Equitable and Quality Basic Science Education: Assessing Students' Learning in Junior Secondary Schools for Advancing Integrated Science in Tertiary Institutions

The study investigated the role of equitable and quality basic science education at junior secondary school level in promoting integrated science education in tertiary institutions. In order to accomplish this purpose, a descriptive survey research design with a sample of 25 basic science teachers and 345 junior secondary school three basic science students drawn from public and private secondary schools in Lagos State Education District V through simple random sampling technique was used. A 20-items self-constructed questionnaire, validated by experts in science education and with a reliability coefficient of 0.87 was adopted to generate data. The data collected were analysed using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) and t-test at 0.05 level of significant using SPSS 23 package. The study revealed that inequitable access, dearth of resources and class size were found to have a notable impact on equitable and quality basic science education. More so, female students usually do not develop interest and motivation to study integrated science as a discipline at tertiary institutions. It was concluded that there is a lack of equitable access to basic science education across different groups, which in turn affected the study of integrated science education in tertiary institutions. The study proposed that increased resources be allocated to basic science education at the junior secondary schools, and a framework for implementing equitable access and quality basic science education should be established in order to ensure that all students have access to adequate resources and learning.