RESEARCH: Determining the Level of Knowledge of Secondary School Students

in Kaura Namoda about the Subject of Career.

This is part of my personal community development Project. The objective of the basic
research was to determine how much is known on the subject of career choice and
opportunities by students in the secondary schools.
Year: 2007.
Research Method: Survey method.
Instrument for Data Collection: Questionnaires.
Sample Size: 103 (this consisted of students in SSII & III from Namoda Secondary
School (NSS) and Government Secondary School (GSS), and those in NTC II & III from
Government Technical College (GTC), all in Kaura Namoda).

RESULT OF ANALYSIS
Age: 13 – 35 years. 90% of who were in the 17 -23 age bracket.

Sex: Male 86%; Female 14%. This was inevitable since NSS is the only mixed school.

Majority of the students know why they come to school, have specific aims in life and
desired choice of career. 42% confessed their career was chosen by Parent/guardian, 39%
chose it for themselves, 3% by peers, 2% by siblings, while 2% said theirs were chosen
by God. Others acknowledged spouse and well-wishers as those who helped them
choose. Unfortunately some couldn’t ascertain who chose for them.

The tables below show the analysis of other responses:

Yes No Couldn’t
(%) (%) ascertain (%)
Would you continue school if the government 80 10 10
stops taking care of you in school?
Would you like to continue after secondary 92 0 8
school?
Are your parent/guardian aware of your choice 86 5 9
of career?
Are your friends aware? 86 7 7
Do you think anything can hinder you from 57 34 9
continue school?
.
Correct Wrong Had nothing
(%) (%) to say (%)
Those who had knowledge of where they 28 64 8
would practise their career of choice
Those who know the educational 35 57 8
qualification before they can practise their
career of choice
Those whose career of choice corresponds 73 19 8
with their aims in life
Other observations:
• Most of those who agreed that they can be hindered from continue schooling
attributed the reason to lack of finance. This only suggests that with continuous
financing (which can be guaranteed if the government would be committed to free
education for all students) these would continue.
• On the issue of where they would practice their career of choice, it was observed
that most of the students did not understand the question. While the question
demanded them to supply the kind of organization some gave their state of origin,
some that displayed some understanding of the question gave some wrong
answers, while some did not even know.
• Out of the 35% that know the educational qualification before they can practice
their career of choice students in NTC III of GTC constituted above 47%.
• The choice of career of those in GTC was related to their class. It was observed
that there were some correlations (most of them chose engineering) in those of
some 79%. The choices of career of more than 18% of them had no similarity
with their class (an example is a student in NTC II Electrical intending to become
a doctor).
• It was also observed that a large number of the students filled the questionnaires
together as there were perfect similarities in the answers given.

General Presentation:
Good Fair (%) Poor (%)
(%)
Spellings 71 25 4
Construction of sentences 40 50 10
Understanding of questions 62 25 13
Definition of the word “career” 21 42 37

Other observations:
• The definitions of career given by those judged to be fair expressed aims in life-
what is to be achieved- rather than profession-what one is trained to do. It was
evident that they did not research well on the definition.
• 63% of those that got the definition right were students in NTC III of GTC.

Conclusion
• It is evident in the students that there is a desire to go far educationally. If only
they would be encouraged.
• There is need for a subject on career to be inculcated into the curriculum of the
schools. Seminars and symposia can also be organized.