Curriculum Offerings and Self-Reliance Education in a Southwestern College of Education in Nigeria

Abstract

The curriculum offerings in higher education are part of the avenues to achieve the self-reliance education policy in Nigeria. But the available literature has not adequately addressed the extent to which the curriculum offerings across the subject disciplines in colleges of education prepare youths for self-employment. This study therefore examined the curriculum offerings and self-reliance education in a southwestern college of education in Nigeria. The study is a descriptive survey in which 262 final year college of education students were purposively sampled. Curriculum Offerings for Self-reliance Education Rating Scale (COSERS) was the instrument used for data collection. Descriptive statistics and inferential statistics of t-test and analysis of variance were used for data analysis. The study found out that poor curriculum implementation over the years is one of the reasons why students fall short of self-reliance skills. Also, there is a significant difference in the competency needs for self-reliance possessed by students from the five schools in the college of education (F5:261 = 2.907; P(0.022)<.05. It is recommended that curriculum modification and pragmatic teaching methodologies along with adequate provision of resources would enable appreciable self-employment skills to be developed in the students passing through colleges of education in Nigeria.