The Challenges of Quality Secondary Education in Taraba State

Abstract

Secondary education plays a fundamental but complex role in preparing young people for the labour market, especially for people who leave secondary education for a job. Hence, an increasing number of young people in secondary education mean increasing diverse talents, diverse job interests and job opportunities. Unfortunately the objectives of secondary education have not been fully achieved in the state because student’s desire for achievement and transition to tertiary institutions has become very low recently as a result of poor performances in the terminal examinations. This study examines the challenges of secondary education development in Taraba state. The sources of data for the study are secondary data collected from government Ministries, departments and agencies. The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings from the study show that students’ performance in the West Africa Senior Secondary School Certificate Examination has been very poor over the years (below 16%). Some of the challenges include inadequate teachers, inadequate funding, poor learning environment and infrastructure. Based on these findings, the study recommends among other things the need to increase government funding of the educational system through increased budgetary allocation to the sector. Students’ capacity to learning should be increased through adequate motivation such as employment of qualified teachers, provision of adequate learning facilities and improvement in school environment.

DOI: 10.5901/jesr.2014.v4n3p499