ABSTRACT
Vocational education has been discovered to be a vital tool for economic development. The Federal Government, in 2011, launched the Senior Secondary Education Curriculum (SSEC) which requires that all senior secondary school students be trained in one vocational subject. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the challenges which student teachers in vocational technical education encounter during teaching practice. The design adopted for the study was the descriptive survey research design. The target population of thestudy comprised of the 400 level students in the department of vocational technical education, University of Benin, which were a total of two hundred and twenty six (226) students. The Taro Yamani formula was applied to arrive at the sample population of one hundred and forty four (144) students.
The structured questionnaire was used as instrument for data collection. Five research questions were formulated for the study. In ensuring the validity of the research instrument, the instrument was submitted to the project supervisor who effected corrections for further validation by two other experts before administering the questionnaire to the respondents. The corrections and suggestions were incorporated into the final draft of the instrument.
The study also investigated the importance of teaching practice exercise in Nigeria. The challenges faced by student teachers during teaching practice exercise includes distance and accommodation challenges, overcrowded classrooms, lack of equipments and facilities to effectively teach vocational subjects amongst others. The paper made suggestions that addressed the challenges that affect the student teacher’s performance during teaching practice.
The study recommends that schools should be equipped with modern equipment to encourage students to participate in vocational subjects. To guarantee that students acquire all of the skills they need to practice their vocation, the vocational curriculum should be broad, standardized, and enforced in all secondary schools. These will help secondary schools improve vocational education and achieve their objectives.
