Maintenance Culture among Vocational Curriculum Materials Users in Ogun State Tertiary Institutions

Abstract

In a bid to achieve the objectives of any vocational curriculum in tertiary institutions, human and material resources are essential input factors. The observations by the researchers however showed that a good number of material resources in use for vocational curricula in higher education are deteriorating gradually. Some are even left redundant and the implementers are incapacitated in the delivery of their classroom, laboratory and workshop responsibilities. These observations informed the study which examined maintenance culture among vocational curriculum materials’ users in Ogun State tertiary institutions. Four research questions and two null hypotheses guided the discipline survey. The participants included 135 vocational education staff members and 265 vocational education students in two universities and one college of education in Ogun State, Nigeria, making 400 participants altogether. One main research instrument with a reliability of 0.83 was used for data collection. Using descriptive and inferential statistics of t-test, the study found out that, there are divergent responses on the attitudinal dispositions of staff and students towards maintenance culture. Also, finance (x=2.94), lack of technical know-how (x=2.53), inadequate qualified vocational education instructors (x=2.66) and corrupt practices of institutional maintenance officers (x=2.51) are challenges facing maintenance culture in the tertiary institutions. There is significant difference in the maintenance culture practices observed in the college of education and the universities (t-cal=.495>t-tab=1.94). Three dimensional approaches are recommended in the end, with a view to improving maintenance culture in the curriculum delivery process of vocational programmes, for better productivity.