UTILIZATION OF RESOURCES FOR EFFECTIVE IMPLEMENTATION OF SOCIAL STUDIES CURRICULUM IN JUNIOR SECONDARY SCHOOLS IN EBONYI CENTRAL EDUCATION ZONE, EBONYI STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

There is a perceived trend of decline in the teaching of Social Studies in Nigeria schools today. This situation has been attributed to many factors one of which is unavailability and non-utilization of relevant related resources. Against this background that this study sought to assess the utilization of resources for effective implementation of social studies curriculum in junior secondary schools in Ebonyi Central Education Zone of Ebonyi State. It adopted descriptive survey design. Six research questions and four null hypotheses guided the study. Population of the study consists of ninety two teachers and thirteen thousand two hundred and thirty two students. A purposive and simple random sampling technique was used to select the entire 92 teachers and 384 students. The instruments used for data collection were Checklist titled “Checklist on Availability of Resources (CAR), Observational Schedule titled “Observational Schedule on Social Studies Resource Utilization (OSSSRU), Questionnaire titled “Social Studies Resource Utilization (SSRUQ) and Documentary Evidence of available Social Studies teachers in schools. The instruments were validated by relevant experts in the field and its reliability co-efficient were ascertained. Data collected were analyzed using Percentages, mean and standard deviation while t-test of independent sample was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that, most teachers that teach social studies are not qualified and not social studies specialist, vital instructional materials and facilities are not adequately available and that available ones are not judiciously utilized. The findings equally revealed that social studies teachers do not use method prescribed by the curriculum for the implementation of the curriculum and that qualification influences teacher’s use of methods and instructional materials in the implementation of social studies curriculum in Ebonyi Central Education Zone. The null hypotheses tested showed that there was significant difference in the use of curriculum prescribed methods by the NCE holder and B.ED holder in Social Studies and that there was significant difference in the utilization of instructional material by the teachers and students in junior secondary schools. It was also observed that there was no significant difference in teachers and students responses on the utilization of facilities and teacher’s use of curriculum prescribed methods in the implementation of social studies curriculum in junior secondary schools. These findings were discussed with appropriate conclusion and recommendations especially with respect to provision of resources to the schools and teachers and students utilizing the available resources in the school judiciously for effective implementation of Social Studies curriculum.