PERCEPTION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS ON THE CHOICE OF GEOGRAPHY AS A COURSE OF STUDY IN HIGHER INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

The study examined the perception of secondary school students towards the study of Geography in higher institutions. Specifically, the study examined the influence of home background, gender, quality of teaching and career opportunity on the choice of Geography as a course of study in the higher institution. Descriptive survey design was adopted in which primary data was used with the aid of well structured closed ended questionnaire. Population of the study consisted all secondary schools in Benin City. Six (06) secondary schools six secondary schools across three local government areas within Benin City; Oredo, Ikpoba Okha, and Egor local government areas were randomly selected comprising of three (03) public and three (03) private secondary schools. A sample size of 240 respondents was chosen through simple random sampling. Findings showed that there was significant influence of students’ home background and gender on the perception of students on Geography as a course of study in higher institution. Career choice had no significant influence on students’ perception of Geography as a course of study in higher institution. Based on these findings it was recommended that school authorities should ensure that regular career talk programmes are organized in their schools to expose the students to career options in geography. This will help to build their interest in the subject and subsequently encourage them to study it in higher institution; curriculum planners should improve the Geography curriculum to include current trends and contemporary practices in geography. This is to make the subject attractive to students.