Junior Secondary School gained prominence. It is aimed at making education more functional. At the Junior Secondary School level, Business Studies include the following subjects: typewriting, shorthand, book-keeping, office practice and commerce (FRN,2012). These business subjects consist of skill and non-skill business subjects.

 

The Comparative Education Study and Adaptation Centre (CESAC) revised 2007 listed the general objectives of Business Studies as follows:

 

-Provide the orientation and basic skills with which to start an occupation for those who will not go for further training.

-Provide basic business skills for personal use now and in the future.

-Prepare students for further training in Business Studies.

-Relate the knowledge and skills to the national economy.

-Develop basic skills in office occupation.

 

Topics under each theme were analyzed to enable the learner start from simple to complex and so encompassing and robust in preparing the student better for a reform-driven environment and business world.

 

Educational evaluation is a method to prove whether the expectations and aims of educational process reflect reality. It is used to obtain information which is used to draw conclusions which assist in decision making. It is an on-going process which includes researching and collecting information from different sources about the learning process, about the content of a programme, about the method, the context, and the outcomes of an educational activity. Based on the evaluation one can draw conclusion and recommendations. Evaluation is the process of making value judgments on the basis of pertinent information that can be gathered about any significant aspect of the educational programme. Evaluation in Business Education is to make value judgment on the adequacy or otherwise of a business education programme. Oluwodun (2010) described evaluation as a process or cluster of processes enacted to provide data so that decision can be made as to whether something should be accepted or changed, modified or eliminated. Evaluation is designed to equip students with the necessary skills and competencies required to learn in the learning environment. Evaluation is a systematic and continuous process of assessing the contents, learning experiences and instructional objectives (Dabbari and Ibe, 2012). Enwemasor (2016) defined business education as a part of vocational education that prepares individuals for gainful employment through the acquisition of skills and knowledge that prepare individuals for the world of business. Ijarshar and Ayidiowu (2015) saw business education as a fundamental theory of business which helps an individual to perform well in the world of business. It is that aspect of education  that  provides  the knowledge, skills, understandings and other attitudes needed to perform well in the world of business as providers and/or consumers of goods and services that business offer. Okoro (2015) noted that business education is a type of education that assists individual to acquire skills, which they can apply to solve problems in business and office occupations.

 

Equipment of any course of study constitutes one of the principal determinants of the competence of the graduates. Provision of equipment and other teaching and learning materials is of paramount importance in teaching/learning of business studies. It is only when these needed equipment are provided that the products will become proficient in the world of work, through the acquired skills, without being re-trained by the employers of labour. When the necessary equipment for teaching and learning of Business Studies are not provided, teaching and learning become theoretical and ineffective. Esene and Ohiwerei (2005) defined equipment as business appliances or office type machines that we use in teaching and practice of business subjects. These include typewriters, computers, dictating machines, stencil duplicators, telephone, filing cabinets, etc. Provision of equipment for the teaching and learning of Business Studies is a necessity. The knowledge and skills acquired are expected to prepare the learners to acquire basic practical knowledge required to function well in the society or progress successfully in their education. The classroom is expected to prepare students for the office through adequate, practically oriented training with the use of various equipment as instructional materials.

 

Statement of the problem

 

The introduction of business subjects at the Junior Secondary School levels in Nigeria is principally aimed at equipping the students with skills that will make them employable in the world of work (Esene, 2001). In order to achieve the objectives of Business Studies at this level, the Junior Secondary School curriculum listed some equipment that will aid in the impartation of these skills to the students. However, some scholars have noted that the objectives of business studies cannot be achieved without the adequacy of these equipment. Due to poor performance of students, some scholars have attributed that to non-equipment. Akume and Miller (2009) noted that inadequate provision of equipment in our secondary schools have negative effect on the academic performance of the students. Oladeji and Ojewale (2011) noted that some of our secondary schools are not provided with equipment and this resulted to poor preparation and delivery of lessons by teachers.  The worry of the study is the poor performance of junior secondary school business studies students in both internal  and  external  examinations.  There  is   need   to evaluate the equipment for the teaching of these subjects in line with the curriculum. These and other issues form the basis for this study.

 

Purpose of the study

 

The main purpose of this study is to evaluate the equipment for the teaching and learning of Business Studies at Junior Secondary Schools. Specifically, this study sought to:

 

1. Ascertain the physical equipment available for the teaching and learning of Business Studies in the Junior Secondary Schools.

2. Determine the adequacy of the equipment as required from the curriculum.

 

Research question

 

1. Are the equipment available for the teaching and learning of Business Studies in the Junior Secondary Schools.

2. To what extent are the equipment adequate for the teaching and learning of Business Studies in the Junior Secondary Schools as required by the curriculum.

 

Hypothesis one

 

1. There is no significant difference between the male and female teachers on the adequacy of equipment in the Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu North LGA.

The design of the study is a descriptive survey as recommended by Nworgu (2006) for studies that seek opinion of a population or its representative sample on an existing phenomenon using questionnaire or interview. The study was conducted in Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu North LGA of Enugu State Nigeria. The area comprises of fourteen (14) public secondary schools, which are located at: Trans-Ekulu, Abakpa Nike, Enugu Town, G.R.A., and Independence Layout. The entire population was studied without sampling because the size is not too large. A validated 5-point rating scale questionnaire with 54 items was used for the study. The reliability of the instrument was determined with the split half method. The instrument was administered to 20 Business Studies teachers in Annunciation Secondary School in Enugu East and the data collected were analyzed with the Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient formula to determine the relationship between the two scores and the reliability coefficients of 0.86 and 0.90 were obtained for the two sections of the instrument which indicated that the instrument was reliable. Copies of the questionnaire were administered directly by the researcher. Contacts were established with the Heads of Department to know when to re-visit the institutions to retrieve the completed instrument. This procedure ensured careful completion of the instrument by the respondents as well as a high response rate as 80 copies (representing 98%) were  retrieved  and  used  for the study. The arithmetic mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data to answer the research questions and establish the homogeneity or otherwise of the respondents’ means while z-test was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.

 

A mean rating that is equal to or greater than 2.5 would be regarded as available and adequate while any item with a mean rating that is less than 2.5 would be regarded as not available and not adequate. A hypothesis will be upheld if the calculated value is less than the significant level of 0.05 and rejected if the calculated value is equal or greater than the significant level of 0.05.

 

Research Question 1

 

To what extent are the equipment available for the teaching and learning of Business Studies in the Junior Secondary Schools.

 

Data in Table 1 show that eleven equipment have mean scores ranging from 2.50 to 3.50 meaning that the respondents noted that these equipment are available in the school for teaching and learning of Business Studies. The rest with mean scores between 1.4 and 2.4 indicate that the respondents noted that the equipment were not available The grand mean score of 2.00 indicate that, generally, the respondents noted that the equipment for the teaching and learning of Business Studies are not available in their respective schools. The standard deviation scores indicate that the respondents were homogenous in their assessment.

 

Research Question 2

 

To what extent were the equipment adequate for the teaching and learning of business studies in the Junior Secondary Schools.

 

Data in Table 2 showed that seven equipment have mean scores ranging from 2.50 to 3.50 which means that the respondents noted that these equipment are adequate in the school for teaching and learning of Business Studies. The rest with mean scores between 1.4 and 2.4 indicated that the respondents noted that the equipment were not adequate. The grand mean score of 2.00 indicates that, generally, the respondents noted that the equipment for the teaching and learning of business studies are not adequate in their respective schools. The standard deviation scores indicate that the respondents were homogenous in their assessment.

 

Hypothesis

 

1. There is no significant difference between the male and female teachers on the adequacy of physical equipment in the Junior Secondary Schools in Enugu North LGA.

 

To test the hypothesis, the z-values of the two groups of respondents were computed at 0.05 level of significance. The result of the computation is shown in Table 3.

 

Result in Table 3 showed that with 102 degrees of freedom and testing at 0.05 level, the critical z-value of 2.0 is more than the z-calculated value of 0.38. This means that no significant difference existed between male and female respondents on the adequacy of equipment in Junior secondary schools in Enugu North LGA. The hypothesis was, therefore, upheld.

 

 

The result of the data analysis revealed that the Business Studies’ equipment needed for the effective teaching and learning of Business Studies at the Junior Secondary Schools  are  mostly  not  available  and   even   the   few available ones are grossly inadequate in most schools as required by the curriculum. This shows that the teaching of business studies are more of theory than practical since the equipment that will be used for hands-on experience are not there for the students to use. Not even a single school out of the 14 schools had photocopying machine, radio, television, etc.

 

The findings agreed with that of Miller and Akume (2009) which revealed that business studies equipment needed for effective teaching and learning of Business Studies at the Junior Secondary School in Delta State were grossly inadequate and in most cases unavailable in most schools. This finding disagrees with the studies of Esene and Ohiwerei (2005) which revealed that instructional materials and teaching equipment were available for use in the teaching and learning of business studies in public secondary schools in Delta South Senatorial District.

 

However, the status of equipment in most of the secondary schools visited is appalling. Most of the schools had no electric typewriters, functional computers, television, photocopier, even manual typewriters. In some cases, where the equipment are available, they are not   adequate in relation to the number of students enrolment or not even functional at all.

Based on the findings of the study and the discussion, it is concluded that equipment for the teaching and learning of business studies in Enugu North Local Government Area as stipulated in the curriculum are grossly inadequate and unavailable in most schools.

Based on the findings and conclusion, the following recommendations are made:

 

(1) The state government should make provision for the supply of Business Studies’ equipment to the schools, where Business Studies are taught for effective teaching and learning.

(2) The Parents Teachers Association (P.T.A) should also assist in the provision of some of these equipment needed for the teaching and learning of Business Studies.

(3) The obsolete equipment should be replaced or maintained to make teaching interesting and effective.