Evaluation of Sewing Skills Acquisition Among Home Economics Students in Colleges of Education in South-South Geopolitical Zone in Nigeria

This study assessed the extent to which Colleges of Education (COE) Home Economics students in Cross River, Delta and Rivers States demonstrated skills in the application of seams, construction of puff sleeves, Peter Pan collars and creating gathers on children’s wear. The study was guided by four research questions, four hypotheses and employed a descriptive survey design. The population consisted of 316 NCE Home Economics students from seven COEs in the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria and a purposive sample of 120 students was selected. Data were collected using structured scorecards with a five-point rating scale, validated by three experts and reliability determined using Cronbach alpha yielded overall coefficients of .82 (.85, .76, .88 and .71 for sections A, B, C and D respectively), confirming the instrument’s reliability. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze research questions, while ANOVA tested the hypotheses at a 0.05 significance level. Findings revealed that students demonstrated moderate to high proficiency in all four sewing skills, with average total scores ranging from 3.55 to 3.66 across the states. ANOVA results indicated no significant differences in skill acquisition among students across the three states, confirming the null hypotheses. The study concluded that COE Home Economics students possess considerable practical skills in garment construction but highlighted areas requiring further reinforcement, such as precision in seam finishing and symmetry in collars and sleeves. It was recommended that COEs provide continuous practical training, adequate resources, standardized assessment tools and professional development for instructors to enhance students’ acquisition of advanced sewing skills and ensure professional competency in Home Economics programs