Abstract

The increased number of new sub-systems in modern automobiles, intended to improve upon their safety, economy and comfort among other things, have made them more sophisticated and complex to maintain. The curriculum for the training programmes of their maintenance personnel in Nigerian Technical Colleges has however, remained rigid since 1985, over two decades behind the state-of-the-art technologies. This study thus, identified the innovations perceived as important to be integrated into the curriculum to enhance its relevance and adequacy. A researcher-designed structured questionnaire was used to survey the opinions of mechanical staff of two automobile assembly plants and the subject teachers in technical colleges in three purposively selected states of Nigeria, being Benue, Enugu and Kaduna States. Data obtained from 56 respondents were analyzed. Three null hypotheses were tested using the t-test statistics. It was found that 41 innovations including Anti-lock Braking System (ABS), Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI), Variable Valve Timing Intelligence (vvt-i), On-board Detection and Diagnostic System (OBD), etc. were perceived as important to be integrated into appropriate modules of the curriculum. Interventions to upgrade both human and material resources in order to facilitate the teaching and learning of skills related to these innovations were recommended.

Key words: Automobile, curriculum, innovations, maintenance, modules, programmes.