EFFECTS OF SCHOOL FARM ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

 

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out to determine the effects of school farm on the academic performance of senior secondary school students in agricultural science in Kaduna state. Pre-test post test quasi-experimental design was adopted for the study. The study had three (3) specific objectives: (i) to determine the effects of school farm on academic performance of agricultural science students (ii) compare the academic performance of agricultural science students’ taught with school farm and those taught without school farm (iii) to determine the difference between the academic performance of male and female agricultural science students taught with school farm. Three (3) research questions

and three (3) null hypotheses were formulated as a guide. 14,241 senior secondary school (SSSI) agricultural science students formed the population for the study. Two (2) schools and sixty (60) students were selected using random sampling techniques. The instrument used for data collection was a twenty (20) item multiple choices Achievement Test in Agricultural Science (ATAS), which was administered to the students. Scores obtained were analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test statistics. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer all the three (3) research questions while t-test was used to test all the three (3) null hypotheses at 5% level of significance (P = 0.05). The findings showed that, school farm significantly affect the academic performance of agricultural students. The result also revealed higher students’ academic performance in agricultural science when exposed to school farm activities. The study further revealed that, the academic performance of male and female agricultural science students did not differ significantly when taught using school farm. It was concluded that school farm enhanced the academic performance of students in agricultural science. It is recommended among other things that, curriculum planners should emphasize the use of school farm in teaching and learning agricultural science in senior secondary schools by making provisions in the curriculum enough space and equipment’s for effective school farm operations.