The poor secondary school students' academic achievement in Physics as shown in the literature over the past decades has been attributed to poor acquisition of mathematical competencies that can enable them to do well in practical Physics. The need to examine mathematical competencies as determinants of Physics achievement becomes necessary for sustainable education. The study which adopted an ex-post facto research design was carried out in Nsukka education zone of Enugu state during the 2021/2022 academic session. The sample size for the study was 388 senior secondary school I Physics students in 6 randomly sampled single-sex secondary schools. Trained research assistants used interview results to fill the mathematical competency in practical Physics questionnaire (MCPPQ) for each student. Grades spreadsheet was used to collect students' senior secondary certificate examination result in Physics. Cronbach's alpha, which yielded a value of.85 was used to measure the internal consistency reliability of MCPPQ. Beta-weight was used to answer all the research questions while Chi-square statistic was used to test the hypotheses at.05 level of significance and 425 degrees of freedom. The result of the study as perceived by the students indicated that basic practical Physics mathematical operations, graphing skills, generation of readings from equations derived from experimental setup and deductions from the graph in decreasing magnitude positively influenced Physics achievement in external examination. Male and female students' models were similar in terms of path coefficients in the model. Hence, it was recommended that Physics teachers should improve upon students' mathematical competencies in practical Physics to boost their Physics achievement.
A responsive curriculum is a curriculum that is relevant to the current and anticipated needs, problems and aspirations of the learners. Unfortunately, the curriculum that is in use does not address the anticipated needs, problems and aspirations of the learners, or it is not responsive enough to meet the technological needs of the society. Therefore, a concerted effort and a total overhauling towards our education policy is imminent at this point in time. The present curriculum enthrones western culture in our land, thereby, undermining the culture and value of different states in this nation. Our educational system and value have been raped and murdered on the altar of modernization. The Nigeria education system is in trouble; and every day it continues to dwindle and deteriorate in essence, structure and purpose. The extent of damage that has been meted on our education is too alarming. The work revealed that in order to remedy the illness with Nigeria curriculum, there is need for the adoption of responsive curriculum development and employ this curriculum strictly in Nigerian education system. It showed that amongst other features, responsive curriculum should be: integrated and interdisciplinary, authentic, learner-centered and oriented to real life situations, utilizing materials from the learner's culture, assisting the learner to develop critical thinking ability. It also revealed that for the attainment of Nigeria's development through the instrumentality of curriculum, it is imperative that curriculum designers develop a responsive curriculum whose adoption in the Nigerian schools will develop valuable human capital that is needed for economic growth and human development. In view of the study, the researchers recommended that: curriculum experts should design a curriculum that is responsive to the current needs, aspirations and problems of the people, and in line with technological advancement, Government should motivate teachers through increase in salary and allowances so as tO encourage them in putting in their best in harnessing the potentials of our future generation and teachers should prepare their teaching contents/objectives by effectively utilizing materials/ideas from learner's culture.
The study investigated the relevance of learned-centered education to the educational development of Enugu State. The study used mean and standard deviation to answer two research questions. Two hypotheses were tested using t-test statistics at the 0.05 level of significance. The design of the study is descriptive. With a population of 665 students, it consists of 250 respondents: one hundred fifteen males and one hundred and thirty-five females. The instrument for data collection structured by the researchers is known as the learner-centered education development (LCED). Cronbach's alpha formula was used to determine the reliability of the instrument. which has an index of 0.95 for LCED. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the mean score of male and female students on learner-centered education that contributes to the development of Enugu State. There is no significant difference in the mean score of urban and rural students on learner-centered education that empowers learners to take ownership of what they have learned. In accordance with the findings of the study, school administrators should support learner-centered management and endeavour to provide training and skills to teachers to enable the students and teachers to have higher outcomes and success.
Unemployment is one of the major challenges confronting the Nigerian national - development. It has turned many Nigerian youths into violent and unpatriotic beings. The menace of youth restiveness in Nigeria both now and in the recent past has become an issue of great concern to political leaders, policy makers, economic managers, individuals, government, religious organization and many others. In the light of the above, this paper examined the causes and effects of unemployment. It also suggested ways by which unemployment can be managed in other to curb youths unrest. Measures so recommended include but not limited to: depoliticization of the various youth empowerment schemes and emphasis on vocational/ self-reliable education.
The study examined the effects of audio -visual technological aids on chemistry students' achievement in senior secondary schools in Nsukka education zone of Enugu State, Nigeria. The study employed a pre-test-post-test, control group quasi experimental research design. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. The population of the study comprises of all the SSI Chemistry students in public secondary schools in Nsukka education zone. The sample size was 100 SSI Che mistry students comprising of 48 male and 52 female students of two intact classe s. Purposive sampling technique was used to select two co-educational schools which one were assigned to experimental group and other to control group. The instrument used for data collection was a 25 -item Chemistry achievement test (CAT). Mean, Standard Deviation and ANCOVA were used for data analysis. Result revealed that the mean score for the Chemistry students exposed to lessons with audio-visual technological aids achieved higher compared to the mean score of those counterpart not exposed to lessons with audio- visual technological aids. The study recommended that Chemistry teachers should keep pace with development trend by learning and using new technologies (audio-visual) in teaching and learning.
