Teachers‘ and Students‘ Perception Ofciviceducation as an Effective Means of Citizenship Training

Eskay; M.; Ezegbe; B.N.; Okeke; J.N.; Ikwumelu; S.

Volume : IV, Issue : IX, September - 2014

Teachers‘ and Students‘ Perception Ofciviceducation as an Effective Means of Citizenship Training

Eskay, M. , Ezegbe, B. N. , Okeke, J. N. , Ikwumelu, S.

Abstract :

The study investigated Teachers’ and Students’ perception of Civic Education as an effective means of citizenship training. The descriptive survey was carried out in the 5 capital cities in the South–East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. Three research questions and three null–hypotheses were formulated to guide the study.The population of the study consisted of all the JSS students and civic education teachers in all the inclusive public secondary schools in the capital cities in South–East zone. Simple random sampling technique was used to draw 4 schools from each state capital, which gives total number of 20 schools out of the 198 inclusive public secondary schools in the capital cities. Furthermore, random sampling technique was used to draw 20 JSS 3 students from each sample school, making it four hundred (400) students. All the 30 civic education teachers in the sampled schools were involved in the study. The number of research subjects used for the study is four hundred and thirty (430). A questionnaire titled “Civic Education as an Effective means of Citizenship Training questionnaire (CEEMCTQ)” was developed by the researchers and was face validated by 3 experts in education, in the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Data were analyzed using means and standard deviation to answer the three research questionswhile t–test statistics was used to test the null–hypotheses. The study revealed among others that, the identified political, social and economic values in a multiethnic nation like Nigeria could be improved through civic education. The study concluded that proper implementation of civic education curriculum will engender training of citizens that can contribute meaningfully toward nation–building. The study recommends that, all the stake holders in education industry should ensure that civic education curriculum is effectively implemented for realization of its lofty goals.