EVALUATION OF THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NATIONAL CURRICULUM FOR BASIC SCIENCE IN SOUTH EAST, NIGERIA

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1              BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

            Science is a process of studying nature. This study of nature often involves a systematic process leading to either inventions or discoveries. However every scientific process should always involve a theoretical perception or a practical experimentation. It is often said that science is life, and no science no life. This means that science is of fundamental importance to life existence because the result of every scientific investigation lays serious impact in life sustenance (Ameke, 2010). Baikie (2000) and Agbo (2008) as cited in NERDC (2013) states that Basic science is the bedrock to advance studies in science, technology and engineering.  Science starts with the very beginning of life. Once a child is born for instance, science starts, he begins to learn through trial and error how to crawl, how to stand and walk and how to talk. This he does consciously and unconsciously. Science stimulates in the child the tendency to explore his environment and find out the why of things. In that bid, scientific questions are raised and in trying to provide appropriate answers to such questions the child discovers new ideas.

Science is an activity that involves the three domains of behaviour that interplay to achieve desired results. We live in a world of science and it affects our lives everyday. Everything we see around us in one way or the other is a product of scientific thinking. For instance, the soft drinks we consume daily, the vehicles we ride, the air planes we fly on, the mobile phones we communicate with, the radios, television sets, and plastic bags used to wrap things, fruit juice among others are all products of science.

It is important to understand that science is a special way of investigating patterns in nature and the ways in which the physical world works. Questions that may be answered by making observations and fair tests can be the beginning of investigations leading to scientific knowledge based on firsthand experience (Omachi, 2010). Knowledge of what we did or produced by ourselves is more meaningful, better internalized and lasts longer in us than secondhand facts and ideas coming from what we read, are told of or what we see on video screens. Though the latter can help us to interpret our personal discoveries and relate them within the wider contexts of universal knowledge, they are poor substitutes for living experiences. Nevertheless, the impact of science on the life of man has become more striking now than ever before because every nation is now in a world of competition and aspiring for scientific and technological advancement and independence (Oludipe, 2010).

However, in the school setting, science teaching and learning started as nature study and was later called elementary or primary science because it was taught and studied in the elementary/primary schools. From there it changed to general science and because of the integrated nature of its components, the concept or subject was later called integrated science.

While the design of the integrated science curriculum was based on the spirality of themes which were arranged from primary 1 to 3 of the lower Basic level, primary 4 to 6 of the middle Basic level and JSS 1 to 3 of the upper Basic level, the contents were organized using the thematic approach such as: you and environment, living and non-living things; science and development of you and energy (Bajah, 2012). The spiral nature of the themes then ensured that contents become gradually difficult as learners progressed from lower basic to upper basic levels of the education system.

When the integrated science curriculum was seen not achieving the national expectations for scientific advancement, varied criticisms sprang up (NPE, 2007), and as Nigeria is a developing nation with an increasing demand for science-based skilled manpower, coupled with the national desire for cuing into the global terrain for fast technological advancement which could be achieved with the learning of basic science at the basic levels and the separate science subjects of physics, chemistry and biology at the upper level of the school system, there were series of suggestions and counter suggestions for restructuring the existing integrated science curriculum so as to meet up with the spontaneous globalization in science and technology (Dauda & Udofia, 2010).

Meanwhile the suggestions for restructuring were later acknowledged and scheduled to hold in 2006, but before the reform the general objective of the integrated science education was to enable pupils observe and explore the environment using the senses of their hands. As a matter of fact, the goals of the 2006 curriculum reform were to reflect depth, appropriateness and inter-relatedness of the curricula content (Idoko, 2010). Owing to the fast growing trend in the world of science, the reform shifted the objectives beyond the existing integrated science objectives and changed the integrated science subject into basic science and technology.

However, the five cardinal objectives of the basic science programme according to the national policy on education (2006) and Bajah (2013) revised in 2015 include to:

i.                    develop learners interest in science

ii.                  prepare learners to acquire basic laboratory knowledge and skills

iii.                apply their scientific knowledge and skills to meet societal needs

iv.                take advantage of the numerous career opportunities offered by science

v.                  become prepared for further studies in science   

Further reviews infused the following teams into the integrated science curriculum to form the basic science and technology curriculum. The teams include: environmental education, drug abuse education, population and family life education, sexually transmitted infection, climatic change, foods and drugs safety education, disaster risk reduction education, consumer education, safety and security as well as entrepreneurship concepts into the Basic science curriculum (NERDC, 2009).

Moreover, later reviews changed the Basic science and technology curriculum into two separate subjects of Basic science and Basic technology and enshrined skills acquisition and ethical issues in science and development into the Basic science curriculum. (see page 156). Today in our schools, the then integrated science curriculum is studied under Basic science and technology for the lower and middle basic levels,  and Basic science, Basic technology, physical and health education(PHE) and information technology for the upper basic level of the school system.                                                                                      However Basic Science according to Sambo, Kukwi, Eggari and Mahmuda (2014) is a course of study devised and presented in such a way that students gain the concepts of the fundamental unity of science, the commonality of approach to problems of scientific nature and helps students to gain an understanding of the roles and functions of science in everyday life and the world in which they live, Baikie (2010) and Agbo (2013) states that Basic Science is the bedrock to advance studies in science, technology and engineering.

The subject Basic science is one of the school subjects taught in Nigeria secondary schools which form the foundations upon which other science subjects operate. It is taught at the three basic levels of the school system. Students who wish to study medicine, nursing, pharmacy, forestry; fisheries, botany, zoology, and other vocational courses like technical education and entrepreneurial studies must take advantage of Basic science at the lower levels of the education sector. For each year, a main topic is given along with performance objectives, the contents, teachers and pupils’ activities, materials and evaluation guides.

The objectives of the basic science curriculum earlier stated above have adjudged laudable according to Bajah and Youdeowei (2005) as cited in NERDC (2013).Laudable as these objectives of teaching Basic science appear, one is not sure whether these objectives are achieved as documented evidences of National Research Council (2000) and Hancer (2003) as cited in Sambo et al (2014) have shown that most lower, middle and upper basic school teachers in Nigeria by standards do not know the recommended teaching methods indicated in the curriculum what more applying them. For among all the resources necessary for the implementation of the Basic science subject, the Basic science teacher occupies a strategic position as the quality of teachers in any educational programme determine to a large extent the quality of the system itself (Onyedrian, 2009) as cited in Ojedele (2012). Furthermore, some research reports have shown that even though many students find the subjects very interesting, many of them still obtain poor results year in year out in Basic science in the Basic Education Curriculum Examinations (BECE). Reasons according to many researchers and authors like Sambo et al (2014) are such factors like  language problems and poor attitudes to teaching and learning of the subject by both the teachers and the students, invariably ignoring such factors like: achievement of the aims and objectives, adequacy and utilization of instructional materials, professional expertise of and compliance by teachers on recommended teaching methods, evaluation techniques employed by teachers for feedback, gender and location factors as well as other problems militating against the implementation process and thus has created a big gap in the successful implementation of the Basic science curriculum (Sambo et al &   Ifeobu (2014). Looking closely at the above circumstances, one may be tempted to say that the performance of students on the Basic Science curriculum lies heavily on the implementation process. Implementation of the reformed Basic science curriculum commenced in schools in September 2008 and the first batch of students graduated in June 2010 after sitting for the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE). availability and adequacy of learning materials and equipment may be other constraining factors

When one examines the Basic Science results in upper Basic level examination in Nigeria and particularly in the South East States in the last six years (2012-2017), see pages (157-169), one finds out that the results were not as impressive as expected. For instance, reports from Basic Education Curriculum Examination (BECE) chief examiners in the three sample states of the South East show that out of 92,329 candidates that enrolled for BECE in 2012, only 5,839 (or 6.32%) had credit pass and above in Basic science. The rest had level passes (see pages 157-169) for sample. (Examination Development Centre Owerri, Imo State, Anambra State Post Primary School Services Commission, Abia State Secondary Education Management Board, Umuahia (2012 – 2017).

The above results vividly show poor performance in Basic Science curriculum implementation in the year period (2012 - 2017) under review. This continued poor result occurrence on the Basic science subject is a thing of worry to many Nigerians as they have started to query and doubt the possibility of the nation attaining her desired scientific and technological advancement. This undesirable circumstance   therefore calls for further evaluation of the implementation of the Basic science curriculum especially in the South-East of Nigeria. The need to assess the implementation of the Basic science programme after almost seven years of its commencement has been stressed by Sambo et al (2014). Generally, when a programme is assessed or evaluated, some data relating to such programme are collected, analyzed and interpreted so that decisions regarding the programme can be made. These decisions may lead to programme improvement, programme replanning and personnel improvement, among others. As a matter of fact, for the Basic science programme to continuously record desired improvement; two things must be seriously focused on. These are curriculum implementation and curriculum evaluation. It is one thing here to implement the curriculum and another thing to evaluate the implementation.

 However, the result of curriculum implementation is often assessed through curriculum evaluation because it is the process of evaluation that exposes in a comprehensive way the worth and true picture of what happens to the curriculum at its implementation. If the evaluation process is faulty, many impediments to the implementation of the curriculum would not be fully discovered (Aguokagbuo, 2014).

The implementation of the curriculum according to Ali (2013) is the aspect that concerns the nature and scope of classroom teacher and evaluation of learning achieved by students who were taught. Going further, he posits that specifically, the process of curriculum implementation entails interaction between the curriculum planner, the teacher, the learners, and the learning environment. He maintained that the teacher is the key player in the implementation process since what he does with it in the classroom determines whether the set goals would be achieved or not. The way the teacher implements the curriculum is determined by his knowledge, professional training, competence, initiative, interest and motivation, though such factors as students interests and readiness, as well as availability and adequacy of learning materials and equipment may be other constraining factors.

         Curriculum can be evaluated in a number of ways using the different evaluation models such as goal-oriented model, discrepancy evaluation model, goal free evaluation model, responsive evaluation model, prototype evaluation model, Needs assessment model, Context, Input, Process, Product and Constraints (CIPPC) model, among others. The CIPPC framework detects the presence of any defects or weaknesses in the context, input, process, product and constraints components as these would be identified and remedial or adjustment measures be provided. This model is chosen from amongst the others because of its comprehensiveness, purposefulness and acceptedness, and often used by curriculum evaluators in different parts of the world (Oladineji, 2013). For instance, such indicators as teaching staff, rate of students participation, teaching and learning environment, implementation of programmes, teaching materials and organization of programmes are all part of Stufflebeam's model that are categorized into facilities, input, process, products and constraints (Okpoko, 2010).

Context evaluation helps in the diagnosis of the programme and problems in relation to the determination of programme objective. Input evaluation provides information for determining how to utilize resources to achieve project designs (Stufflebeam, 1971). Process evaluation is needed to provide periodic feedback to persons responsible for implementing plans and procedures. It also provides information for interpreting project outcomes. Product evaluation has the purpose of measuring and interpreting the qualification of graduates at the end of a project cycle. It is expected to provide a measure to see more of the number of candidates passing Basic Science at Credit level after their JSS examinations. Constraints evaluation provides information on other possible factors that hinder easy implementation of the curriculum.

South East states operate the same reformed curriculum like any other geopolitical zone of the country. This is also the same with Basic Science in the five education states of the south East. In all these strata, the contents and systems of infrastructure are invariably supposed to be uniform. The implementation of the curriculum from where the syllabi are drawn is expected to be the same in both Urban and rural schools. A number of empirical studies seem to show that the absence of social amenities such as electricity and pipe-borne water in most rural areas are among the major reasons why most teachers reject their posting to schools located in rural areas (Ameke, 2006), and this may be confirmed by some responses from the oral interview result of this study (see pages 89-91). Consequently such schools may lack qualified Basic science professionals that could properly implement the Basic science curriculum.

It is therefore necessary to evaluate the implementation of the National Curriculum for Basic Science in the South East of Nigeria looking at such variables like provision of instructional materials and facilities necessary for effective teaching and learning, rate of utilization of available instructional materials by teachers, quantity and quality of Basic science teachers, compliance of Basic science teachers to the recommended teaching methods indicated in the curriculum, Basic science teachers  knowledge of the evaluation techniques required for feedback, gender and location influences, among others.

1.2       STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM                                

One of the major goals of science education is to produce scientists for national development (FRN, 2014). Basic Science provides a framework around which other separate sciences operate to push a society to an advanced level. Our young generations are supposed to develop interest and love for the subject and vigorously pursue and adapt the skills required for the nation’s scientific prowess and technological advancement. This they would achieve by having sound basic knowledge of science and skills.

Inspite of Nigerian government investment to promote science education programme from the grassroots, coupled with the great importance of science as a basis for national development students are yet not doing well in the subject at the Basic Education Certificate Examinations (BECE). Their performances have always been very poor. (See pages 154-166) for poor result samples. This prompted the researcher to express some doubts and worries as to whether the Upper Basic school Basic science Curriculum is adequately implemented in schools. To the researcher, the concern ought to be practically evaluated rather than speculated.

Consequently, the fast changing applications of science and the global reliance on its processes and products in all areas of human endeavour has made it invaluable that any society or country without scientific prowess risks being alienated from the global village (Mulemwa, 2011). Invariably, as every educational programme needs to be monitored periodically to assess the extent to which the objectives are being achieved, there is need to evaluate the implementation of the national curriculum for the Basic Science subject. The problem of this study therefore put in a question form is: How is the national curriculum for Upper Basic School Basic Science implemented in South East Nigeria?

1.3       PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the implementation of the National Curriculum for Upper Basic School Basic Science (NCUBSBS) in South East, Nigeria. (see appendix for basic science curriculum and minimum bench mark)

Specifically, the study sought to:

1.      determine the extent of achievement of the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum for Basic Science

2.      determine the availability and adequacy of materials and facilities needed for effective teaching and learning of Basic Science in Junior Secondary Schools.

3.      determine extent of utilization of available instructional materials by teachers.

4.      ascertain the level of compliance by Basic Science teachers on the use of recommended teaching methods indicated in the curriculum.

5.      ascertain the quantity and quality of Basic Science teachers in Nigerian Secondary Schools.

6.      identify the evaluation techniques employed by Basic Science teachers in assessing their students for feedback.

7.      find out the influence of gender on Basic science curriculum implementation.

8.      ascertain the influence of school location on the Basic science curriculum implementation

9        find out  problems militating against the implementation of the National Curriculum for JSS Basic Science in South East, Nigeria.

1.4       RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The following research questions guided the study:

1)      To what extent are the aims and objectives of the Basic Science Curriculum achieved in Nigerian schools? 

2)      What are the available resources required for teaching Basic science and how adequate are they?

3)      To what extent do Basic science teachers utilize the available instructional materials for the teaching and learning of the subject?

4)      To what extent do Basic science teachers comply on the recommended teaching methods indicated in the curriculum?

5)      What are the quantity and quality of Basic science teachers in Nigerian secondary schools?

6)      What are the evaluation techniques employed by Basic science teachers in assessing their students?

7)      To what extent does gender influence Basic science curriculum implementation?

8)      How far does school location influence Basic science curriculum implementation?

9)      What problems militate against the proper implementation of the national curriculum for Basic science in Nigerian schools?

1.5       HYPOTHESES

The following hypotheses were formulated for the study:

1.      There is no significance difference between the mean scores of teachers and students of Basic Science on the achievement of the aims and objectives of Basic Science curriculum.

2.      There’s no significance difference between the mean scores of male and female students on the utilization of available instructional materials for Basic Science teaching and learning.

3.      There is no significance difference between the mean scores of male and female teachers on Basic science teachers’ level of compliance to the recommended teaching methods enshrined in the curriculum.

4.      There is no significance difference between the mean scores of male and female teachers on the quantity and quality Basic science teachers for the implementation of the national curriculum.

5.       There is no significance difference between the mean scores of male and female students on teachers’ evaluation techniques employed for feedback.

6.      There is no significance difference between the male and female teachers mean response scores on the influence of gender on Basic science curriculum implementation.

7.      There is no significance difference between the male and female teachers mean response scores on influence of school location on Basic science curriculum implementation.

8.      There is no significance difference between the mean scores of male and female students on problems militating against the Basic science curriculum implementation.

1.6       SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study may be of immense benefit to the following people: the teachers, students, parents, educational administrators, policy makers/curriculum planners, the government and future researchers.

To the teachers, the findings of the study may help them to apply other new strategies and teaching methods that could help achieve the goals of the Basic science curriculum. To the students, the findings of the study may go a long way to provide information on the extent they are attaining the aims and objectives of the Basic science curriculum through their performances in class assessments and their need for improvements. On the part of parents, the findings of this study will propel them to see the need to collaborate with the government to provide science equipment needed for effective teaching and learning. Educational administrators, policy makers and curriculum planners may be sensitized on the need to plan towards effective curriculum implementation in Nigerian secondary schools. They may be spurred to make policies that are truly result-oriented and see the need for review of the entire or part of the existing curriculum in relation to the local environment and in line with 21^st century globalization. Furthermore, the result may contribute to policy formulation and practices, as inspectors from the Federal and state Ministries of Education may be sensitized on what to look out during inspection.

The result of this study may inform the government areas of deficiencies especially in the area of adequate provision of Basic science materials necessary for pedagogy, as well as other ways of involving the private sector in school assistance. The Federal and State Ministries of Education as well as the Nigerian Education Research and Development Council (NERDC) may find the result of the study valuable particularly in the current government effort towards implementation of the revised 9-year Basic Education curriculum. It may also be a source of highlight on the extent the resources or finances they have plunged into the system yielded good results.

Finally, on a wider scale, African countries may benefit from the study because the findings and recommendations may provide point of reference.

1.7       SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The study was delimited to finding out how National Curriculum for the Basic Science subject is implemented in Upper Basic Schools in South Eastern Nigeria. The curriculum evaluation plan for this study was based on Stufflebeams modified curriculum implementation model of context, input, process, product and constraints (Stufflebeam, 2009 cited in Ifeobu 2014).

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