1.1 Introduction
Business Studies is that aspect of vocational education that focuses on the development of the students with the acquisition of skills needed to satisfy human wants, the attitude of students towards the subject should be studied both by the school counselors and business teachers in our secondary schools in order to help them to have right disposition towards those Business Studies subjects. It is obvious that business transactions are growing within and outside the country, the acquisition of business skills is more important now than ever. It is unfortunate, however, that these secondary school students are not taking this global challenges seriously. They rather prefer studying arts subjects to commercial subjects. No thanks to unnecessary fear students have developed for shorthand in recent times. A number of secondary school students both at junior secondary schools (JSS) and senior secondary schools (SSS) do not want to have anything doing with Business subjects.
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
Business Studies has been discussed as a social science discipline which ought to be taught in all post primary schools in Nigeria as stated by the National Policy on Education. Business Studies is made up of a number of subject areas. In other words, it is an integration of many subjects, it is offered as an integrated subject at the Junior Secondary level comprising, office practice, commerce, shorthand, typewriting and book-keeping. However, at the Senior Secondary level, the subjects are separated into shorthand, typewriting, economics, book-keeping and accounting with a view to providing career options.
The (NBTE) Business Studies curriculum had several features that were intended to produce teachers who be adequately suited for teaching Bossiness Studies at the secondary school level. Courses were specified in modules with the performance objectives for each module clearly specified common core subject which every student had to study for the first 2 years, were specified. Specialization in either accounting or secretarial options was reserved for the third and final year.
However, when the (National Commission for college of Education (NCCE), inherited the N.C.E curriculum from the NBTE in 1990, it decided to shed most of the features of the N.C.E curriculum as developed by the latter. For instance, the modular structure and course specifications, as well as a statement of objectives were abandoned. What can be seen, therefore, as a serious weakness in the National Commission for college of education curriculum for teachers of Business Studies is that of stating course outlines in syllabus context. This, certainly, can hardly help in experienced students/teachers who need guidance in formulating their lesson objectives appropriately.
Inadequate workforce supply has, for along time been recognized as a major factor militating against the successful and effective teaching of Business Studies at both Junior and Senior Secondary School levels of education. The pitiable situation in low Business teachers supply can be explained in terms of structural imbalance in the educational system (Aina. 2000). These problems are reflected in the continuous poor performance of Business Studies.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to investigate the attitude of students towards business studies.
1.3 Statement of Problems
The problems in teaching Business Studies like any other subject have been attributed to the lack of materials for teaching, sometimes some teachers are not qualified to teach the subject. In some cases however, there are qualified teachers but they lack the necessary teaching materials without, which efforts, become futile. Also sometimes the student or learner are rather not interested in the subject and hence they perform below expectation.
It is worthy to note that the method of teaching employed by the teacher may render the subject uninteresting. This is simply because, a good teacher with a bad method of teaching gets a poor result. This study investigates both the Problem and Prospects of teaching Business Studies.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the attitude of students towards business studies. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To examine the method teachers used in teaching students Business Studies
- To determine the student’s attitudes towards learning of Business Studies
- To ascertain the instructional materials available for teaching Business Studies
- To investigate the necessary qualifications for teaching Business Studies
- To determine the necessary experiences needed for teaching Business Studies
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 method teachers used in teaching students Business Studies?
- What are the student’s attitudes towards learning of Business Studies?
- What are the necessary qualifications for teaching Business Studies?
- What are the necessary experiences needed for teaching Business Studies?
- What are the instructional materials available for teaching Business Studies?
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