RELEVANCE OF CURRICULUM CONTENTS OF BENIN TECHNICAL COLLEGE TO THE NEED OF SMALL SCALE BUSINESSES IN EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

The researcher investigated the relevance of the curriculum content of Benin technical college to the need of small scale business in Edo State. Three (3) research questions were generated for the study. Related literature were reviewed on the following framework, conceptual, theoretical and empirical. The descriptive survey design was used in the study. One hundred (100) small scale business owners with twenty (20) respondents each from carpentry, welding and fabrication, electrical installation and repair, building and Architecture, Refrigerator and air conditioning within Oredo, Egor and Ovia North East local government areas of Edo state were selected using the accidental random sampling technique. The instrument used was the questionnaire which was divided into two sections A and B. Section A consists of the demographic information of the respondents while section B consists of opinion statements structured in a five-point rating scale. The instrument was validated by the Heads of department of the five chosen vocations from Benin Technical College and the test re-test methods of reliability was carried out using ten (10) separate small business owners, which gave rise to reliability co-efficient of 0.988 for skill,0.921, for teaching aids and 0.937 for teaching method. The instrument was administered to the respondents with the help of research assistants and the data collated were subjected to statistical analyses. The descriptive statistical techniques were used in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that the syllabuses, teaching aids and teaching methods which form a key body of the curriculum content of Benin Technical Colleges were relevant to the needs of small scale businesses in Edo State. One of the recommendations advanced by the researcher was that the state Government, through the ministry of Education, should input technical and vocational education into the curriculum content of all secondary schools in the state to help boost the impact of small scale businesses to the economic development of the state.