AN ASSESSMENT OF RESOURCES AVAILABILITY IN PRE-VOCATIONAL SUBJECTS AND ACADEMIC GOAL ACHIEVEMENT IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN AKOKO-EDO LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, EDO STATE: IMPLICATIONS FOR JOB CREATION

The study assesses the level of teaching and non-teaching resources availability and students’ goal attainment in pre-vocational subjects in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of Edo State. Three research questions were raised to guide the study. The 28 junior secondary schools and the outputs of the schools form the population of the study. The 28 junior secondary schools were purposively selected while a subset of 298 outputs of the Junior secondary schools were sampled for closer analysis. The junior secondary school teacher availability checklist and the junior secondary school goal achievement checklist were the two research instruments utilized to generate the data for the study. The data gathered was analysed using average, means, percentages and standard deviation. It was found that 21.43% of the required teachers were in post while 78.53% required teachers were not deployed. Of a 3.27 mean score, a 0.15 standard deviation was recorded. Meaning, the practical components were properly handled, especially in the crop farming aspect of agricultural science. The Implications of the findings for job creation in the state, were discussed. Specifically, home economics modernized the traditional meal preparation as it combines hygiene, balance, neatness, courtesy and modernity in not only preparing meals but also serving customers with dignity as meal preparation has become big business in modern society. All this may be missing in the absence of the practical demonstrations of themes taught in pre-vocational skills. Recommendations for improvement were made so that basic education would be more relevant to students and the society.