Assessment of Secondary School Student's Perception and Attitude to the Study of Agriculture, Omu- Aran, Kwara State, Nigeria.

Abstract

The study was conducted to assess the perception and attitude of secondary school students to studying agriculture as a discipline in higher institutions and suggest ways by which the subject can be made more acceptable and attractive to senior secondary school students as a future career. Twenty five secondary schools were purposively selected based on their proximity to Landmark University, Omu-Aran where the research was initiated cutting across five Local Government Areas (LGA's) of Kwara State. One thousand senior secondary school students were used for the study (forty students from each of the twenty five schools). The age, sex and class of the respondents were considered while the respondent's parent's socio-economic characteristics were used because secondary school students have no property, land, capital nor personal family of their own except that of their parents. The results revealed that age, gender and class of students were significant determinants of students’ perception to agriculture at 0.05 and 0.10 significant levels respectively, while respondent's father's occupation and educational level were not significant. This shows therefore that the gender and class of students are significant determinants that influence their perception towards their choice of agriculture as a future career. Moreover, teachers of agriculture should enhance students’ positive perception and attitude towards agriculture in their teaching methods so as to help students develop more interest in agricultural work or businesses which will maximize agricultural production.

Keywords: age, senior secondary students, agriculture, perception and attitude