical
- H1: There are significant problems posed by performance of the Applied Electricity workshop in terms of practical
1.7 Significance of Study
The finding of the study will enable the government policy makers. Policy implementations, classroom teachers, industries and society at large becomes aware of certain problem in the programme which can man the march towards the country's technological advancement. The result of the study will also keep the students abreast of the success recorded so far and to find ways of improving in their study.
The result of the study will keep improving the practical work and learning of introductory technology specifically practical work will benefit from the result of this study that they will use the instrument to evaluate the students rather than the practical made test. Finally the result of this study will be immense benefit to the Applied Electricity engineering experts.
1.8 Scope of Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Factors Militating against the Performance of Student in Applied Electricity. The study was confirmed to four technical colleges randomly selected in Bayelsa State. Out of the four technical colleges selected known one is owned by federal government, four are state owned technical college.
1.9 Assumption of the Study
For the purpose this study, it was assured that:
- The information gathered from the respondents is authentic.
- The staff and students in this study are ideal respondents.
- The population sample is large enough to be representative of total population considering the limited time.
1.10 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.11 Operational Definition of Terms
Academic Performance: This refers to the students’ performance, scores within the class and his position relative to all those subjected the same test.
Effects: the result or outcome of anything be it positive or negative.
Educational Status: This term is used for social processes in which one achieve social competence and individual growth, carried on in a selected, controlled sitting which can be institutionalized as a school or college.
