EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AT TERTIARY LEVEL OF EDUCATION IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AT TERTIARY LEVEL OF EDUCATION IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This study explored the major subject areas and reasons for students’ difficulties in agricultural extension at tertiary level of education in Kano State. Structured questionnaire was used for the data collection. Data were collected from a sample of 86 students on the following variables: Age, sex, marital status, sponsor, level of formal education, interest and experience, and on the socio-cultural factors: motivation, aspiration, value and belief. The method of analysis used involved chi-squared statistic, mean, ranking, frequency and percentages. The mean and percentages were used to identify the difficult and easy units and topics. While frequency and ranking were used to find the reasons for students’ perception of difficulty in agricultural extension. Chi-squared statistics was used to determine the relationships between personal characteristics, certain socio-cultural factors and students’ level of performance. The problems students experienced while learning the course and their reasons for lack of interest in becoming agricultural extension workers were identified by the use of percentages. The results indicated that: 1. Fifty percent of the unit areas – Role of Communication, Innovation and Adoption, Extension Administration and Role of Research Institutes were found difficult. 2. More than one quarter (40.6%) of the topics studied in vii National Diploma Agricultural Extension were identified difficult by the students. 3. “Unit is not easy to learn” ranked first with a mean of 25.3 was the students’ greatest obstacle in finding the unit difficult. 4. More than sixty three percent (63.9%) of the respondents passed the course with or above fifty marks, out of which 40.7% and 23.2% were males and females, respectively. The mean pass mark was 51%. 5. Significant relationship was found between age of the respondents, family size, experience, motivation, value and performance. While no significant relationship was realized between gender, marital status, sponsorship, interest, level of formal education, aspiration and belief with the students’ level of performance at 0.05 level. This therefore meant that performance is dependent upon certain personal characteristics and socio-cultural background of the individual. 6. The effectiveness of teaching and learning agricultural extension in Audu Bako School Of Agriculture is limited by the following factors: That more than forty percent (40.7%) of the respondents claimed that inadequate amount of equipment was the major problem they encountered in learning agricultural extension. This may not be unconnected with the increasing number of students admitted in the programme. Other problems mentioned viii included: Lack of text books (23.3%), lack of enough time to participate in the course (18.6%) and lack of suitable teacher (17.4%). 7. Finally, low pay, expressed by about one-third of the respondents (31.4%), was found to be one of the main reasons for students’ lack of interest in becoming agricultural extension workers in the study area. The findings of this study therefore recommend that extension workers should be given additional remuneration – just a little bit higher than others to really emphasis the importance of their role in agricultural development

EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION AT TERTIARY LEVEL OF EDUCATION IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

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