INFLUENCE OF VOCATIONAL CONTENTS OF UNIVERSAL BASIC EDUCATION ON SKILLS ACQUISITION OF SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN FCT, ABUJA, NIGERIA.
ABSTRACT
The vocational content of the UBE programme is a form of education whose primary aim is to prepare persons for skills acquisition in contributing to societal development. A descriptive survey research design was used. A simple random sampling procedure was adopted. The population of this study is 3, 450 consisting of 58 principals and 3,394 teachers from all the senior public secondary in FCT, Abuja. A questionnaire: Influence of Vocational Content of UBE on Skills Acquisition (QIVCUBESA) was used for data collection. Two research questions were answered, and Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Two hypotheses were tested with chi-square at 0.05 level of significance. The findings reveal that teachers who attend workshops use effective instructional materials in skills acquisition and thereby help teachers improve students’ entrepreneurial skills. However, several factors can limit the practical application of the vocational content of UBE on skills acquisition, such as poorly trained teachers, poor teacher-student relationships, poor strategies for application of the vocational content of UBE and poor application of the vocational content of UBE and skills acquisition of students. This paper provides recommendations for trained teachers in educational background, the smooth relationship between principals and teachers, including government intervention in ensuring the application of the vocational content of UBE on students’ skills acquisition for achieving sustainable development.