Index

ABSTRACT

The study investigated on the extent of implementation of National Entrepreneurship curriculum in tertiary institutions as perceived by educators. Federal university lectures in south-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria constituted the population. A total of 531 federal university lectures (202 males and 329 females) made up the sample size. Proportionately stratified random sampling technique was used to sample three out of five Nigerian federal universities in south-south geopolitical zone. In each of the three Nigerian federal universities, 10% of the entire population of lectures in each Nigerian federal university was used for the study. Thus a sample of 531 university lectures was drawn and used for the study. Four research questions and one null hypotheses guided the study. A 19 item questionnaire titled “Entrepreneurship Curriculum Implementation in Tertiary Institutions As Perceived by Educators (ECITIAS PBE)’’ was developed by researchers. The developed questionnaire guided the study. Mean, Standard deviation and t-test were used for data analysis. The result indicated that the extent of adherence to entrepreneurship curriculum is of low extent. Based on these findings, the researcher recommended that more efforts should be made by the federal government, state government, local government and communities to provide adequate and necessary facilities for schools so that the educators will have access to practice with them even after they have gone for training so as not to lose the knowledge they gained from training. Awareness creation on the relevance of entrepreneurship curriculum for its effective implementation for its restructuring and provision of facilities through newspaper adverts, radio and television jungles, on line publications etc.

Keywords: Entrepreneurship, Curriculum.Implementation, Educators, Tertiary Institutions.

DOI: 10.20448/804.3.2.108.115

Citation | Obi, Mary Noeleen; Okekeokosisi, Johnbosco.O. C. (2018). Extent of Implementation of National Entrepreneurship Curriculum in Tertiary Institutions as Perceived by Educators. American Journal of Education and Learning, 3(2): 108-115.

Copyright: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

Funding : This study received no specific financial support.

Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

History : Received: 4 September 2018 / Revised: 9 October 2018 / Accepted: 13 November 2018 / Published: 6 December 2018.

Publisher: Online Science Publishing

1. INTRODUCTION

Teaching-learning in recent time calls for learner centered teaching, learning by doing and skill development. It is a type of teaching-learning that is vital for development either economical, social or political, adaptation and survival (Okekeokosisi et al., 2016). The afformentioned vital development emanated from teaching and learning lead to the establishment of entrepreneurship studies in tertiary institutions through the following parastals; National University Commission, National Commission for Colleges of Education, National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) and State Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (SEED) Packages as part of a long term skill development.

Entrepreneurship can be said to be an education that prepares and equips an individual with those skills (entrepreneurial skills) that will enable him/ her start off a business for wealth creation and cope with its attendant financial risks. According to Wikipedia in Osuafor et al. (2010) entrepreneurship seeks to provide students with the knowledge, skills and motivation to encourage entrepreneurship success in a variety of settings. It focuses on realization of opportunities which can be realized in several ways. Ogodogun (2011) added that entrepreneurship equip individual with skills, knowledge and entrepreneurial values that enhances his/her productive capacity towards wealth creation. It is a form of education that involve training or retraining which is geared towards making the learner much more productive through improved performance in paid or self employment. Obisi and Anyim (2012) summarized entrepreneurship as a learning skill that calls for creativity, innovativeness, energy and commitment. All this qualities are not easy to come by but can be develop through deliberate human formation and development strategies.

On the other hand, Chiekezie and Orogbu (2009) see entrepreneurship as a mind set that results to the creation and development of economic activities through innovation, risk taking and quality management of both human and material resources to accomplish a desired goal. Obi (2009) defined an entrepreneur as the person who brings about a change and posses characteristics to implement ideas to benefit the society as a whole. The entrepreneur is commonly seen as a business leader and innovator of new ideas and business processes. Coulter (2008) stated that an entrepreneur is a person that creates something new and something different. The primary features of an entrepreneur are to search for change, respond to it and exploit it.

Entrepreneurs generally need ideas and not money to succeed. The traits of entrepreneur according to King (1990) are self confident, originality, people oriented, task oriented, future oriented and risk taker.
Furthermore, Edomareniye (2010) highlighted the core areas of entrepreneurship as:

1. Development of personal qualities (creativity, spirit of initiative, independence, etc.)
2. Early contact with the world of business,  knowledge  and the role of entrepreneurs
3. Awareness of self-employment as a career option
4. Learning by doing (Mini enterprises)
5. Training on how to start a business and support business ideas

It is important to note that entrepreneurship will often result in the introduction of a new product, new production method, new markets, new sources of raw materials or a new form of organization. An entrepreneur while trying to help himself creates opportunities for others.

1.1. Curriculum and Curriculum Implementation

The word “curriculum” began as a Latin word which means “a race or the course of a race” which in turn derives from the verb currere meaning “to run / to proceed”, that is a course of study, which contains a body of subject matter approved for teaching by the society in schools. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view of the student’s experiences in terms of the educator’s or school instructional goal (Wikipedia, 2017).Adeoye, Alaezi, Aina and Inegbedion in Okekeokosisi, Okekeokosisi et al. (2016) gave a definition of curriculum as a structured series of learning outcomes or an organized set of formal educational or training intensions. This training intensions or organized set of formal education consist of set of rules for its effective implementation.

Curriculum implementation refers to the act of working out the plans and suggestions that have been made by curriculum specialists and subject experts in a classroom or school setting. Offorma (2002) defined curriculum implementation as the planning and execution of the contents of curriculum in order to bring about certain changes in the behaviour of the learners and the assessment of the extent to which the changes take place. Teachers are the main curriculum implementers while at the same time students, parents, and school administrators can be directly or indirectly involve in the implementation process. In implementing of the curriculum, the implementers have to take cognizance of the learners age, domains of the learner, subject matter, class, interest and general characteristics of the learner.

1.2. Entrepreneurship Curriculum Implementation

Entrepreneurship curriculum is a step by step designed program that informs, train, educate, monitor and evaluate entrepreneurs in the society. It is knowledge and skill based education that provide motivation to students, and encourage entrepreneurial success in a variety of settings (Osagiede et al., 2013). Variations of entrepreneurship curriculum are offered at all levels of schooling from primary or secondary schools through graduate university programs. The result of this training process will see that graduates when they leave universities with those qualities and values will introduce change in the society. Paul in Nwachokor, Ayemhenre and Nwachokor et al. (2016) added that entrepreneurship curriculum is aimed to achieve the following;

• To offer functional education for the youth that will enable them to be self-employed and self-reliant
• Provide the graduate youth with adequate training that will enable them to be creative and innovative in identifying novel business opportunities
• To serve as a catalyst for economic growth and development
• To reduce high rate of poverty
• To create employment opportunities
• Reduction in rural-urban migration
• Provide the graduate youths with enough training and support that will enable them to establish a career in small and medium sized business
• Create smooth transition from traditional to a modern industrial economy

In consonance to the aims of entrepreneurship curriculum, the curriculum when effectively implemented will achieve the following as stipulated by Anyaeneh et al. (2013):

• Full employment for the youths
• Technological advancement and economic development
• International economic and political independence
• Reduction of crime and social vices

1.3. Statement of the Problem

Over the years, curriculum implementers find it difficult to implement creative and self reliant skills to learners, this resulted to unemployment problem. Unemployment problem has generated into several other social-economic problems in the country Nigeria, take for instance; the Islamist militancy (Boko Haram) in the northern part of the country Nigeria, the issue of Niger Delta Militancy, political thuggery, increased rate of armed robbery, kidnapping, prostitution as a means of livehood, fraudsters, drug abuse, alcoholism and petty thefts. It is only a functional and skill based education like entrepreneurship education that can properly help to address these problems which in turn will help to reduce unemployment, create shelf reliant individuals and uplift Nigerian economy. Hence, this study sought to undertake the extent of implementation of entrepreneurship curriculum in tertiary institutions in Nigeria as perceived by Educators.

1.4. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of the study are as follows:

1. The extent of adherence to National entrepreneurship curriculum in Tertiary institutions
2. The extent of availability of entrepreneurship educators in Tertiary institutions
3. The methodology of instruction by educators
4. The availability of infrastructure for entrepreneurship teaching

1.5. Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. To what extent is the national entrepreneurship curriculum implemented in Tertiary institutions
2. To what extent are entrepreneurship educators available  in Tertiary institutions for curriculum implementation
3. To what extent do teachers use appropriate methodology for instructional delivery
4. To what extent are infrastructure available for entrepreneurship studies

1.6. Hypotheses

The following null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance.

H01: There is no significant difference in the mean response scores of male and female educators on the extent of availability of infrastructure in Tertiary institutions for entrepreneurship teaching

2. METHOD

The study was a descriptive survey research design. The population consisted of all university lectures in south-south Nigerian federal universities in Nigeria. The sample comprised of 531 university lectures (202 males and 329 females). Proportionately stratified random sampling technique was used to sample three out of five Nigerian federal universities in south-south geopolitical zone. In each of the three Nigerian federal universities, 10% of the entire population of lectures in each Nigerian federal university was used for the study. Thus, a sample of 531 university lectures was drawn and used for the study. Researchers made 19-item structured questionnaire titled “Entrepreneurship Curriculum Implementation in Tertiary Institutions As Perceived by Educators (ECITIAS PBE)’’.

The questionnaire was in four sections, section A, B, C and D. Section A sought information on curriculum implementation. Section B sought information on availability of entrepreneurship educators. Section C provides information on method of instruction. Section D posed information on availability of infrastructure. The instrument was structured on a four point rating scale of Extreme Extent (EE) -4 points, Moderate Extent (ME)-3 points, Low Extent (LE) -2 points, Very Low Extent (VLE) -1 point. The instrument was face validated by two experts in Measurement and Evaluation in the Faculty of education of NnamdiAzikiwe University Awka, Nigeria. Two other experts in Entrepreneurship department. The comments and suggestions of these experts were incorporated into the final draft of the instrument. The instrument was trial tested on 10 lectures drawn from schools not involved in the study. The result was used to compute internal consistency of the instrument using Cronbach Alpha Technique. A reliability coefficient of 0.81 was established and this shows that the instrument was reliable and adequate for the study. The questionnaire was administered to the respondents by the researchers with the help of two research assistants. The questionnaires were retrieved on the spot, thus ensuring 100% return. Data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while t-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 alpha levels. The criterion mean was set at 3.0. Items with mean 3.0 and above indicated moderate extent while items with the mean of 2.98 and below indicated low extent of the Extent of Implementation of National Entrepreneurship in Tertiary Institutions. The man scores of the respondents were further interpreted to show a more detailed level of implementation of entrepreneurship curriculum in tertiary institutions.

3. RESULTS

Research Question 1: To What Extent is the National Entrepreneurship Curriculum Implemented in Tertiary Institutions.

Source:  Field work 2017

From Table 1, it shows that the extent to which the National Entrepreneurship curriculum is implemented is of Low extent. This can be seen from the mean scores of items and the cluster mean as presented in the table.

Research Question 2: To What Extent are Entrepreneurship Educators Available in Tertiary Institutions for Curriculum Implementation

 Source:  Field work 2017

Table 2 reveals that all the respondents agreed on the availability of entrepreneurship educators are of low extent. The cluster mean of 2.61 helped in the intensity of the mean scores of respondents.

Research Question 3: To What Extent do Teachers use Appropriate Methodology for Instructional Delivery

Source:  Field work 2017

In reference to Table 3, it shows that the extent of the use of appropriate method in respect to the responses of respondents from items 12 and 15 are of low extent and very low extent respectively while items 13 and 14 are of moderate extent. The cluster mean of 2.5 summarized the data presented in Table 3.

Research Question 4: To What Extent are Infrastructure Available for Entrepreneurship Studies

Source:  Field work 2017

Data in Table 4 points that the programme has workshops for practical’s for entrepreneurship studies, adequate learning materials and large classrooms are in respect to items in 16, 20, 21 and 22. Generally speaking from the cluster mean, it indicates that entrepreneurial teaching and learning infrastructure in tertiary institutions are of low extent.

H01: There is no significant difference in the mean response scores of male and female educators on the extent of availability of infrastructure in Tertiary institutions for entrepreneurship teaching.

N= 531

Source:  Field work 2017

The t-cal is -0.07 at 211 degree of freedom while the t-crit is 1.96. the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between the mean ratings of male and female lecturers on the extent of availability of entrepreneurship infrastructure is upheld.

4. DISCUSSION

In Table 1 analysis on the extent of National entrepreneurship curriculum implementation in tertiary institutions is of low extent. This implies that schools, teachers, community members, government and curriculum specialist need proper planning for its effective implementation for societal benefit and learners’ behavioural modification (Chan, 2010). This will help in re-addressing the problem of unemployment and recession in Nigeria.

Table 2 analysis on the extent of availability of entrepreneurship educators portrays that tertiary institutions have qualified teachers (educators) but the educators are not enough which affect the effective implementation of entrepreneurship skills in schools. This is in line with a survey research carried out by the British Council in 2014, has revealed that most trained teachers that had obtained qualifications for teaching in schools are not employed hence increasing the rate of unemployment in Nigeria. Ogwata in Okekeokosisi et al. (2016) agreed with the findings by adding that lack of educators hinders the implementation of entrepreneurship skills to students.

The analysis of the teachers’ appropriate method for instructional delivery as addressed by Table 3 X-rayed that teachers do not make use of effective methods in their teaching. This is in consonance with the suggestion made by Weiner (2009) that teaching for effectiveness requires six essential keys to classroom excellence. The keys are; interest and explanation, concern, respect for students and student learning, appropriate assessment and feedback, clear goals and intellectual challenge, independence, control and active engagement and learning from students. The effective utilization of the enumerated keys to classroom excellence will foster activity learning, high level of students’ performance and retention (Okekeokosisi et al., 2016).The analysis on Table 4, portrays that the availability of entrepreneurship infrastructure for its effective curriculum implementation is of low extent. This supports the observation of Eya in Okwuduba et al. (2016) that practical activity through provision of infrastructure (facilities) promotes inculcation of entrepreneurial skills among the students. 

4.1. Educational Implications

Effective entrepreneurship curriculum empowers all sectors in the society through enhancing the countries economy and creating self reliant individuals.

5. CONCLUSION

The research is to ensure that Nigerians recognizes the problem of their economy. This will facilitate in redirecting, re-shaping and proper implementation of entrepreneurship curricula.

6. RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on the findings, the following recommendations were made:

1. More efforts should be made by the federal government, state government, local government and communities to provide adequate and necessary facilities for schools so that the educators will have access to practice with them even after they have gone for training so as not to lose the knowledge they gained from training.
2. Awareness creation on the relevance of entrepreneurship curriculum for its effective implementation for its restructuring and provision of facilities through newspaper adverts, radio and television jungles, on line publications etc.

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