The Availability and Use of Science Laboratories at Secondary Education Level.

Abstract

This study focuses on the availability and use of Science Laboratories at the secondary education level in Visakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh, India. It is commented that most of the schools do not possess well equipped laboratories and even when equipment is available some science teachers are not utilizing the laboratory facilities. Another issue is many of the laboratories do not possess appropriate equipment and many schools use expired chemicals that can skew experiments as well as be hazardous to students and teachers. The data were collected from 50 science teachers working in both government and private management secondary schools by way of a statement questionnaire. The items denoting various facilities in the science laboratories and the availability of equipment and utility by the science teachers are more important. The tool is a self developed tool and was standardized by conducting item analyses using the statistical procedures of chi-square tests. The reliability of the test is 0.75 and the validity is 0.86. So the tool is highly reliable and valid. The data were analyzed by way of means, standard deviations, t-values and chi-square tests for testing the various hypotheses framed. The results declare that there are no significant differences between male and female science teachers, rural and urban science teachers, below 5yrs and above 5yrs experienced science teachers and graduate and post graduate science teachers in the availability and effective use of science laboratories at secondary schools, demerits of science laboratories and measures taken for effective use of science laboratories. On over all observation of the study some educational implications were given.